NEWS: The Region Knott's Ride Blamed in Death Accident
JackTheRipper
faults an inadequate restraint system on the Perilous Plunge. The
victim's size is also cited as a contributing factor.
KIMI YOSHINO
TIMES STAFF WRITER
868 words
20 March 2002
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
B-6
English
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
State investigators Tuesday blamed inadequate safety restraints for
the death of a 40-year-old Duarte woman who flew out of a thrill ride
at Knott's Berry Farm.
Lori Mason-Larez fell to her death from the Perilous Plunge water
ride--billed as the world's steepest and highest flume ride--even
though both her lap bar and seat belt were in place.
The 90-second ride carries as many as 24 passengers on a track up a
hill, around a corner and down a 115-foot, 75-degree drop at speeds of
up to 50 mph.
As a result of its six-month investigation, the Department of
Occupational Safety and Health ordered a sweeping review and analysis
of the Perilous Plunge and a new training program for park employees
before it can reopen.
The agency said the Buena Park venue should either change its safety
restraints or restrict the types of people who can ride. Mason-Larez
weighed 292 pounds, which investigators said was a contributing factor
in the Sept. 21 accident.
But in an interview, state officials said that even average-sized
people could be at risk on the ride.
"We think they need to go over everything one more time," said Len
Welsh, the state's special counsel for regulatory development.
"We're not convinced this is just an issue for a person larger than
the average human being. We're not certain that it couldn't have
happened to anybody."
Jack Falfas, general manager of Knott's Berry Farm, called the state
report thorough and fair and pledged to do whatever it takes to make
the ride safe.
"This company is going to make sure that we have a restraint system
that is effective for everybody that is permitted on that ride,"
Falfas said.
"This death has affected myself along with the operators that work
here.... This ride will not operate until it meets my standards. I
won't do this again. I'm going to force the manufacturer to do what's
acceptable, and I'm sure what's acceptable to me will be acceptable to
the state."
Sandor Kernacs, president of Intamin Ltd., the company that designed
and manufactured the Perilous Plunge, had not read the state findings
Tuesday afternoon but defended the safety and design of the ride.
"That is the safest restraint system on any water ride anywhere in the
world," said Kernacs, who said that if Mason-Larez had been holding
on, she would not have fallen.
Relatives of Mason-Larez declined to comment Tuesday, but the family's
Los Angeles attorney, Stephen Mancini, said the report reaffirms the
family's position that the ride was unsafe and that Mason-Larez was
not warned that her size could increase the danger.
Beyond the mechanical findings, Mancini said, the report also
reinforces "just how tragic ... this loss really was."
The mother of five was visiting the park with her family. Her niece
and several of her children were seated next to her on the ride when
she flew out.
The state found that in addition to the ride's forces pulling
Mason-Larez out of her seat, the position of the seat belt and lap
belt and the size and weight of the victim all contributed to the
accident.
In addition, investigators determined that:
* The seat belt was buckled and the lap bar was down, though they
might not have been in an optimal position;
* Neither manufacturer Intamin nor Knott's had written instructions
for ride operators handling passengers whose physical characteristics
might threaten their safety;
* Even though it may not have made a difference in the accident, ride
operators may not have complied with park procedures for checking lap
bars; and
* Warning signs about the ride were placed in such a way that
passengers might not see them.
A lawsuit filed against Knott's Berry Farm and Intamin is scheduled
for trial in June.
The Perilous Plunge has an individual T-shaped lap bar, a seat belt
and a separate bar for the passenger to hold, called a grab bar.
The warning signs tell passengers to hold onto the grab bar, and
Intamin president Kernacs said that if Mason-Larez had been doing
that, she would have been safe.
"If anybody holds onto the grab bar, they will not get out of the
ride," Kernacs said.
The manufacturer's own publicity photos, however, picture screaming
passengers with their hands in the air.
Some witnesses said Mason-Larez's hands were in the air, but
investigators did not reach a definitive conclusion. There were no
signs of rider misconduct, Welsh said.
But, he said, "it shouldn't matter. That ride needs to be designed so
that you don't have to hold on."
Dave Herkert
"JackTheRipper" <JackTh...@IloveWoman.com> wrote in message
news:3c9aa667....@proxy.news.easynews.com...
> The Region Knott's Ride Blamed in Death Accident: A state report
> faults an inadequate restraint system on the Perilous Plunge. The
> victim's size is also cited as a contributing factor.
>
> KIMI YOSHINO
> TIMES STAFF WRITER
> 868 words
> 20 March 2002
> Los Angeles Times
> Home Edition
> B-6
> English
> Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
>
> State investigators Tuesday blamed inadequate safety restraints for
> the death of a 40-year-old Duarte woman who flew out of a thrill ride
> at Knott's Berry Farm.
Wasn't there a similar accident on one of the SROS Intamin coasters? IIRC,
that rider was large also. Are the restraints similar between the Intamin
coasters and PP at Knotts? It seems to me that this is not a restraint
problem, but a problem enforcing the safe operating ability of the
restraints. IOW, the parks should not allow people that cannot safely be
restrained to ride.
I love the feeling of freedom in those Intamin restraints. I hope that
whatever modification Intamin makes (an updated restraint would seem to be
forthcoming) does not sacrifice that feeling.
Dave
Dave Althoff Jr
: "JackTheRipper" <JackTh...@IloveWoman.com> wrote in message
There was such an incident (albeit nonfatal) on S:ROS at Darien Lake. The
result of that incident was the park installed seat belts in addition to
the lap bars.
I have noticed that the configuration of seat and lap bar is slightly
different on Millennium Force from the setup used on S:ROS. The
difference is very slight, but mechanically significant, and may be just
enough different that the problem that seems to exist on S:ROS does not
seem to exist on Millennium Force. If the necessary changes are that
slight, then I don't think anybody has anything to complain about.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
--
/-\ _ _ *** Closed for the season. ***
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_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX
Shawn Mamros
>Dave Herkert (dndph...@spamkillmchsi.com) wrote:
>
>: Wasn't there a similar accident on one of the SROS Intamin coasters? IIRC,
>: that rider was large also. Are the restraints similar between the Intamin
>: coasters and PP at Knotts? It seems to me that this is not a restraint
>: problem, but a problem enforcing the safe operating ability of the
>: restraints. IOW, the parks should not allow people that cannot safely be
>: restrained to ride.
>
>: I love the feeling of freedom in those Intamin restraints. I hope that
>: whatever modification Intamin makes (an updated restraint would seem to be
>: forthcoming) does not sacrifice that feeling.
>
>There was such an incident (albeit nonfatal) on S:ROS at Darien Lake. The
>result of that incident was the park installed seat belts in addition to
>the lap bars.
>
>I have noticed that the configuration of seat and lap bar is slightly
>different on Millennium Force from the setup used on S:ROS. The
>difference is very slight, but mechanically significant, and may be just
>enough different that the problem that seems to exist on S:ROS does not
>seem to exist on Millennium Force. If the necessary changes are that
>slight, then I don't think anybody has anything to complain about.
Are you considering only the Darien S:RoS when you talk about there
being a difference in seat/lapbar configuration between that and MF?
The reason I ask is that Darien's came first; Largo and Agawam got
theirs a year later, the same year as MF. I'm wondering if Largo
and Agawam might have received the same changed config that Sandusky
got. (I've personally only ridden the ones in Sandusky and Agawam -
in that order chronologically - and I didn't notice a difference, though
I may not have been looking closely enough...)
-Shawn Mamros (who sometimes wonders what it's going to take to convince
Dave A. to take a trip to New England one of these years... ;-)
E-mail to: mam...@mit.edu
Dave Althoff Jr
Shawn, you are correct: the only S:ROS I have ridden is at Darien Lake,
and that happens to be the one which tossed a rider.
One MAJOR difference between the Darien Lake ride and the Cedar Point ride
is that at Darien Lake, the odd-row seats are closer together than the
even-row seats...that is, the back seats are not only higher than the
front seats, they are farther apart, so that while the front seats are
right next to one another, the back seats have a space between them where
you could put your cooler for those marathon riding sessions. Millennium
Force has the wider spacing on all rows.
That's the obvious difference, but I don't think that has anything to do
with the changed geometry on the Sandusky ride. It is very possible that
the Agawam and Largo rides have the same seat geometry as the Sandusky
ride, but the same seat spacing as the Darien Center ride.
: -Shawn Mamros (who sometimes wonders what it's going to take to convince
: Dave A. to take a trip to New England one of these years... ;-)
It's just such a long drive, and I can hit all these Pennsylvania parks so
much more easily...........
Wolf
> >different on Millennium Force from the setup used on S:ROS. The
> >difference is very slight, but mechanically significant, and may be just
> >enough different that the problem that seems to exist on S:ROS does not
> >seem to exist on Millennium Force. If the necessary changes are that
> >slight, then I don't think anybody has anything to complain about.
>
> Are you considering only the Darien S:RoS when you talk about there
> being a difference in seat/lapbar configuration between that and MF?
> The reason I ask is that Darien's came first; Largo and Agawam got
> theirs a year later, the same year as MF. I'm wondering if Largo
> and Agawam might have received the same changed config that Sandusky
> got. (I've personally only ridden the ones in Sandusky and Agawam -
> in that order chronologically - and I didn't notice a difference, though
> I may not have been looking closely enough...)
>
> -Shawn Mamros (who sometimes wonders what it's going to take to convince
> Dave A. to take a trip to New England one of these years... ;-)
> E-mail to: mam...@mit.edu
Wonder if he means the headrest/higher seatback on MF...
--
|\-/|
<0 0>
=(o)=
-Wolf
Dave Althoff Jr
(I presume "he" means me...I'm talking about the different seating
geometry on Millennium Force)
: Wonder if he means the headrest/higher seatback on MF...
No, I don't think that has anything to do with it. What I do know is that
even if I put my feet all the way forward on the floor in front of me, my
knees are slightly higher than the bottom of the lap bar. This means I
can't accidentally slide out from under the bar. On S:ROS, when I sat in
the back seat of the car, if I stuck my legs out in front of me I could
drop my legs over the front edge of the seat thus getting my knees lower
than the lap bar, meaning I could potentially slide vertically out of the
seat. My pet theory is that this is what happened on Plunge, but of
course I don't have enough data to prove or disprove that. Here, let me
see if I can illustrate the difference...
O O
) | |
| | | |
| | * | | *
| L___/\ | L_____
\____ \ \____ \
# # \ # # \
# # \__ # # \
================= # # \__
===================
(Millennium Force) (Superman - Darien Lake)
(Any seat) (Even-numbered seat)
ASCII artwork is so limiting as only one angle is available. Hopefully
you kind of get the idea.
Masher
> and manufactured the Perilous Plunge, had not read the state findings
> Tuesday afternoon but defended the safety and design of the ride.
>
> "That is the safest restraint system on any water ride anywhere in the
> world," said Kernacs, who said that if Mason-Larez had been holding
> on, she would not have fallen.
This is exactly the type of slanted thinking that allows design flaws like
this to occur!
Paul Asente
"Dave Herkert" <dndph...@spamkillmchsi.com> wrote:
> Wasn't there a similar accident on one of the SROS Intamin coasters? IIRC,
> that rider was large also. Are the restraints similar between the Intamin
> coasters and PP at Knotts? It seems to me that this is not a restraint
> problem, but a problem enforcing the safe operating ability of the
> restraints. IOW, the parks should not allow people that cannot safely be
> restrained to ride.
>
> I love the feeling of freedom in those Intamin restraints. I hope that
> whatever modification Intamin makes (an updated restraint would seem to be
> forthcoming) does not sacrifice that feeling.
I do think that there is an unfortunate history of Intamin restraints
failing to restrain guests of "large physical proportions". While I
have no doubts that Intamin restraints are perfectly safe for most
people, it seems that they have a tendency to appear to latch safely in
some cases when they should not. I think that this is a design flaw.
If the guest is too large to be safely held in by the restraints, then
the restraints should not latch.
-paul asente
to reply, make the return host the same as my last name
Anthony G
Poor, poor Sandor! He has been getting such a bad rap of late. So much so
that I hear that they've started to call him Sandor "I kill fat people"
Kernacs around the office. That is definitely not a moniker I would would
like to be labeled with, that's for sure! ;)
Poor, poor Sandor. Hopefully one day he'll get back to the drawing board and
develop another speaking technique other then "open mouth, insert foot."
Personally, I think an "if you can't think of anything intelligent to say,
don't say anything at all" approach would work wonders for the man!
/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\_/~\
Anthony <=> mad.co...@gte.net <=>
http://wildfire.moo.net/~coast --->>>
Founder of the movement to remove "queue line"
from enthusiasts' version of the English language
David H.--REMOVE STOPSPAM to reply
> Here, let me
>see if I can illustrate the difference...
>
> O O
> ) | |
> | | | |
> | | * | | *
> | L___/\ | L_____
> \____ \ \____ \
> # # \ # # \
> # # \__ # # \
>================= # # \__
> ===================
>(Millennium Force) (Superman - Darien Lake)
>(Any seat) (Even-numbered seat)
>
>ASCII artwork is so limiting as only one angle is available. Hopefully
>you kind of get the idea.
>
button that I put on my Agent newsreader toolbar and mentally nicknamed the
Dave Althoff button, because I used it primarily to properly view your
ascii art. I'd just been thinking that I hadn't made much use of the
button lately! Thanks for giving me a reason to keep it on the toolbar!
;-)
David Hamburger, davi...@bellatlantic.net, Boston, MA
PLEASE remove "STOPSPAM" from my address when replying via e-mail.
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Wolf
I got it. Not having ridden, or seen an interior-car picture on the SROSs, I
didn't know about the seat thing. I was curious whether the higher seatback
would constraint the rider geometry enough to prevent a rise up and around
the bar.
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thekma...@gmail.com
#1. I keep bring this up, but what set of anthropometric(human dimension/range-of-motion) standards are they using when the seating for these rides is being designed?? If those standards are dated any more than 30 years ago HELLOO?? People are bigger now than in those days- mostly in the horizontal axis. Time to adopt the latest standards at these coaster builders.
#2. Who is monitoring the size of folks attempting to get in these seats??
It's not discrimination - it's for your safety!
I understand all that mumbo-jumbo about 'deviation from mean' and all, but basically, people are BIGGER in the 2010s than they were in 1980 or 1960.
I stayed at a hotel a couple years ago that looked like it had received a minor facelift, mostly cosmetic. It was built originally in the '50s according to management.
One of the things I noticed was the balcony railings: The ones installed when I stayed were clearly not the originals: they were about 3" higher than what came with the building, because I could still see where they patched up the holes in the side walls where the original railing terminated.
If a hotel can make adjustments for bigger/taller people, so can amusement mfgs.