Six Flags to pay $4 million in river ride death

I remember when this was in the news it showed park employee people in the trough with the water drained and flood lights on.
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D.o.t. Crew 2000
Flight of Fear/Wave Swinger crew 2001-2002

Would the ride automatically shut off if something like this happened? Think about it. You could get sucked under by the thing that makes the rapids work, and you would most likely die. And, how deep are the troughs? Almost makes me want to skip these rides now. 

What you really have to do on a system like this is to provide a fully engineered safety system.  You eliminate the obstructions that might contribute to overturning a raft.  You build the rubber float in enough sections that it will still be stable and safe with one or more sections deflated.  You develop a system that allows you to frequently, preferably before each dispatch, verify that each float is fully inflated.  You immediately pull any float from service that is not fully inflated.  And finally you train the people around the ride in proper emergency stop and rescue procedures.

Log rides dont have seat belts...? Seat belts and water rides dont mix ... I know I know there are some jaring moments on some of these rides , but you need to have the chance of escape in case of  freak emergencys. SWIM SWIM SWIM!

Jeff, I found that article but the link is now dead :(.

Well, an attendant and an operator can tell if a bladder is deflated easily on the dock.  I don't know of a practical way to have a detection system other than that on these rides.

The one bladder floats were produced by Canyon... obviously they switched back to Intamin rafts.

What happened is that the float deflatedand "nose dived" into an underwater device that produces standing waves on the surface.  The force of the water behind the raft overturned it, and one person (I believe a woman) was unable to escape and drowned.

 

At Six Flags, on the raft rides I believe that employees are prohibited from jumping in the water (even if it has stabilized).  Only a supervisor or above can.  The crews at those rides are trained on water safety and there are many flotation devices and employees who watch the rafts around the trough.  I believe this was all in place before the incident.

The trough for these rides isn't very deep.  I have seen them drained and would guess around 4 feet of water.  However, that's still a lot of water and more than 5 minutes can pass before the water stabilizes and is drained into the holding resovoir.  Plenty of time to drown even if you have a great staff.

tried to edit earlier, had some problem...anyway, the other "candidate" for a good lawsuit is obviously the manufacturer of the bladder, if it's determined to be faulty in construction.  SF of course might be held responsible if they didn't properly maintain/check the flotation equipment, and that I guess would be kind of similar to the Chaos situation...
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Florida needs an Intamin and/or CCI soon...PLEASE!
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

One of the other things I remembered with the missing article is the man in charge of maintenance on that and other ride's for several years was laid off and replaced with cheaper, less experienced people. This may have also been a contributing cause.

Also the park tried to blame the people who jumped and tired to save them. They blamed them for interfering with the "rescue" when in fact (as mentioned above) the employees could not get in the water.

There are numerous ways to detect a bladder which is underinflated.  Probably the simplist is what is called a tell tale.  This is a device which when the pressure drops below a certain level shows a red indicator much like a parking meter.  This would be very easy for ride workers to see and check before each time a raft is dispatched. 

The thought that someone is making single compartment bladders and that parks are buying them is down right frightening.

MisterX:  The guest who died on the ride did not drown.  Doctors ruled that she died of a heart attack, which was without a doubt caused by the trauma of being trapped underwater.

rollergator:  I believe the park and the victim's family are joining to sue Canyon, the company that manufactured the bladder.

You know, I can only think that jumping into an operating rapids ride is a very bad idea for employees or guests.

Yes it would be nice to dive in and save the drowning victims, but if you know how the rapids are created for the ride, it makes it pretty clear why you shouldn't jump in.  Second, the rapids for these rides are too violent to swim in.  Third, I would imagine that rafts still are floating through the course during this accident.

There is no easy answer here on how to prevent this.  Perhaps a sensor of some kind built into the rafts that warns of deflation (don't some cars have a system like this for tires?) 

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Xcelerator-
0-82 in 2.3 seconds! =Wow!

If something like this was to happen with me around, I would have a hard time not jumping in to save the person, even if it cost me my job.  Mainly because I am a certified lifeguard for waterparks.  Which means, wave machines in use where I lifeguard.  So, I guess I would "know" what to do.  But I know only ride supervisors and above are allowed to enter the water.  Which is kinda good, because they get the big bucks. 

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Rob

Ride Op-SFGAm
Certified on: Roaring Rapids, Loggers Run/Ice Mountain Splash, Batman The Ride, V2, and Deja Vu.

I know what you mean ALF.  If I was working at a ride like that I wouldn't think twice about jumping in, even if I knew I would be fired.  I think that's how a lot of employees would react, too.

what happened was they were going up that final little ramp up into the station, the thing stalled, and the thing fell backwards, so I hear

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Also, a followup to my last statement, that wateris only waist deep, so if the bladder did deflate as stated in earlier reports, if it capsized, you could easily, easily smack your head on the concrete foundation

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