Ride Op Horror Stories

It is like the same latch found on old arrow mine trains, where you put your hands up, and the op pushes the latch down, and the restraints lift, ahhh, good times.

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Old arrows might be rough, but they are the most gorgous rides to date.

Horror stories? I don't really have any of those. I have a few stapling issues though.

1) Ride Op on Ghostrider stepped on my restraint... I was extremely uncomfortably pinned until the ride got back to the station.

2) Raging Bull ride op, comming from the other side of the train (blindsided me) and shoved the lapbar into my stomach, thank God I had my hat in my pocket.

3) BTR ride op at SFGAdv stapled me to the point of not being able to move my legs on the ride. She thought it was funny. I thought I'd never be damaged for life.

4) Raging Wolf Bobs ride op stapled me and my friend simply because we were wearing Knoebels shirts and CP hats at a Six Flags park. Another one who thought it was funny.

Some ride ops need to learn the difference between safe (and comfortable) rides, and painful ones due to stapling.

I think I know RCPaul's sister-in-law. In a similar situation to his description I know someone who got their shoelace tangled on the first foot unlock mechanism and got dragged through the station. Ouch!

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SFOG Country said:

I don't think the media is reading our (boring to most GP) forums to find a "scoop" on a story to ruin the Amusement Park Industry. I'm sure worse things have been discussed on this board. I find these rather interesting, and I do not worry about it affecting that much of anything. *** This post was edited by SFOG Country 6/11/2003 11:36:52 PM ***

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Actually, the media do sometimes read these message boards. In the days immediately following the HW incident, there was a media source who quoted some folks from one message board. And I have seen several message boards where people claiming to be from media outlets were looking for enthusiast sources for their pieces. So yes, they do sometimes read boards to get a insight into their story. Are these people trying to "ruin the Amusement Park Industry"?!?! If that's what will make a good story, that's what they will write.

Sean
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"Ever hear of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates...Morons!"

SFGA, two years ago. My husband and I had season passes and went about three times a week, and were riding the Eagle. I was in the blue car with my friend and he rode red, both in the back seat. I had so much fun that I didn't notice but when he got back, he was white as a sheet. Right near the top of the lift hill, his lap bar popped up. He managed to get it down a few clicks before it dropped, but he was terrified. We have a friend who's a ride op, so we very calmly and quietly went to talk to one of the ops in the station. They shrugged, said "yeah, we'll take care of it" and ushered him out. We got out of the station and they didn't even look, just put someone else in and sent the train off. We went to Park Ops and talked with one of the managers who actually said "Oh you don't need restraints on ANY of our rides, sir. They're just there to make you feel better." We got an apology and a reassurance that they'd be checking the cars that night, but that train was down the rest of the week when we went.

Very creepy. My hubby got over it and still rides, but I've never seen him freaked before. And he doesn't freak on rides. Just bugged me that they would be so blatantly ignorant of the situation.

WHAT! They said you don't need restraints on ANY of the rides? That's complete bull! I don't think I'll be going back to SFGA anytime soon...

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LeWiS

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PLayerPunk said:
WHAT! They said you don't need restraints on ANY of the rides? That's complete bull! I don't think I'll be going back to SFGA anytime soon...

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Why? As the poster said, the incident happened two years ago and (hopefully) the offending party(ies) were fired.

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2002/2003
KWTM

The management told them that. I think that there may be something wrong with that, even if it was 2 years ago.

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LeWiS

a long time ago at kings island when i was very young they had the screamin demon rollercoaster we were waiting for the next ride and the car we were waiting for had a single rider in it and you know how they put down the restraints on empty cars ,well when the train got back the single rider raised his restraint up and got off ,i got in first and my sister got in the seat the single rider had been in , I know this sounds really stupid but it really happened , i sat down in the seat and started reaching above my head for the restraint and guess what ! it wasnt there ...lol , it was behind me , my back was against it ,being there wasnt a rider in that seat previousely the restraint wasnt lifted up and i guess i was so excited about getting to ride it for my first time i didnt notice i was against the restraint, well in all the time i was taking looking above my head for the restraint , the restraints had been locked and the ride was ready to take off ,whatever the mechanism is that pushes the train off the hill and thru the loop makes a hissing air sound sorta like power tower and when you hear that you know your ready to go , well when i heard this i right away jumped and stood up so the ride ops would see that i wasnt locked in they came right away and released the restraints and pulled up my harness and made sure i got it on ,but i must say my ride was not enjoyed at all ,i was scared to death , i still think about it to this day wondering how i could have been so stupid not to realize i was sitting against the restraint ...lol .but then i also think about why the ride ops didnt check to see that everyone was in either.

That was the longest sentence I have ever seen!

Wasn't really the ops fault, but they shoudl ahve been more cautious. I was on the GD at Belmont in San Diego and i got in the last car first row, and the lap bars are like those on arrow mien trains, all of em connected per car, well the guy behind me was too big for the seat and i dunno if he knew it, but i wont assume, but when the ride op came to check he held the lap bar down and i knew something was up cause i didnt hear the 'click' as i pulled it down, and just as we were goin into the tunnel, he held his arms up and the lap bar flew up and i was like HOLY CRAP, and yelled the lap bars arent locked, hoping they heard me, and we went through the tunnel and i was like crap, nice knowin ya, but then the train stopped, they made the back rider suck it in, it clicked and we were on. Normally i wouldn't mind, but if any of you have been on it, it has som really nice air time, and would not be fun for me. Good Day.

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Veck
http://www.bcptars.com/
"Park in Arizona? It will happen!"

Sorry double click

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Veck
http://www.bcptars.com/
"Park in Arizona? It will happen!"
*** This post was edited by CRVeck 6/15/2003 3:08:01 AM ***

Mine isn't bad or anything, just a funny op story.

On Wed. the 11th my brother, I, and two of our friends were at SFoG. We were in line for Dahlonega Mine Train. My brother has this incredible ability to belch on command, as loud as he wants. He had us rolling and taking requests, saying funny one-liners, etc. So we tell him to do a huge one, and he lets it out--it was mammoth. The op checking the restraints (whose back was to us) screamed "GAWD D&%#!!!!!!" and turns toward us with his hands over his face, eyes as wide as suacers. We scared the living hell out of him. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen, and all of us were on the floor laughing.

When it was our turn to board, he said, "You guys wanna see what it's like to really be free? Let's take a ride without restraints!" and heads over to the controls. Then he turns around and says, "Just kiddin'.........I'd get fired" and locks us in. I kinda thought he was serious for a second there. It was all in good fun (we were joking with the guy, and he with us), but it just goes to show that you shouldn't piss off the ops.

swimmer this is related to you signature im going to cp in aug what do u mean magnum hurts?

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Crzy4AE said:
That was the longest sentence I have ever seen!

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LOL LOL LOL

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If you haven't rode Raging Bull in the back row you haven't lived. \

Until I can find a better picture, this one of the defunct Corkscrew at KBF will do.

click here

They are the small silver semi-circles at the back of each car (on the side closest to the ground.)

To release the horsecollars, these would be pushed either down or up, I forget. The ops at SFWoA would do this as the train rolled into the station, by hopping on the levers.

Fancy- Magnum hurts on the bunny hops on the return to the station. The hard lap bars fall into your thighs at an uncomfortable position at the top of each bump.
*** This post was edited by Nate 6/15/2003 12:01:46 PM ***

I was at BKF this year and the operator would drop the floor and start the coaster forward, then stop it. Open the gates, close them, start the coaster, stop it, start it again. We probably jerked 5 times in the station before they finally let us go. It didnt' bother me, but there was a little boy crying in the front of the train. Why can't they just do their job and not screw around?

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Crzy4AE said:
That was the longest sentence I have ever seen!

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Yes it was rather long , lol : I was hoping no one would notice, a few of my keys no longer work , and the period key happens to be one of them, so I kinda replace them with ,,,,,'s lol

Why can't they just do their job and not screw around?

The same goes for coaster riders. Just put your labpar (or OTSR) down, stay in your seat, and not have the chance of getting injured. I know it may still be a touchy subject, but look what happened last time a patron didn't follow the rules. Why can't riders just follow the rules and not screw around?

I worked on the Power Tower at CP and some of the guys would torment females by giggling the harnesses so they could see their parts shake (Leadership included, they really screen their people well). On top of that, they would play with the harnesses when the ride was over so they could see more action like that. Then, on a drop tower they would go as far as recalling the carriage back down once it went to the window, and pretending someone had a camera as an explanation just so they could see the girls some more. Meaning, pressing the "down" button when the tower was only like 1/10th of its way up for no good reason. When they'd see some hot girls in the line about to be placed for seats, they'd make an announcement "line control, 3 4 5, line control, 3 4 5" and then the cycle of torture for the girls would begin. That meant the person assigning seats were forced to put them there, and then theyd do all those things I said.

This was the same ride where the leaders in charge would often show up drunk, leave the ride for 3 hours to go on "booty calls", and take money from workers in order to leave a shift early.

I thought it was one big horror story in general.