A thought (ACCIDENTS)
Dave Althoff
Like everyone else, I wish we had the *true story* with *all the details*
surrounding the Timberwolf tragedy. But all of the speculation about what
would happen to the ride got me to thinking...
It seems that when there is an accident on a ride, the usual reaction is
knee-jerk to make changes to avoid the exact same accident happening
again. No consideration is given to the number of people who rode the
ride with no trouble at all.
It seems to me that the first thing that needs to happen in a case like
this is to determine exactly what happened. Determine if there was, in
fact, any equipment failure. If anything did fail, then the solution to
the problem is to correct the condition which caused the failure (i.e.
replace seat belt buckle and repair lap bar mechanism) and consider the
matter closed.
If there was no equipment failure, and the rider was acting irresponsibly,
then there is an additional problem. Court cases have shown (I'm thinking
about the Hersheypark incident here) that the park needs not design the
ride in anticipation of the stupid things people are capable of doing.
This is why the doors don't lock on CP's Giant Wheel. If it were
necessary for parks to protect riders from all possible harm, they'd be
immobilizing riders in enclosed cars with 9-point restraints. Something
tells me, and I think we can all agree, that this is not the solution.
The big question is, is the ride safe. Or have millions of riders merely
been lucky. One thing we as coaster nuts have in our favor in the T-wolf
incident is that there will be a change in ownership at WOF. My
understanding is that WOF isn't yet a Cedar Fair park, but will be. My
guess is that the T-wolf may remain closed until Cedar Fair takes over.
If, of course, this incident doesn't torpedo the deal. My hope is that
when the ride reopens, WOF hasn't done anything stupid.
Just my own random rantings. I'm still shocked at this.
--Dave
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John Nagy
my heart goes out to her family. Deep down, from all the reports I get,
I feel the girl was standing up. There are two fail safe restraint
systems on THE TIMBER WOLF. It is unlikely that both the lap bar and
the seat belt are going to fail at the same time. When I think of the
GP in general, most people tend to pull the seat belt tight, and make
sure that the lap bar closes as much as it can. High School, sorority,
and fraturnity dares and pranks have always been a problem to our
favorite rides as far back as the early 1920's. Not to mention drunken
sailors. This is something that we as coaster enthusiasts have to deal
with. Even THE MATTERHORN at DISNEYLAND has had it share of the same
type of problems. But it was never reprofiled due to either of the
deaths that accured on the ride. But yes we are talking about TW which
is a whole different case.
I still remember THE COLOSSUS accident back in 1978 like it was
yesterday. Carol Flores was thrown to her death and the ride has never
been the same since. This was kind of a double fault because the GP
and operators of COLOSSUS seem to take the ride for granted. But they
knew. Even I looked at the model of the ride that was incased in glass
at the main square at MM and knew the ride was going to have some
serious negative Gs. I happen to like my coasters rough and brutle but
not everybody does so I respect that. COLOSSUS was number 1 in my book
until Dec. 26, 1978. MM lost the lawsuit, which was six million
dollars, the cost of the ride. Their was an additional 2 million
dollars that when into Don Rosser and Bill Cobb reprofiling the ride.
THE COLOSSUS ended up costing over 14 million dollars. I had heard that
John Allen had done the reprofiling of the ride. Maybe someone can
confirm this. BTW, COLOSSUS didn't pass the sand bag test. SFMM
shortened the IAD train from 30 passenger to 24 but it still didn't
help as far as the negetive Gs and roughness of the ride. If only
the operators, maintenance, and management had been more knowlegible
of the ride. There were six 30 passenger trains and only one that
didn't have seat belts and that was the one that Carol Flores flew
out of. All the others had been equiped with back up chains to secure
the lap bar to floor board, and seat belts. I still don't by the fact
that they ruined the camel hump because they needed a block system
brake to run six Morgan trains. They did it back in 78 with six IAD's.
I know miss Flores was small and over weight, but since the lap bar
did not come down to her lap, (in fact the lap bar rested on her belly
button, and since she had short legs there was no protection from
the extreme negative Gs) why did they dispatch that train. Didn't
anybody, including her, know?
Lets hope that THE TIMBER WOLF wont have to go through as drastic
measures as THE COLOSSUS did. It never fails, once you really get a
ride that you are satisfied with, something goes wrong. TW had some
negative Gs, strong in some areas but never as extreme as COLOSSUS.
Maybe there is something to be said about coasters being designed
by computers as a whole. COLOSSUS was.
Dwayne L. Allen
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CoasterBuf
that they ruined the camel hump because they needed a block system
brake to run six Morgan trains
Yes it is....they just did that a few years ago, long,long after the
changes made due to the death. The two changes have nothing to do with
each other.
Coaster Buff!!! (Coasterbuf @ AOL.com) Yes, the name does mean I like
rollercoasters. I'm an ACE member too! Also like anything to do with video
games and computers. (Oh and Techno music too)
Eric Thrall
> my heart goes out to her family. Deep down, from all the reports I get,
> I feel the girl was standing up. There are two fail safe restraint
> systems on THE TIMBER WOLF. It is unlikely that both the lap bar and
> the seat belt are going to fail at the same time. When I think of the
> GP in general, most people tend to pull the seat belt tight, and make
> sure that the lap bar closes as much as it can. High School, sorority,
> and fraturnity dares and pranks have always been a problem to our
> favorite rides as far back as the early 1920's. Not to mention drunken
> sailors. This is something that we as coaster enthusiasts have to deal
[much cut]
I must step in and point out that there is no reason to blame
fraternities, sororites or "drunken" sailors for accidents on roller
coasters. I am a fraternity member, and when I ride a roller coaster, I
ride responsibility. Some fraternity men ride irresponsibly. Being in a
fraternity has no correlation with your level of responsibility. I also
have a friend who is a sailor, and he does drink occasionally, and he
does not ride irresponsibly (he doesn't drink before going to an
amusement park for one). Fingering a group of people for responsibility
is prejudice, whether it's due to their affiliations, their gender or
their race.
Eric Thrall - thra...@itlabs.umn.edu
KFP10466
of people. He wasn't attacking the greek system.
Rollerman
>fraternities, sororites or "drunken" sailors for accidents on roller
>coasters. I am a fraternity member, and when I ride a roller coaster, I
>ride responsibility. Some fraternity men ride irresponsibly. Being in a
>fraternity has no correlation with your level of responsibility. I also
>have a friend who is a sailor, and he does drink occasionally, and he
>does not ride irresponsibly (he doesn't drink before going to an
>amusement park for one). Fingering a group of people for responsibility
>is prejudice, whether it's due to their affiliations, their gender or
>their race.
>Eric Thrall - thra...@itlabs.umn.edu
OH GOD! We're not going to have a PC argument on rrc are we? It's bad
enough that just about every group I subscribe to (including Stephen King and
Ghost Stories) has had one going. Let's not start this crapola here, too!
-Rollerman
bobken...@gmail.com
tyl...@gmail.com
> I rode Colossus when it opened that summer around July 1978... what a ride... the airtime was intense... that poor girl who popped out day after xmas...God rest her soul... I remember the lap bar, with chain, was a wierd deal... but it was an incredible ride while it lasted... until it was reprofiled & trains changed...
Rastus O'Ginga
-R
westernpa...@gmail.com
> Oh, how little did he know how PC would engulf RRC, and society.
>
> -R