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Woman Falls From The Texas Giant To Her Death

So sad. Coaster accidents are one of those things that i dislike reading because they can be quite depressing, but i feel i must read them
 
This is truly a sad story, and my thoughts go out to all those affected by the incident.

Just to respond to a few of the points raised in the previous posts; no rollercoaster or ride in general can be sent if the bars are not all secured to the point the manufacturer deems safe. Yes, there is a way to override this on most rides, but this requires being placed into maintenance/manual mode, something regular ride operators would never be allowed to do. As far as I'm concerned, this means the ride operator/attendants are completely free of blame, as it would have been literally impossible to dispatch the train unless all the green lights were showing, which is what a ride operator is obviously told to look for.

From the sounds of it, the woman sounds like she was on the larger side, with her restraint only clicking down once compared to numerous times on everyone else, although I'm pretty sure that all Gerst restraints use a hydraulic system rather than a teeth system, so there would have been zero clicks on any of the restraints. Either way, if she was very close to the restrictions of the ride, then hopefully she would have tried the test seat if there is one, and if not then part of the blame must be placed on her. If she tried the test seat and it was perfectly fine, then she also cannot be blamed. The section of track where the woman is said to have fallen out looks to be after another section of track which looks like it could be pretty intense. This could mean that the woman was only just able to be secured, so her own body weight combined with the forces on that section of the ride caused to restraint to fail, releasing and creating the situation that we now see.

Until we get more information about what actually happened, everything is of course speculation, but from what I gather, it was just a simple case of everything going wrong at once, with noone really to blame.
 
Something clearly did go on in the station, though. The witness reports that the woman did not feel properly secured and was making a fuss. Okay, so it might just be a coincidence, but I think it's a little fishy.
 
What I imagine going on in the station is that a ride attendant had to push down on the restraint to try and fit her in (Which happens on all rollercoasters in every park in the world when you get someone who is larger, you try and fit them in first), and then it secured somehow, whether that's through a click, or the ride operator has got all his lights green indicating that all restraints are hydraulically secure and then told his attendants that the ride is 'clear'.

I still maintain that the ride could not have been dispatched unless the system had seen that all bars were secure. If the ride operator had put the ride into maintenance mode to send the train then that's a whole other story, but honestly if he had done something like that, I wouldn't be surprised if he was charged with manslaughter or something like that, as it is something you are NEVER allowed to do as a ride operator.
 
From the sounds of it, the woman sounds like she was on the larger side, with her restraint only clicking down once compared to numerous times on everyone else, although I'm pretty sure that all Gerst restraints use a hydraulic system rather than a teeth system, so there would have been zero clicks on any of the restraints.
Click to expand...
Can confirm that Texas Giant has hydraulic restraints....no clicking or ratcheting.
 
From what I've read, sounds like she was on the larger side and the restraints couldn't accommodate her properly. Is it possible at in the station the restraint seemed secure but then somehow released after despatch?

Interesting too to hear that this uses hydraulic restraints after the quotes about the clicks.
 
nadroJ said:
From what I've read, sounds like she was on the larger side and the restraints couldn't accommodate her properly. Is it possible at in the station the restraint seemed secure but then somehow released after despatch?

Interesting too to hear that this uses hydraulic restraints after the quotes about the clicks.
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Just like any news story people race to spew information before all of the facts are confirmed.

It seems like there has already been multiple post from ride operators, I operated all sorts of coasters (granted not RMC) for almost a decade during high school and college, and more or less +1 all of the comments regarding dispatch systems.

In fact, most coasters have indicator lights by seat, you can hear the panel operator call out seats not locked by row-seat # often.

My guess (purely speculation) is that regardless of the investigation RMC's end up with seatbelts moving forward.
 
2012Jarrett said:
It shocked me to find this out and with me going to Cedar Point this week, I'll have to see if Mean Streak is affected by this at all. If I'm correct they had similar layouts when NTG was wooden and it might be seen as unsafe too.
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This makes zero sense. None of the mechanicals for NTG remain from it's previous life, therefore there is zero relation between Mean Streak and NTG.
 
As far as clicks go, I think over time if you've ridden a few coasters (even as far as GP go even if they've only been to ONE park or whatever) you get used to hearing things click,ratchet,locks (sounds) in place on rides. Most flats included. So they just make the assumption that well, every other ride "clicks" when closing, so surely this one does too, even when it doesn't.
 
Ben said:
Always said these rides were dodgey.
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Yeah, because the train flew off the track and it was 100% not a restraint/rider error/operator error and solely based on the structure of the ride. Brilliant.
 
The news JUMPS at anything amusement park related involving injuries or deaths or someone being "wronged" in their eyes. This one though is especially sad due to the kids involved. I'm assuming we will see a more detailed story by the end of the weekend or early in the week. Apparently the fire department had to use a ladder to get to where her body was, which makes me think it was at one of the overbanks.
 
Just to clear it up -

All coasters with a pickup system can be overridden with a key or a bypass in the OS itself. Its a basic engineer tool to send coasters round without a full harness check. I used to override coasters all the time to get larger guests in if I can see / have my hosts double check that the restraint is down far enough. Coasters need to be overridden sometimes, especially when there is thick dirt between the pickups, which is then down to a maintenance issue. If thats the case, then an engineer should be called and should stop operation. Usually, only senior ride ops / Team Leaders are the only people who can authorise an override.
 
nadroJ said:
From what I've read, sounds like she was on the larger side and the restraints couldn't accommodate her properly. Is it possible at in the station the restraint seemed secure but then somehow released after despatch?

Interesting too to hear that this uses hydraulic restraints after the quotes about the clicks.
Click to expand...

Actually, the other day I was riding Bizzaro at SFGAdv, I pulled down the restraint to 3 clicks, after dispatch the restraint loosened by one click, it was still locked down and not relying on the seatbelt, but it was a tad unnerving.
This happened on the tight curve from the station to lifthill.
 
I know on Outlaw you can always pull your restraint down tighter on the lift. I'm not sure/I don't think that the Iron Horses and Outlaw use the same restraint system, but if they do, she could have pulled the lap bar down further.
 
tomahawKSU said:
The news JUMPS at anything amusement park related involving injuries or deaths or someone being "wronged" in their eyes. This one though is especially sad due to the kids involved. I'm assuming we will see a more detailed story by the end of the weekend or early in the week. Apparently the fire department had to use a ladder to get to where her body was, which makes me think it was at one of the overbanks.
Click to expand...

I read somewhere, something about "...train went over a bump, into the first turn, and she fell out..." So that would be somewhere between that double-up and first overbank after the first drop.

Now, call me crazy, but I swear I remember NTG's restraints being the hydraulic type. And doesn't Gerstlauer also use the kind of restraints that are by default, locked, and require electricity to release? That would rule out the restraint coming undone. Or are we already past that and I'm behind the curve?
 
Such awful news to hear someone fell out of the coaster train, but the dispatch operators in the station should of checked everyone's to make sure it was fully secure.

When I rode "Shambhala" at PortAventura a few weeks ago I made sure the restraints were fully locked, I managed to get it to click down 3 or 4 times, yes I was scared with this type as never ridden a coaster with the below:

 
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