Woman dies following ride on Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain (UPDATED)

If they slow Goliath down because the helix is too intense, why do they slow down all the 'gravitrons' and 'rotors' out there aswell?? Think about it!

Here is another story of a woman in OH who blames a coaster for giving her a stroke.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/wews/20010519/lo/404608_1.html

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Army rangers lead the way *** This post was edited by supermandl on 6/4/2001. ***

There is no way the woman suffered an aneurysm in the helices or the "centrifuge" portion of the ride as a result of excessive G forces. Positive G's push the blood in your body towards your feet. This is why some people black out--positive G's cause a lack of bloodflow to the head. If anything, you could suffer ruptured vessels in your feet. Negative G's push the blood toward your brain, and if excessive, can cause extra pressure on vessels in the head. There are many coasters which have greater negative G's than Goliath (I don't remember any significant air other than the third hill). This tends to make me think that the woman had a preexisting condition, but there is no way any of us can be for sure. May she rest in peace, and may the media not blow this out of proportion (GASP--balanced journalism).

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According to the "official" count, next year's new coaster lineup will feature 17 Arrow 4-Ds, 21 TA2Ks, 34 B&M floorless's, 17 Intamin Gigas, 12 beemer flyers, and 247 CCIs. And oh yeah, CP will receive one of all of these.

Strong g's stop blood to your brain thats why you black out, your heart begins to pump blood extrmely fast, this is what happends when your are in Goliath's helix for about a second.

Colossus treatment is basically down grading a ride dramatically. Colossus had a cammel back were you got 2 negative g's way to much for most people, a lady was then thrown from the train and died. The cammel back has now been replaced with a med course brake and has been slowed down on its pacing and became an average ride at best to most people.

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Steel top 5
1.S:TE
2.Stelth
3.B:TR
4. Riddler's Revenge
5. Goliath

The cammel back was not replaced with a mid course. It was the double down that was turned into a mid course. The cammel back was lowered 20 feet. Its basically flat now. No airtime. :(

they said on the news that she had an anuerysm but the ride brought it on

if only negative Gs push blood to the brain then how could the ride have caused it without it going to happen anyway?

Wasn't this one of the exact effects politicians were citing as a danger of coasters?

Great :(

First of all Jeff you're only 27? I had no idea. I'm 30 and I thought you were my age or older for some reason. Second of all I'm surprised nobody remembers the report that came out last year making a link between high speed coasters and death. I believe the report was from Japan and they've had a few people who were in perfectly good health go on a high speed coaster and die within a short period of riding from trauma to the brain. I'm not saying that's what happened here but it makes me wonder...

ANEURYSM

What is it?

Weakness of the wall of an artery causing abnormal enlargement or bulge. Aneurysms usually affect the aorta (major artery in the chest and abdomen) or the arteries that supply the brain, legs, or heart wall.

Folks, coasters don't cause them they are caused by high blood pressure, heart disease, or by birth defects etc. Look it up on Web MD. The problem with them especially with people at a young age is that you don't have a clue they are there unless you have had some type of symptom that required your doctor to do something like a CAT scan. Why would a 28 year old woman have any reason to belive she had anything wrong with her?
The whole incident is tragic. Think about how you would feel if you you went to a park with family and friends for a day of fun and had this ending. My condolences to the family and friends of this woman.

The woman's condition existed before the ride. Could it have caused the burst? Sure, like any other physically demanding activity could have.

The report from last year talked about subdural hematoma, which if I remember correctly is more like an internal bruise than an aneurysm. That report was silly.

The bottom line is this: Roller coasters aren't for everyone, and while this incident is tragic, you can't blame the ride. Millions of people survive roller coasters every year not because they're lucky, but because they're physically qualified to handle the rides.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Jeff, in our non-medical opinions but, by the definition the aneurysm was probably there before she started the ride. My wife says the medical term for a bruise is a hemotoma. That being a given yes the problem was more than likely pre-existing but unknown to the person.
You are also right coasters are not for everyone but, there is still an inherent risk in riding them. Those risks are acceptable to everyone that gets on one of these machines otherwise we wouldn't ride.
A normal healthy human has nothing to fear. It's incidences like this that should point out the fact that from time to time we should at least get a once over by the Doc to make sure nothing is going wrong with our own bodies.

Yes, that's a valid point. You can put up a disclaimer that people with certain medical conditions should not ride, but in cases such as these there's very little chance a young woman like that is going to even know she has a brain condition. Goliath and Titan exhibit far more intense forces on the brain than your average rollercoaster, I've personally seen folks pass out on these rides.

Odds are this would have happened to her eventually. If it wasn't the rollercoaster it would have been something else. More than anything, it was just really bad luck on her part. Not the most glamorous way to die, but not too shabby either.

Unfortunately you can make a safe bet a lawsuit is going to ensue anyway and Six Flags will be forced to make some move to tame the ride(s).

No, a law suit, if they lost (and I doubt you can prove negligence with millions of riders living), they have to pay the family money. They don't have to do anything to the ride.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Here is a few links explaining a little about the injury. Hope this helps about the injurys.

http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/full/54/1/264

http://webmd.lycos.com/content/article/1728.60387

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1728.54022

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Army rangers lead the way

I've Been On Titan, And I had no problems except I started to get a little disey, and that is it.
But there are some high G's on it. especially when you hit that tunnel!

If you read the June issue of Discover magazine there's an interview with Werner Stengel about the design of Millennium Force (bonus: the original computer plot of the first overbank turn). He explains that he designed the track so it wouldn't amplify forces to the head, but instead uses a heartline design. I would think that would make it much safer for people who might have a condition like the young lady had, but I'm not an expert obviously. *** This post was edited by Intamin Fan on 6/4/2001. ***

"Nothing like this has ever happened here," park spokesman Andy Gallardo said. "It's a very unfortunate occurrence, and our thoughts go out to the family."

What kind of propoganda is this statement though? Didn't a woman get tossed out of Colossus? This statement leads the average reader to believe the park has a perfect safetey record on their coasters. This kind of statement really makes you wonder about the actual safety of their rides.

super7, the statement is true. Yes, Magic Mountain has had at least one fatal accident before. What makes this one different is that there was no accident. So far as anybody knows, everything was functioning perfectly. For all intents and purposes, a rider simply dropped dead on one of the coasters for no readily apparent reason. THAT is what's never happened before at Magic Mountain.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The statement is technically true, but still it is misleading to the average person who does not know the history of the park. But then again, maybe the media only took and excerpt of what he said. *** This post was edited by super7 on 6/4/2001. ***

On one of the reports they said the internal bleeding could have also been caused by whiplash. Aren't the mid-course brakes on Goliath pretty strong? I've ridden Titan at SFoT several times and because of the extra helix those block-brakes are much milder than Goliath's. It is more of a slight tap instead.