Who Rode Vertigo and What Did You Think?
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Icarus said:
They Did! We were FORCED to operate the ride in High Winds, much higher than the ride was designed to operate in! I can't count the number of times we operated that ride WITH GUESTS, in HIGH WINDS! You can't tell me those events didn't have anything to do with the accident. I agree, Stupid People Shouldn't BREATH!!!!-----------------
Salt Lake City, Utah. Host City of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and the 2002 Paralympic Games - Light The Fire Within!
Proof that money overides saftey?
Not saying its a fact but if the manufacture stated certain limitations and a park over ruled that then S&S could be totally not at fault.
Chuck, just thankful that nobody was hurt, Nungester
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Charles Nungester
167 coasters and hopes to be over 200 by the end of 2002 :)
I thought Vertigo was a pretty good ride, and I'm glad I at least got a chance to ride the ultimate themepark "trivia question". That said, I won't miss it. It never belonged at Knott's and was VERY much out of place in the area it was built in. Hopefully Knott's will replace it with a quality "free" attraction. Talk about "curse of the Haunted Shack", already two projects have failed in it's place.
As for S&S, they've never really done anything that has excited me, I don't see why Cedar Fair loves them so much. Their drop towers are fun but fairly weak IMO, and Hypersonic isn't very memorable either. Stan(bless his heart) is such a great guy and I'm interested in what comes out of that head of his next.
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"Is it possible that we are feeling more brave than usual sitting at home behind our computer screens and eating Doritos"? -Ophthodoc
Well, I'll be honest. I rode it at CP last season rather reluctantly. Anyone that knows me knows I am terrified of rides that utilize steel cables as their main functioning device.
I do not ride cable cars, and have never done a skycoaster etc. That having been said.....
Last year Eric Gieszl and I were at CP together. Eric is the Webmaster of URC. Bryan Edwards of CP was kind enough to escort us over there so Eric could feature it on his site. Now, we were offered free rides and seeing as how CP was being very generous and kind, and Bryan was an all around great guy..... plus the fact that Eric was chomping at the bit to ride... I reluctantly agreed. I was scared to death. I annoyed the ride op by asking a million questions and triple checking his work. When he asked which program I wanted, I chose to do the bit where you roll over at the top.
I screamed like a big old sissy when that thing took off, but once I flipped at the top I was fine and loving it. I will admit to my knees knocking terribly after I got off. My legs felt like rubber from the thrill. It opted not to do it again immediately following the first experience.
However, I am eternally grateful to Eric, Bryan and CP for taking me out of my comfort zone and letting me experience it. It was a great rush, and I would have done it again this year. Alas, at least I can say I did ride it.
Incidentally that very same day, I met Jeff the webmaster here, who hooked up with Eric.
Shaggy
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Shaggy
A.K.A. John K.
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If the shoe fits, find another one.
Crap, Shaggy, I didn't make the connection! Granted, I'm not good with real names, let alone aliases! I rode it that day as well.
Dustin... thank you for confirming exactly what I suspected.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"
Pete said:
Gonzo, I know that CP has very advanced lightning monitoring and prediction equipment, in fact, the best equipment that can be purchased. I doubt the lightning you saw over Sandusky Bay was close enough to cause problems. I've been to Soak City or CP many times when a storm formed, and I thought they are very conservative when it comes to stopping operations due to weather. I've been out on the lake in small boats during thunderstorm weather so I know what it's like. CP never even comes close to getting me nervous about operating in bad weather.
First of all, on that night, our Manager just happened to stop by Sky Coaster, when the Lightening Strike lit up the Sky! Both Magnum and Gemini were closed, yet we remained open for operation! Yes, CP does have a nice Lightening detection system, but, as I said above, we were in Challenge Park!!!.
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Salt Lake City, Utah. Host City of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and the 2002 Paralympic Games - Light The Fire Within!
GeminiDustin said:
About Cedar Point running a ride in 'unsafe' conditions, I have 2 comments. First, I worked at the Magnum, where we have this thing called a wind speed guage. Any time the winds exceeded 15 MPH, we called VertiGo and told them. And I have a quote fronm the Cedar Point ride operations 'SOP' manual: "If at any time a ride host feels as though a ride is being operated in an unsafe manner or in unsafe conditions, he should immediately stop operating the ride, and call a supervisor". In other words, if it was being run with high winds or lightning, it was the fault of the operator at the controls for the ride, not of Cedar Point.
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Dustin -Cedar Point ride host
THAT IS BULLCRAP!!!!!!! 1) We were NEVER called by Magnum! We were the ones who called Magnum for wind speed. Obviously none of us spoke to you! 2) Yes, that is in the Manual BUT, the Team Leader was the one who gave the command to continue to fly guests in "Unsafe Conditions," as outlined by the Manufacturer. A Total of 4 of us on the VertiCord Crew, including Gonzo and I, REFUSED to operate VertiGo when we felt it was being operated in "Unsafe Conditions," as outlined by the Manufacturer. The Team Leader simply sent others on the crew to replace us. We also expressed our concerns to Management, and they did try to fix the problems, but with no Success. The TL and ATL, as well as the others on VertiCord Crew, did not care about anyone's safety, they simply never gave a damn! All of the Ride Ops within the Park care very much about each other, the guests, and their rides. I would have been happy to have Transferred from Challenge Park, into Cedar Point. Unfortunately, we could not Transfer. You all can have your own opinions, you are entitled to them. But don't think for one-second that Gonzo or I are going to let you try and tell us what supposedly happened at VertiGo, cause you were not there, we were. Both of us are willing to go on record in a Court of Law and Testify that what we are saying is TRUE! If you don't believe us, oh well. We're just stating what our TRUTHFUL Personal Experiences are, which happened on the Rides/Attractions we operated.
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Salt Lake City, Utah. Host City of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and the 2002 Paralympic Games - Light The Fire Within!
*** This post was edited by Icarus on 3/7/2002. ***
Gonzo,
Not to add more fuel to the fire, but, I found a certain aspect of SFMM's operation to be unsafe.
Now, given that I actually enjoyed the ride with a loser harness, one guest I was with had a overly loose harness and asked if it could be tightned and was ignored, while I was asked if I wanted mine tighter. Yes, my friend survied the ride, but he was sore from being tossed around a bit at the top. That doesn't sound very safe to me regardless of how much slack is allowed in those restraints.
Getting back to the original topic,
I enjoyed every ride I got on the SFMM and CP version. I will miss the ride and hope something like it appears some place soon.
-Sean (who rode SFMM's one day, then CP's two days later and wanted to ride Knott's but it wasn't finished in time. =:^( )
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