The End Of The World As We Know It? (Hydro)

Ar·ma·ged·don Pronunciation Key (ärm-gdn)
n.

1. Bible. The scene of a final battle between the forces of good and evil, prophesied to occur at the end of the world.
2. A decisive or catastrophic conflict.

I.E. A water ride with over-the-shoulder restraints.

http://www.coasterclub.org/gallery/displayimage.php?album=101&pos=25

Don't panic...it's going to be O.K.

Uhhhhhh...... WTF???

Well it's better than the hack they used at Knott's.

The real solution was still to put in seats like those found on Dragster. If you look at photos of the old Hydro seats, there was plenty of room for lateral movement to get out (especially if you're a small teen girl, unfortunately).

Yeah, maybe he never heard of this happening.

http://www.coasterbuzz.com/2004-107-59326.htm

I don't think that I would be calling a restraint on a ride "armageddon" if I knew that it may one day save another person from dying.

I've heard from numerous sources that the Perilous Plunge boats would receive the same restraints, which would drastically change the ride's throughput. We can only hope.

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Pale Rider said:I don't think that I would be calling a restraint on a ride "armageddon" if I knew that it may one day save another person from dying.

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The point is an OTSR is not the best solution here. Intamin needs to get their head out of their rear-end and come up with a different lap-bar design. It can be done. Intamin is just avoiding the problem by doing OTSR's on their new rides (ie. Kingda Ka, Kanonen). Just design a better lap-bar and put it on all rides, not just the new ones.

It's weird how Lapbars seem to be not the ultimate safety solution.
Some two months ago there was a deadly accident on a water coaster at Europa Park where someone obviously out of his mind wiggled himself out of the restraint and fell to his death.
http://english.rides.nl/nieuws/bericht/12

To have your upper body and arms free is such a great thing on a coaster - invaluable for people like me with tall upper bodies usually locked painfully by most OTSR systems.
Can't they simply make safe lapbars?

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SFGAm Shock Wave said:
The point is an OTSR is not the best solution here.

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Well I'm not going to argue with you that Intamin could and probably should develop a better lap bar instead of the OTSRs they are currently using. My point was that while it may at first appear ridiculous that a shoot-the-chutes ride would need OTSRs, the fact is that a person died and the park did what it needed to do to ensure that no one ever dies again on it in that way.

A different retrofit of the lapbar is probably just as effective as an OTSR but in the specific case of this park, I'm betting that they weren't interested in (and couldn't afford to be)taking the chance that it somehow wasn't. It may just be me, but I can't blame a park for wanting to cover it's butt, with a 100% proven way, after an accident has allready occured.

It's one thing to maybe mumble and grumble about the new OSTR's on the ride in the context of a thread about it but to center a thread about likening them to "armageddon" (especially when someone died)just seems a little dramatic to me. I don't know, maybe I'm just reading too much into the original post. YMMV.

Sadly, what is most effective and what is perceived as most effective are two different things.

The worst part is that Intamin finally developed probably the best lap bar design I have seen in a long time, then ruined it by attaching a shoulder bar to it. Their new lap bar design, used on Storm Runner and kingda Ka, would be just about perfect if they hadn't turned it into a shoulder bar....

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Um...Pale Rider...yes, I knew about the young lady's death on Hydro when it happen. Yes, I completely understand Oakwood's decision to retro Hydro with OTSRs. Yes, you are reading too much into the my opening post. When I stumbled across that picture yesturday, the first thought that came to mind was the irony of a shoot-the-chutes with OTSRs, as well as the humor of the picture. Nothing more. Wasn't whining about it, just making satirical commentary...which at times I suck at.

That's allright man. The thing is, when I orignally glanced at your post, I thought that the line "Don't panic...it's going to be O.K." was your sig. Now that I look back, I see that it was actually part of the post and yes, I now see that you were being funny and not whining about the change. It's funny how one line can totally change a person's perception of a post. Thanks for explaining your side of things.

Look at the lapbar/seat combo for the B&M hypers (Raging Bull, for example) for a perfection...

It's quick loading (no seatbelt) and firmly locks you into the seat with the wraparound sides and the "clamshell" lapbar pad...

Honestly I would much prefer these OTSR's than the nasty belts they have on Perilous Plunge. I'm about to gag just thinking about it.

Personally, I'd just like a company that's designing the rides I spend my funtime on to actually do some engineering in the process.