Woman dies riding Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas

Well Put Gator. I am and was bigger than the guy who perished at SFNE but rode S:ROS safely over 40 times and also got about 30 laps in on MF before the major mods. A couple times leaving the station I would notice the bar was not in my lap, Of course I pulled it down and yes, I'd say I shifted being pushed back on the lift. Id say it was 4 inches up a couple times. Most of the times they shove the bar and it'd be in my lap anyway but a couple for one reason or another it wasn't.

Its already proven that belts do not contain latteral movement. However, Belts can control the fact that a questionble sized person will not be allowed to ride.

Are the restraints fully capable of restraining larger riders? 100% Yes. Some friends of mine tell me that the pneumatic cylinder is capable of 10,000 pds of resistance and there is a backup cylinder to boot.

Problem is, the restraint has to be in the lap of the rider 100% of the time.

Im still not convinced it isn't a failure. I mean the tail fell off one of the trains earlier this year. G trains had a bar break on a rider a few years back and now Smiler is closed with a two inch gap in the track joints. I 'll still wait to see what the investigation reviles. My guess is she was never secured to begin with. But thats only a guess.

Jeez, everyone... I was always of the impression that it was vanishingly rare for restraints to just "pop open." I always told myself that on rides that had lap bar only and no grab bar, as that could make me feel awfully insecure at times. (I love roller coasters like everyone else here -- but that doesn't mean I can't have my moments of primal fear.) Now I'm hearing that it's commonplace for people to have bars start ratcheting up on them? Aw, fluff. I'm about to do a big multi-park road trip for the first time in years, and I do not need that idea rattling around in my head the whole time.

I was at SFDK the other day taking my family down for a visit, while I was waiting in line for Medusa with my niece I saw a rather large couple get on the train, the man ended up not being able to ride due to being too large, the woman was strapped in using TWO restraint belts. It's situations like this that can end up badly. I'm not saying that plus sized people shouldn't be able to enjoy themselves, but there has to be a limit and it's the parks responsibility to ensure that everyone observes these limits.

There are two seats on Medusa with two restraint belts, and you can find the same on pretty much every sit-down looping ride B&M has ever built. They're specifically designed for larger guests.

The media is reporting that Six Flags will investigate the incident by itself without any assistance from outside agencies. Is this common for ride accidents that result in serious injury or death?

Sounds, again, like it was human error. I'm sure they'll talk to staff while maintenance crews check the train. I feel like the park seems to know the possible cause and they're just trying to confirm.

No Foul play found in texas giant death.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324328904578620242679...%3Fdsk%3Dy

Really? And all this time I was assuming she was murdered.

Thanks for clearing that up.

The problem with this woman was that when she sat down, her belly covered her thighs, and the lap bar didn't come close enough to her lap crevice to hold her in. In order to ride, you must have legs, and your belly, when you're seated, must not extend to your knees.

Does anyone remember that "Time for Timer" cartoon-- he was a rutabega with stick legs, I think? He had an enormous body and spindly little legs. He would fall out because he's too top-heavy and his legs are too small to create a strong enough "lap."

What's wrong with a velcro ankle wrap on each ankle? The only requirement would be that your foot be larger than your ankle. That's not too discriminatory. You must have feet to ride. And an ankle wrap doesn't impede airtime.

Bill said:

...lap crevice...

Eww.

Oh I know. That's right up there with front butt.

And Velcro ankle straps wouldn't impede airtime, but it sho' would impede capacity...

:-)

Here is a way of showing how she probably fell out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i0KmTMf0VVQ#at=101

Here's an interesting item in today's CoasterBuzz Rollback.

"On this day in 2010: Restraint opens halfway through ride on LaRonde Boomerang."

Eric Hossfield said:

Here is a way of showing how she probably fell out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i0KmTMf0VVQ#at=101

Not sure if it shows how she fell out, but it certainly illustrates the idea of how the lap bar is meant to secure via the lap and how excessive midsection size impedes that.

Eric Hossfield said:

Here is a way of showing how she probably fell out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i0KmTMf0VVQ#at=101

Wow ! Well, I guess if we had to pick a scenario we'd rather find out caused this awful event, this would probably be the one ...

NO mechanical failure; NO rider misconduct; and for the most part, NO operator error ... Just a total fluke that SUCKS as bad as anything could !

PhantomTails said:

The media is reporting that Six Flags will investigate the incident by itself without any assistance from outside agencies. Is this common for ride accidents that result in serious injury or death?

Well it IS Texas, so that shouldn't be surprising. Still, what a terrible accident.

Superstew said:

Wow ! Well, I guess if we had to pick a scenario we'd rather find out caused this awful event, this would probably be the one ...

NO mechanical failure; NO rider misconduct; and for the most part, NO operator error ... Just a total fluke that SUCKS as bad as anything could !

I'm willing to bet that the ride op is going to get canned, and the family will still try to sue. Any way you slice it, it could get ugly.

Even were this speculative scenario to be accurate, it still speaks to improper restraint of the guest or a complete failure of procedures regarding who can ride, either of which falls on the park rather than the guest. These machines are now too advanced, tested and regulated to churn out "flukes."

Gerstlauer sending in someone to investigate. They seem to think it was not a failure of the lapbar.

http://m.wbtv.com/autojuice?targetUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wbtv.com%2fs...ath-probed

It may not be a failure of the "lapbar" (i.e. the lapbar did everything it was designed to do) but a failure of the lapbar design (they didn't account for certain scenarios in which the lapbar functioning as designed, won't sufficiently retrain the rider).