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Woman Falls From The Texas Giant To Her Death

Its kinda true in the sense of all parks have adviseries on their websites about those that are handicap or overweight. I believe a majority of them habe it listed as 250lbs, with those over that weight have a chance of not fitting.
 
The statement is that the seats are designed around a 180 pound adult, not that that is a limit. All restraints are designed to a standard that varies from ride to ride. That's why adults don't fit in some kiddy rides and kids often can't ride big rides. It's nearly impossible to design a universal restraint system that will accommodate all sizes of riders, and can handle the expeditious dispatches expected of amusement rides.

As for Chessington allowing ride ops to routinely bypass installed safety equipment?
If they ever have an accident, they are fu(ked. Pure and simple. If that comes out, the manufacturer will be completely absolved of responsibility, and the park will bear the full brunt of whatever punishment is decided. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if the insurance company was able to use that to void the coverage, too.
 
caffeine_demon said:
One of the comments on the cnn link says that the coaster has a "180lb weight limit" - is that true (can't find anything online, and it does sound rather a low weight limit for a big coaster), or is the guy talking blobbox?
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Definitely not true. Several of us who rode Texas Giant earlier this summer were at or more then 180lbs.
 
rtotheizzo17 said:
Colossus said:
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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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.
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This happens on B&M's from time to time. You were probably right on the edge of one ratchet lower and the movement of the ride cause it to slip up to the next level.
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This does happen often on B&M's and it's perfectly fine. This has happened to me on Bizarro, Great Bear, and even Talon. It is somewhat unnerving but after a couple of times, I stopped worrying because of the ridiculous safeness of B&M's. The negative G-force on these have actually pushed the OTSR's back onto my body on some inversions so it's safe.
 
sparky2u said:
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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That looks like Nitro, does it not?
 
So when I read the initial story, it sounded like the kids were young, but it was son-in-law and her son. Not that it makes it any better.
 
Snoo said:
caffeine_demon said:
One of the comments on the cnn link says that the coaster has a "180lb weight limit" - is that true (can't find anything online, and it does sound rather a low weight limit for a big coaster), or is the guy talking blobbox?
Click to expand...

Definitely not true. Several of us who rode Texas Giant earlier this summer were at or more then 180lbs.
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I'm 220 and fit with absolutely no problem on any major roller coaster, including NTG.
 
I highly doubt that there was a restraint failure on NTG, there would've been reports about the lap bar being loose and freely moving in the station if that happened. The hydraulic restraints for coasters like NTG are designed to not let go if they fail, there are redundancy hydraulics in place to make sure that lap bar doesn't come loose once the ride is cleared for dispatch.

This incident reminds me of what happened at Six Flags New England in 2004, and seeing the picture of the woman I just can't help but draw similarities. Understand this right now before continuing, below is pure speculation.

What I believe happened was that she was just too big for the restraint to contact her thighs and for the lap bar to properly work. The restraint could've been within its proper limits, but due to the shape of the woman's body the lap bar wasn't contacting her thighs. When the forces changed her body moved and she became "free" of the restraint. At that particular moment the lap bar wasn't making proper contact with her thighs, and she got ejected.
 
Starting to agree, bmac.

But that makes it a design fault, making Gerst responsible entirely.

Ops.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2
 
^Is it a design fault though? A lap bar is surely designed to hold people in by the lap. If the bar can't reach the lap, then surely it's the responsibility of the park/ride ops.

Or perhaps the manufacturer needs to make it clear that the restraints won't work properly if they're being used to hold people in by the gut. In which case, it's a communication issue rather than one of design.
 
I am somewhat inclined to agree with you Gavin. I wouldn't outright say that the restraint is completely at fault, the ride ops shouldn't have let the train go with the restraint not in the correct position on the rider, BUT then there is the question of if the ride ops knew that.
 
gavin said:
^Is it a design fault though? A lap bar is surely designed to hold people in by the lap. If the bar can't reach the lap, then surely it's the responsibility of the park/ride ops.

Or perhaps the manufacturer needs to make it clear that the restraints won't work properly if they're being used to hold people in by the gut. In which case, it's a communication issue rather than one of design.
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How do you tell?

Thats why seat belts exist on OTSR and the little lines are often on lapbars to indicate the amount they must be down, because it's not easy to judge at a glance and staff are under pressure to be reasonably quick. You can't always see whats in the way of a bar. Oftentimes they look like they can go down furhter, but it wont budge because the passenger is just a weird shape. I've been sat on rides and have an attendant glance at me then push down several times, as if thinking "you look smaller than how far your bar will move down, whats in the way....?" And even if it was easy to tell, humans make mistakes, which is why it should be impossible to dispatch trains if they are not down far enough.

The problem is, in a situation where the bar is down far enough, but is hitting stomach/boobs/bumbags/arms/kitchen sinks and not in contact with the thigh, there's the potential to stand up and thus be ejected from the ride, as illustrated by that video a page or so back. That's why some parks are so funny about bumbags, jumpers tied round waists, etc.
 
I'll vouch for that: many a time, I've checked someone's restraint (always push THEN pull) and I've wondered why it isn't down as far as it seems like it ought to be. I always give a second look to see if the person is holding a fist under the bar to get extra room for airtime or if there's a bag or jacket obstructing the proper position of the restraint. In those cases I have the guest remove the obstruction and I recheck the restraint, push then pull, to make sure all of the extra space is out. I have told women that the bar must go on the lap and not on top of.... And they get it and lift 'em so the bar goes under. Same for guys and guts.

At the same time, I know not every ride op is as thorough as I am. The difference is probably that I've read enough times what can happen if I don't do it right.

As I mentioned before, I have no qualms about telling a person that they cannot ride if the restraint isn't where it should be. I'm polite about it, these people know that they are big, and it usually works out just fine.
 
mispurfekt said:
^ So it's push... then pull?
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Push to make sure the lap bar goes down as far as possible, then pull to make sure it's engaged properly. There are plenty of tricks riders do to make sure their bar is a little looser than it should be (I do it myself when I know I risk being stapled), but most attentive ride ops pick up on what stunts people try to pull.
 
I went to Dollywood last summer and when we went to ride Thunderhead, I couldn't get the restraint down that extra click because I was wearing a belt and the buckle added some thickness, so there was a good inch or two of space between my waist and the bar and I got thrown around badly. I didn't feel like I would be ejected but I didn't exactly feel safe either. Though I don't see how this would be possible if these were hydraulic restraints. :/

I honestly think that from what I've heard, this is Six Flags's fault if the light didn't come on and they dispatched the train anyway. If anything I feel bad for the ride op that probably did it because he was told because he would have to feel terrible.
 
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