Stealth/SOB incidents

Pardon if this is old news, search isn't working, so I couldn't look this up. But I had heard before about someone's arms being pulled from the socket while riding Stealth. Now here's the proof:

http://www.saferparks.org/database/AR_details.asp?ID=909328

If you have Adobe Acrobat, click on the "Link to Report", interesting reading.

Also facinating is the 2 broken necks on SOB. I guess everyone should be checked for Ankylosingsponditis before riding this thing, but it sounds like a pretty brutal ride anyway from what I've heard:

http://www.saferparks.org/database/AR_details.asp?ID=904302

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"Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it"

I can understand the SOB incidents, but "the wind" dislocated a person's arms? I've ridden Stealth with my arms in flying position...I never felt any wind strong enough to do that.

mOOSH

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The only 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available, plus holiday & all-occasion cards. All at S&D Greetings.

I'm guessing that was probably the guys reason for the dislocation, but from reading the report, it sounds like it had more to do with his size (doesn't sound like he fit correctly).

I'm curious if because of this, the new trains for Carowinds will be modified to accomodate taller riders, or if they'll just have height restrictions.

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"Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it"

Don't worry Draco , SOB isn't rough at all. Beast is WAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!! TIMES 10 rougher.

*of course , that comes from a short guy*

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Gotta(heavy breath) get myself(breath)funnier for(breath) offseason.(breath)So unfunny(breath) must.....try....harder.

I also feel Beast is rougher than Sonny, It bounces through every curve except the first one after the first drop which they redone last year. Beast needs some serious work but was running pretty fast.

Chuck, who says yes Sonny can give you a headache but my Beast Backache lasted three days.

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Charles Nungester.
It's official Lesourdsville Lake is closed for 2003

Yeah, you guys are just wrong.;) Beast is fun. SOB is a terrible ride. Someone should throw an SOB sized anville on it and crush it. taer it doeewn??!!1

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Maturity- maybe I'll get some someday.

I suspect that the neck incidents on Son of Beast are the reason they added the seat cushion. Which is probably the only good thing they've done to those wretched trains since the ride opened.

Padded seats, shorter cars, get the wheels out from under the seats...it could be fixed. Well, Flight of Fear took six years, so if that's the standard, Sonny might be rideable in 2005 or 2006...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Change the rails into Intamin's prefabricated track. Not thát expensive and it will turn the ride into a smooth and fun coaster, that could become the new number 1 !

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Roarrrr...

I know trains are quite expensive, but wouldn't it be the best idea for them to try a different train... such as a Millennium Flyer? Afterall, most of the issues with the ride seem to be train related, not necessarily related to the track. I know I talked to you about this one time this year Dave. You had the good ideas that I know you had to have told Jeff Siebert over and over again. ;)

-Danny
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Coaster Insomniacs- The Other Ride Meat
Coasterer Member #2... Just grab it* and ride!
*handling charges may apply

As described in the PDF report the neck injury was exagerated by a pre-existing spinal desease. Had the person been fit to ride he would not have been injured in that way.

I say "in that way" becuase scrambled brains is an entirely different injury. :)

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Kevin Stone
NoLimits Roller Coaster Simulator
http://www.nolimitscoaster.de

Draco: they do have a height restriction for Batwing,it's 80 inches & over which is basically the same as their SLC's.

Since Carowinds is adding new trains to "Stealth" then I assume they'll be the same ones that both Batwing & X-Flight use with the onboard linear actuators to raise & lower the seats.

For some reason Stealth's original restraint design looked to be a bit more comfortable than the newer design,I guess there's more surface area in the vest to evenly support the body because after a full season of riding I find Batwing's harness to be just a bit uncomfortable.

I find that when I ride SOB that the ride is very rough. Most of my pain was in my lower back and legs which were getting slammed side to side. I was very let down with the piss pour lap bar design. I like the style and the pain job of the train. Its just not comfy.

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http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

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RideMan said:

Well, Flight of Fear took six years, so if that's the standard, Sonny might be rideable in 2005 or 2006...

You have to wonder what the effect of the guide wheels hammering against the rails has as the trains shuffle along. Maintenance costs might drive a change. I'd imagine there's a goodly amout of gauge-tweaking going on every morning.

Off topic but thread highjacking seems to be a better sport than line jumping around here - anyone know of any woodies with guide wheels on the outside of the track rather then inside?

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Trust me , all problems with Sonny lie in the trains. I agree that they are horrible. The only track problem is the first turn into the first double Helix(very intense , mind you).

No train is too expensive for Sonny.

*another opinion from a non-mechanic , short guy*

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Gotta(heavy breath) get myself(breath)funnier for(breath) offseason.(breath)So unfunny(breath) must.....try....harder.

What gets me is, if you read the report on the SOB incident, they guy states that he is (was?) a "avid roller coaster rider and had traveled around the US riding various coasters". So even though the cause was definitly a pre-exisiting condition, it wasn't like he had never rode a coaster before. SOB sounds like it must be above and beyond your typical roughness to cause such a severe injury, especially to an "avid roller coaster rider".

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"Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it"

I was at KI for the last weekend of September and just came back from closing weekend. I went on SoB for the first time back in September...went on it twice that weekend...and thought that it was incredibly painful!

I'm 6'2" so that may have made a difference. The two problems that I had were those horrible lapbars (they should be called "stomach bars") and the bouncing! That thing bounced from beginning to end except for the pretty smooth loop. I thought that maybe it was a bad seat...nah! I went again and it still sucked! I went on again last weekend to see if I was just being a baby...nah! It sucked yet again!

I LOVE getting thrown around on these rides. I love the Beast! Especially when it's not trimmed to death. It's easily one of my favorites! But, SoB...wow...I've never rolled into a final brake run and said "Get me the hell off of this thing!"

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Over 20 years in A.C.E. Time flies when you're havin' fun! =)

Why is it that they just don't put some PTC's on SOB? that'd solve at least some of the comfort issues right there.

Personally I'm starting to despise the new premiere lap bar trains on JJ,the seats are too low & the overall space too cramped for my liking.

Draco: You are correct. Furthermore, both patients in those incidents were under the care of their respective physicians, and neither had been restricted from riding roller coasters. It was a known pre-existing condition, but a pre-existing condition not expected to be aggravated by a roller coaster ride.

BogeyMon: Not that I know of. It wouldn't be terribly practical anyway, as typical wood coaster trains ride with the footwells between the rails. In fact, on a PTC car, the road wheels are not under the seats at all, but just under the running boards. But it wouldn't make any difference anyway. There are those who seem to think that it makes a difference whether the guide wheels are inside or outside...but people who think that have clearly not examined the geometry of steering a coaster train: it makes no difference whether you steer from the inside rail (guide wheels outside) or the outside rail (guide wheels inside)...the motion is exactly the same.

BATWING FAN SFA, a typical PTC train wouldn't run on Son of Beast as the PTC trains appear to have a longer wheelbase (even with the shorter cars), and don't have the flexibility necessary to negotiate the loop.

The first problem is that Son of Beast's cars don't steer, they shuffle. Most wood coasters do that to some degree, but most wood coasters don't translate as much as Son of Beast does. This is because the maximum amount of rotation is determined by the length of the chord between the front and rear axle and by the slop in the track gauge. Sonny doesn't have excessive slop, but it does have a very short wheelbase. This allows for increased rotation. The translation of the front or back of the train is determined by the angle of rotation multiplied by the distance from the point of rotation (which is a point in the center of the chord between the axles). The short wheelbase is combined with a very long car (with riders in seats #1 and #3 sitting at the ends of the car) to cause extreme amounts of translation in the front and back seat of each car.

I hope that makes sense. There are other problems with the ride, but that accounts for the magnitude of the lateral wiggling that causes most of the pain.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Either Dave is explaining things more clearly or I'm getting smarter and actually understanding what he says.

mOOSH [probably not getting smarter]

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The only 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available, plus holiday & all-occasion cards. All at S&D Greetings.

You're getting smarter if you saved your money and skipped Matrix Revolutions. ;)

Nice description Dave. Nice going Moosh!

-Danny
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Coaster Insomniacs- The Other Ride Meat
Coasterer Member #2... Just grab it* and ride!
*handling charges may apply