CoasterCrazy said:
Oddly enough, yes I have been to a theme park, which is exactly why I suggested the above techniques. Whilst it remains shocking that you still have to kick 20 people off a day, compared to the throughput of larger guests over the day, the fraction of guests who do indeed act irreverent of the signs is comparatively small, showing that the signs do work to an extent. Since you've made the point that the signs are 'as blatant as you can get', how much more blatant would the new NTG procedure be? You cannot guarantee everyone will be listening in a group of 10-15, just like it is in the classroom. Therefore, most of the methods I suggested would be equally effective in both communication and safety.
Remember this is not about how the primary restraints are checked nor getting rid of seatbelts completely. I'm talking about lap bars here; in OSTRs, the belt and restraint are one integrated package. I'm not advising the complete ditching of any kind of checking, merely saying all the operators should do is check the primary restraint, and before that occurs, they should be asked to buckle up and pull on their seatbelts themselves, saving a great deal of time and effort where the ops need not go back and forth checking seatbelts, waiting, then checking restraints. It is for this reason that Scorpion dispatches more quickly than Gwazi.
You need to work in a park.
You will quickly realize that some 90% of guests leave their brains in the parking lot, along with the ability to read or comprehend verbal instruction.
The percentage of guests that read safety signs in the queue, for all intents and purposes is
ZERO.
I've worked at 6FGAm and Wild Waves, and for liability reasons, almost no park will ever permit guests to self check ANY restraints, primary or secondary. Apparently Hershey is an exception (I never noticed in my several trips there) and I know that there are many rides at Disney parks where the attendants never do physical restraint checks.
In a perfect world, guests would be responsible and pay attention to signage and safety spiels, and comply with all of it, with no further guidance, but the reality is that the typical behavior is to ignore all of it, and do whatever the heck they feel like.
Lawyers and insurance companies are the motivations towards more and more ridiculous safety requirements, such as separate physical checks of seat belts and lap bars, when simultaneously physically checking one while visually checking the other is/was the standard for many years at non-Disney parks.
As for asking guests to pull on a restraint, some places this works, others, it's just too dang loud to get the message through and you end up having to do it yourself anyways.
I dunno. I wish it was easier to do all this, but between the dumbing down of America, the decrease in personal responsibility and the increased propensity to sue for the smallest imagined slight, it's going to get a lot worse before it ever gets better.