Woman dies in accident at Six Flags New Orleans

I don't think this was a situation where she was a rider who wasn't in her seat when the ride started. I haven't seen this particular ride, but I'm assuming it starts off slow like most other flats of its type, which would allow her to move out of the way or yell at the very least before the ride picked up enough speed to hurt her.

Edit: Jim, this number of fatalities isn't too far from previous years as seen here.

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CP 2K3: 11*** This post was edited by mantis man 7/10/2003 2:52:28 PM ***

We don't know if this girl was mentally handicap or what. Who knows.

But the report says it happened when the ride started, which, if true, means the ride operator is going to be blamed for this, because they are supposed to check the entire "infield" prior to starting the ride. In which case Six Flags will probably also be blamed for not having enough mirrors or ride observation tools. But that all depends on if the person was out before the ride was started.

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"Here's my ten cence, my two cence is free"-Eminem

No, JR, you still don't know that, "What happened was the ride ops locked the lapbars and started the operation without knowing somebody was on the loading platform." You weren't there and there is no official report yet. You're speculating.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

I really do not see this as a Tea-Cup style ride at all. Thats what originally shocked me about this, that someone could get killed on the tea cups.

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"Here's my ten cence, my two cence is free"-Eminem

Yeah, this looks like the Troika at Cedar Point if the pictures were of the correct attraction. I could think of a few ways it would be possible for someone to get hit but there seem pretty unlikely so we will just have to wait and see.

Here is another update, it happened according to people there as she was fastening her grandson in.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?n3661_BC_LA--SixFlagsDeath&&news&newsflash-louisiana

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Army Rangers lead the way

JR was right. It didn't seem like he could be, because "teacup-style ride" was a poor description. But now it sounds like the ops started the ride prematurely. Too bad they didn't e-stop in time.

What a tragic event. Ugh... that article made my stomach do a flip-flop.

Kind of appalling the local paper wouldn't post until 3:30 EDT. In most cities, an accidental death would get to the front page pretty quickly.

-'Playa

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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.

mantis man:

It's kink of hard for me to argue with the historical numbers you linked to since they are my own. My thought was really that the average for the last 20 years for fixed ride deaths is 2.2 per year versus 3 deaths already at about the mid point of the season. If the total stays at 3 it will be a more or less average year. If the trend so far continues, we will have around 6 deaths which would be a pretty bad year. Of course, more people will be killed driving to parks than will die on rides.

"Yeah, this looks like the Troika at Cedar Point if the pictures were of the correct attraction."

Looks to me like a Schwarzkopf Monster....sort of like East River Crawler at SFGAm but with a different theme.

Its always sad when a person goes to a theme park to have a good time and it ends up like this. My thoughts are with the womens families.

EDIT: Spelling

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Superman: Ultimate Flight Count (SFGAm) = 47
Dave
http://www.SFGAmWorld.com*** This post was edited by CoasterDude316 7/10/2003 5:52:58 PM ***

I didn't even bother to look at the fact that you wrote that Jim....it's kind of funny now that I think about it.

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CP 2K3: 11

The ride is "almost" like the East River Crawler or a Monster. It's another vesion of the Polyop at SFGAd or SFA. Either the woman was starpped in and got out to check her grandsons tub or the ride ops did not see her, or she climbed over a fence. The way the tubs on this ride are designed, you can in fact unloosten your restraint and climb out... you wont come out of the ride mind you, but if you ant out, it will happen.

Im guessing that she could have been missed by a ride op and the ride would have started while she stood there..... Also, another scenario, perhaps her grandson was riding alone (depending on how big he was for his age, I know he was 4 years old) and she decided at last minute to join him while the ride was starting....

Any clue how many ride opts are running this thing?

Jeff Im not speculating what happened because I was just about the 1st online person to know since yesterday at about 10pm. I had a friend who works at SFNO and told me of the event and that he saw it all on camera when he was in communications department that was happening. He said their was blood everywhere.

Latest news was the ride was cleared to reopen today, but SFNO held it offf untill tomorrow.

Also the woman was at fault. the ride operator loaded the ride.. and realized seats where empty and allowed more to enter. He also walked around twice and checked restraints.
the second time the lady hurried up and tried to sneak a 4 year old on and we all know its not possible for 4 year old to be 48 inches and the ride op had a blind spot.

jrhodes07, I believe the term is "sweeps" and "tubs". Please look up what the word "train" means.

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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.

jrhodes07's theory makes sense. btw.. those pics cameraman gave you are of the right attraction.. the hint was the joker jukebox on top.. anyway although.. if she did sneak him on, how did he get strapped in?! I didn't go to the park yet this season, I'm going next week so I will know. I 95% won't ride the ride or go near it cus thats just the way I am.. nothing to do with safety and plus its a kids ride really.. i think his theory makes sense cus a 4 year old probably wouldnt be tall enough to ride it and people do sneak him on, but he didnt get hurt.. the woman put him in, but how did she put him in before the restraints were locked. seems to me by the time the restraints were locked, checked, etc.. she shoulda been able to get out the way before the sequence started. anyway, i heard the gates were low so she coulda went check it after it started to make sure he was safe

Although made by a different company, SFA's Eli Luna Park made Polyp starts up with a whallop once the arms are raised and the ride begins in motion. It's the most forceful part of the ride and could definitely injure someone.
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If you have a problem with clones, the solution is real simple—Stop traveling.

I'm new here, so hello to all. I would like to say that after reading the article, it raises a question that I have thought of before. Is it really responsible to put teenagers in charge of running these rides? Even though most all of the rides out there are run by computers, somehow this does not worry anybody. Yes, computers are great, but they also malfun****ion and tend to crash. I'm not sure that the maturity level needed is there. Any thoughts?

This had nothing to do with the fact that this ride op might have been a teenager. The ride op was doing his or her job checking all the restraints, and if what jrhodes said is true, somebody opened the gate and snuck in. Same thing would have happened to an adult.

And what is a "mature" adult going to do if the computer crashes, the ride is still going to malfunction, teen or adult. Remember that almost all of amusement park injuries are the riders fault, hardly ever is it the ride operators. Teenagers are plenty responsible to handle these rides, its a simple safety speil, checking restraints, and pressing a button, the rest is up to the manufactors.

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"Here's my ten cence, my two cence is free"-Eminem

Here is another longer update on story.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1057904969290720.xml

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Army Rangers lead the way