Woman sues Six Flags worlds of Adventure for injury in 2000

I think this one could go either way. I've never understood why they didn't use large screens (a la Holiday World) around the low portions of the ride.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"We used to hate people, now we just make fun of them. It's more effective that way." - KMFDM, "Dogma"

$25,000? That sounds pretty cheap. Six Flags should settle that now. As for rocks being thrown, this was a problem back in the 80's when I worked at the park. Then, it was on the Big Dipper. How people can do that, I have no idea.

I'm not sure what the remedy is. You can't enclose all of the rides and it isn't practical to have video cameras scan the entire length of the ride. Security patrols can catch people in the act. It really is a difficult situation but I can't imagine how painful it must have been to be hit by those rocks.

It is interesting, I have never heard of problems with Corkscrew at CP and those screw are so close to the midway. Maybe it is too out in to open for punks to chance getting caught. *** This post was edited by wahoo skipper on 7/3/2002. ***

What kind of morons throw rocks at coaster's that's totally crazy.

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Army Rangers lead the way *** This post was edited by supermandl on 7/3/2002. ***

That's right, don't sue the person who actually threw the rock. Sue the park for having rocks to throw! Lawsuits 101... always sue the person(s) with the deepest pockets.

It is awuful that she was injured, but how is this Six Flag's fault?

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Nothing... NOTHING... can prepare you for... the Fourth Dimension!

Soggy - She seems to be suing SF because they knew of the problem, but didn't do anything about it (based on the news article). I doubt the person throwing the rocks actually got caught. He was probably with others and it would be hard to find out who actually threw it.

Jeff is on to something. If they knew there was an issue with rock throwing, (and back in the early 90's it was an issue) it was incumbent on the company to try to do something. Maybe mesh netting was the answer.

Doing nothing was the wrong answer.

The lawsuit filed last week in Portage County Common Pleas Court said that Six Flags had been notified four times before Wang's injury that people were throwing rocks at the roller coaster.

At the time the accident occurred on July 2, 2000, it was believed that Wang was struck by the cell phone of another passenger on the Villain.

They were notified 4 times before June 2. I think not.

On May 12, June 2, June 5 and June 8 of 2000, Six Flags was notified that people were throwing rocksat the roller coaster, according to the lawsuit.

It appears the paper is wrong about Ms. Wang.

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Tim Schroll
gocubs7@hotmail.com
Long Live the Whizzer!

Excuse me, MFrules, but I don't get your point. May 12, June 2, June 5 and June 8 ALL come before July 2. By my count, that is 4 times prior to her accident on July 2.

In my eyes, that does mean as early as May 12, Six Flags was aware of a problem of rock throwers. What they could have done about it, I can't say as I've not been to the park since it was Geauga Lake.

It looks like Ms. Wang assumed it was a cell phone from another passenger. But if she subsequently found out about the rock throwers, then she's taking advantage of that fact to sue. $25K doesn't appear to be over doing it (it's the cost of a nice car).

I wonder if SFWoA has solved the problem in the past 2 years?

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

In mid June 2000, I was walking around Villain while taking pictures. I was setting up for a shot of the train, when I witnessed a kid throw what I think was a tennis ball at the train. I know it stuck something (person, or train) because of the way it bounced away at a high rate of speed. I would have said something before, but I was looking at the coaster through my camera and did not notice the ball until after the kid tossed it.

I yelled at the kid for a while. But his Mom (or whoever he was with) did not seem to care. I told him how someone could have been hurt, etc. but he and his Mom just sort of laughed it off. I was so mad!

I regret that I did not do any more. I should have either gone for security (tough since I was out of the park by the road) or grabed the kid and done something to him (and set myself up for a lawsuit!).

I do have a nice picture in my collection of the kid's back, the ball in midair, and the train approaching. I never did post it on CoasterGallery.com. I wonder if I should.... or should I submit it as evidence?

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Joel Rogers
CoasterGallery.com
http://www.CoasterGallery.com *** This post was edited by CaptainJoel on 7/3/2002. ***

You should just be happy you didn't get approached about taking photos from that area, Joel. ;)

Many of the photos you got of the park (from the ferris wheel, monorail, skyscraper, road) will get you a stern warning from the park anymore and most likely you'll be "relieved" of your film. Be glad you have those in your collection!

Heck, I doubt the photo of the kid's back would really amount to identifying him, but if may be worth looking into who to contact.

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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park visits in 2002: 12

Okay, somebody explain this to me. If she had already seen the people throwing the rocks, then how come for her she thought it was a cell phone? And a cell phone? Was she trying to catch it, or did she actually try to duck out of the way, and if she saw this happening earlier, how come she wasn't cautious when the train went over that area. Anyway, the law says that the park is responsible for her injury, and $25,000 isn't overdoing it. While I still find it kind of silly, oh well, it could be much worse.

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"You can't kill what's stronger than death" - Zakk Wylde

I don't think that $25,000 would cover the medical costs. As for the rock throwing kid and his mother, I bet they would care more if they had to pay the lawsuit and medical costs. I don't even want to think about what would have happened to me if my parents caught me throwing rocks like that. I guess society has changed. I hope Six Flags removes the rocks and uses some other type of landscaping. I would hate to see big nets go up everywhere.

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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.

The last time I was at the park was October of 2000. I chose Villian to be my first ride and my friend and I ran to it. We discovered a small group of guests waiting for the ride to open. The ride opp was waiting at the entrance to the queueand said that they were waiting for security to give them the green light to open the ride because they had to make sure that nobody was waiting to throw rocks at the passing train. She told us that it would only be a few minuts.

I thought that it was just some ridiculous excuse just to not open the ride but I waited anyways. 45 minuts later the ride opened and I was very ticked off. It was durring some kind of special event and the park opened at I think 6PM and was to close at I think 10 PM. I do remember that the front gates opened 30 minuts late and then Villian opened 45 minuts after that and I was very ticked. I paid a full price addmission for a few hours at SFO.

I hope the reports that the park has got its act together are true. Their screw up of opening late combined with "kids throwing rocks" interupted my day and it was an inconvience to all of the guest waiting for the ride to open. Why is it so hard to catch these hoodlems so they stop ruining peoples visits?

There is more to my story but i don't want to bore anyone. Let's just say it was the worst amusement park expierance of my life and I haven't been back since. I really hope, for their sake, that they have fixed some of the problems I encountered then.

Catch them and arrest them for trespassing...Or get sued.

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KoRn is the Mellennium Force of ROCK

They should just keep security around all the parts of the rides that you can throw rocks at and if they catch one, kick them out without a refund. Simple as that.

I am going tomorrow, I will now keep a very good look out for the rocks and kids. Also, please remember it may not be kids, it could have been that mom, too.

You should just be happy you didn't get approached about taking photos from that area, Joel.

I never had any problems with my picture taking at SFO/SFWOA. However, I was at one park where I was told that taking ANY pictures of the rides would land me in jail because the rides were copyrighted. (Not just having my camera taken, but a threat of arrest!) This was surprising to me for several reasons. First, I hunted all over the park and never saw any signs about taking pictures except the standard warning about on-ride photos. Secondly, there were TONS of people taking both still and video shots. And finally, the night before I was all over the mall, er, park, with my tripod. I took my time setting up pictures right next to a couple security guards who never said a thing. Chalk it up to a 18 year old ride op mad with power!

My picutre of the kid throwing the object (tennis ball I think) would not be much help in identifying him unfortunatly. If it were, I would have tried to turn him in!

Matthayman -- Keeping security around all areas of the rides sounds like a good idea, but the demands on manpower would be way to high.

I spend a lot of time trying to get REALLY close to coasters. (I do it for the pictures, not to cause problems!) I must admit that there are lots of places that a person could cause trouble. But if the park had a reapeated problem and did not make any effort to correct it, they could be held liable.

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Joel Rogers
CoasterGallery.com
http://www.CoasterGallery.com

Nice to see that, once again, nobody on CB gives a damn that someone actually got hurt on a park ride. The average intelligence of this site just keeps getting lower and lower.

You have to think if you were in that position. I really believe none of you would back down from your lawsuits, if a variable such as the actual object of impact had changed. So she was hit with something other than a cell phone, she should go home & shut up? I don't think so.
Should she NOT research the situation, & find out about the rock throwers? It was important for her, IMHO that she found out afterwards that the rock throwing was a problem. Besides, she probably reported the incident before leaving the park. Enough people aimlessly carry cell phones around that it wouldn't suprise me if somebody did loose a phone on the train in question.

BTW, I was in a Hurricane train one night when this pre-teen girl just up & threw this very large green, stuffed animal kinda thing that she shouldn't hve been allowed to ride with in the first place, anyways...the girl turns around, pretty as you please, & throws it straight back, luckily, we all ducked, it looked like a large enough item that we should get out of the way. I told the ops when we returned to station, so did the peeps in front of us. I confront that girl, "why did you throw that?" "Throw what?". The ride ops basically told us we were crazy that the girl didn't throw anything because she said she didn't. Shameless. Even the people on the rides are in a position to throw things.

And don't think that the problem is just with those off the ride. The cell phone here is a big issue too, and I'd imagine that they should have been able to find the person who owned the phone.

Not only phones, but I am currently completely ticked off over the idiots who feel the need to provide a quickie physics lesson in the train with a coin of some sort. Previously, I never thought twice about it. Then, in the span of about a week, I was hit by a quarter on Magnum (in 1-2, actually saw the guy in 1-1 balencing it on his leg before the third drop) and then another, unidenfied flying coin (UFC) on Raging Bull (row 2, saw the girl in front of me with coin in her hand).

In addition to the former incident leaving me with a moderately sized welt on my forehead, I'm always suspicious (on airtime-machines especially) of people that could decide that this is cool.

You know, there's this thing about 'loose articles' on coaster trains, and accident or not, the guy/girl who had the phone was carrying an article that, apparantly, was loose.