I feel lucky when they dont check my lapbar.
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Ghostrider = good
Just this past weekend I was riding BKF at SFWoA, while they were checking the restraints they unlocked the train before they checked my row, then failed to check my seat. Knowing that I was fine it didn't bother me, but for someone else they may have cared.
Out of all the Six Flags parks (any park) that I have been to, I feel that SFGAM has the strictest rules and policies regarding safety.
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BMCOASTER
bmcoaster@wi.rr.com
Other than rust, and I always wonder about roped off seats, nothing has bothered me more as a safety issue than all the basketballs I saw at SFoG last week! Are other Six Flags parks like this? They must've been giving them out somewhere because everywhere we went we were almost getting hit in the face with a ball somebody was playing with. Kids running around with them.......
Wild Mouse, the Arrow one at Myrtle Beach, I've found some strange repairs to that little thing. Plus thier "mouse graveyard" of "bonus mouses". If you find a twisty tie on it, don't ride it's my philosophy.
Well, at my home park, SFGAm, I have never encounterd anything unsafe or felt like I was ever in danger. They are very dedicated to safety. However... @ Big Cheif's Cart & Coaser World in Wisconsin Dells, I feel the exact opposite! I will never go on one of their coasters, AGAIN! Not only do the op's not care about anything, but I feel the rides themselves are are unsafe. Especially when there are exposed pieces of sharp metal sticking out at from the train!
Remember it is up to YOU to double check your restraint, even if the ride-op has checked it correctly. Do you really want to put your life in their hands?
Wow, wat a spooky thread, I love it. :) Well time for my 2 cents. Eriler someone said that the coasters have sensors to tell if the lap bar is open or not, well thats only on some coasters, and sensors DO lie. That's why the lap bars are checked anyways. Also I have a kinda unsafe, but more SCARY thing that happend to me while working as a ride opp. I was The ticket taker on a wooden Roller Coaster and one of the Ticket Takers duties is to check the lap bars on the loading side there, well the opp on the otherside (The unload side) was faster then me and didn't look down at me to be sure I was done and hit the station enable, and the booth opp hit the Train disbatch a the train started going while i was bend over still checking the last few bars. I jumped up and yelled for them to stop, and the did and at that time noticed me. Oh well, lol.
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http://CHZ.8m.com
Speaking of basketballs, i saw the coolest thing about 2-3 weeks ago @ PKI (Sunday after SRM). I was in the Beast station waiting for a (what turned out to be pretty boring) backseat ride. There were several people with mid-sized stuffed animals and there were a couple of basketballs as well. Everyone boarded and placed there belonings on the far platform. Anyway, the girl on that side started checking the restraints. When she was just about halfway done, working from front to back, one of the b-balls started rolling on the platform towards the track in front of the train. This girl sprinted alongside the train, did a baseball slide and scooped of the ball goalie-style *just* before it went over the edge. Everyone in the station was clapping and cheering. The girl almost seemed embarrassed. It was really neat.
lata,
jeremy
--Not in the house of Mutumbo!
Screamer: Did you know that the Orbiter ships from the manufacturer without lap bars? :)
Not sure I would want to ride without something to hold on to, but on that particular ride they're not necessary. Of course, if they're open, they can bang into parts of the ride structure.
As for carnivals: There are good carnivals and there are bad carnivals. coasterforce, where was that show? Any idea who it was?
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Dave, there have been various carnivals around town (Columbus) lately. Four weeks ago it was at Sawmill Road and state Route 161; three weeks ago it was at the Graceland Shopping Center on High St.; and it was last week (and still may be) at the Media Play shopping center on Morse Road near Cleveland Ave. Check it out. They had a Ferris Wheel, swings, paratrooper, gravitron, tilt-a-whirl type ride, fun house and more.
I have a very unsafe situation to tell you about. I was at Adventureland Park in Des Moines on Saturday May 19 and I rode the dragon rollercoaster in the morning. I got the first train out well anyways the first thing that scared me is that we had to wait for them to "Glue one of the upstop wheels on" Is that proper maintence and safety? That wasn't the major thing that bothered me. On Car 5 the top wheel back left had a crack in it. It went all the way around the wheel and into the metal. The crack was huge in terms of the wheel like a 1/4 inch wide. Now I alerted the ride op and the mechanic was in the station walked back to the wheel and just looked at it and said "Oh well just let it fall off" Now I think this is very unsafe. All I can think about now is the Edmonton Mindbender incident all over again. What does everyone think about this? What more can I do I contacted the park and they said its perfectly safe?
Coaster895...that is when I'd go home and call the state inspection board and let them deal with it.
I personally would not want an accident to happen that I had prior knowledge of faulty equipment and didn't do anything about it.
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"It's Deja Vu all over again." - Yogi Berra
I witnessed something very unsafe at Busch Gardens Tampa in December. While riding the bumper cars I noticed a man riding with a baby, not old enough to walk but old enough to stand. It was standing in-between the legs of they guy driving, its head was just barley the height of the steering wheel. That's bad enough, but the baby was also riding without the belt, the guy was holding onto it with 1 hand and driving with the other. I turned my car and nearly hit the guy head on but I noticed the baby in the car and quickly turned away, that would have been a disaster if it would of went flying out onto the ground.
I don't get how the ride op let this guy on with a baby! Unless the op just didn't see him with the baby.
Rideman, the carnival that I saw this at was on the south end of Columbus, near the old southland mall, and the company was J&J Amusements.
-Rob Murphy-
Kinda unfair to stereotype all under 18 year old kids as ignorant, but I know what you meant, and on certain occasions, I've seen it too.
Actually, this was at the immaculate Disneyland (Cal Adventure.) I was talking with a Cal. Screamin ride op (looked about early twenties, very SoCal) and when we look over, we saw them get the green screamin train from the transfer house into the right side of the station. On the sixth row (roughly) the seat on the left had no OTSRs. Not unsafe, but really, really odd.
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Loopscrew.com
It's coming...
I think the scariest thing for me was last year at SFGAm I was on Raging Bull and they went down the row and checked the restraints and they gave us the ok, then my row of restraints flipped up, so they stopped it and started and they kept popping up and then we pushed them down one last time and they just started the ride
I'm not calling fethrbrane a liar, but at SFGAm, it is HIGHLY unlikey for them to send that train. Are you sure about that?
I LOVE sfgam. Now i am glad they have the metal detectors, the operaters make sure you lap bars are properly working although that wasn't the case for fethrbrane. Yet, the operators are quick and snappy. WELL done sfgam. Now i feel really safe going to my homepark!
I'm surprised they tapped on ST, actually. It's policy to pull *up* on the bar. (Yes -- up. I'm still amazed at how many people look so surprised when you don't crotch shot them with the bar)
At Knott's one time, right before a train on Montezooma' Revenge was to be dispatched for the launch, all the lap bars just popped up in one motion in a loud *BOOM* and this lady with her 5 year old son was like panicking and yelling at the ride op. And this was at the point where they gave the thumbs up for dispatch and the "Riders please prepare for launch" recorded audio went off.
Alot of the general public probally don't hop right back on shuttle loops because the second you stop, pop up goes the bar, and I like it when there's lots of riders because I've seen people really freaked out by it, they don't know it's OK. Anyways, had I been on that MR train you're talking about, I would probally have passed out from fear, unsure if we were launching or not!
Anyways, I did a SF park and my first CP experience in the same week, and when people are carrying these things around, basketballs, it slows the loading down, rides that shouldn't have waits have waits because everyone's taking thier time. Like I said before, anyways, the first ride on a coaster at CP and my wife was like "no gates!", I thought it was cool, the employees are always there to put you back should you enter the yellow zone or whatever, it's just those metal steps, like on the Raptor line. Has anybody fallen on that stuff? It was wet while we were there, they were slick to a degree.
