War amputee killed in fall from Ride of Steel

[ECG]

A double amputee war veteran was killed when he flew out of the front seat on the Ride of Steel coaster at Darien Lake on Friday. Here are a couple of news reports:
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article482793.ece
http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/127015/13/Deadly-Accident-on-Ride-of-Steel-Coaster-at-Darien-Lake

I really don't understand how they let this guy on the ride. The Bizarro/Superman Ride of Steel coasters at the Six Flags parks won't allow anyone without both legs on the rides (according to the signs at the stations), so why does Darien Lake allow a double amputee? :shock:

This is also the second death at an American amusement park within the week. Last Saturday a worker at Magical Midway in Orlando died while working on the Star Flyer. Here are a couple of news reports about the incident:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...l-from-theme-park-ride.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News
http://www.news4jax.com/news/28435245/detail.html

The Sun article uses my POV of the ride. I didn't know that they could do that without my or Coasterforce's permission. I guess newspapers in the UK don't have to follow the same guidelines as they have to here in the States. :?

 

[STC]

I agree with the rant that Lance from Screamscape went on about Intamin.

Why in god's name is anyone letting this company go on like this?! Their accident, injury and mortality rate in the last ten years of their "decade of destruction" speaks for itself. There is clearly something fundamentally wrong that runs right through the core of this company, a lax approach to health and safety. When will it end? Yes, clearly this man shouldn't be allowed to ride, but I would have thought even a double amputee should fall within the safety margins and be held in by the restraints.

It’s just horrifying to watch and wonder how much worse it would be if that were you in the front row, with your own child in pain beside you. I’ve added a link to the video here, but be warned that what you are about to see may make you think twice about riding an Intamin coaster ever again.

I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again. I do wonder just why so many parks around the world continue to buy Intamin products, when year after year we stand witness to stories about accidents on Intamin machines and countless tales of technical problems with many of their rides. I’m not saying that they are all bad… but I think someone really needs to take a look at the quality level of their designs if we are going to continue to allow them to build rides.

Lets take a brief recap of some highlights from Intamin’s Decade of Destruction:
1999 – Rider killed when Intamin Rapid’s boat flips at Six Flags over Texas
1999 – Rider thrown from Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags Darien Lake
1999 – 12 year old killed when he fell out of Drop Zone at Paramount’s Great America
2001 – Woman killed when thrown from Perilous Plunge
2001 – Brakes fail on Superman at S.F. New England, trains collide in station
2004 – Girl killed when thrown from Hydro
2004 – Launch Cable breaks, sprays riders with shrapnel on Top Thrill Dragster
2004 – A man died when thrown from Superman: Ride of Steel at S.F. New England
2005 – Trains collide on Disney’s California Screamin’ coaster when brakes fail
2005 – KingdaKa’s launch systems suffers extreme damage during test launch at S.F. Great Adventure.
2007 – A girl’s feet are severed on the Superman: Tower of Power at S.F. Kentucky Kingdom
2009 – Xcelerator’s Launch Cable Breaks

Edit: Maybe I was a tad harsh on Intamin. But the fact remains, no-one has ever fallen out of a B&M, or had an injury, due to a mechanical fault with the ride ever. Even at a Six Flags park. I would have thought that a good lapbar/restraint would be able to hold a guest in their seat whether they had legs or not. Although he clearly shouldn't have been allowed to ride, I don't think he would have fallen out without a fundamental flaw and looseness in the restraint system, which has led to many other (able-bodied) people falling out of Intamin hypers.

I guess this confirms we'll never see a major Intamin with lapbars again then. Condolences to the victim's family, what horrible horrible news.

 

[marc]

At least 3/4 of the mentioned accidents you mention were due to ride op problems and park not carrying out work that was needed.

All B&M make is coasters, yet on your list over half the accidents were not even on coasters.

 

[spicy]

That is terrible, after going through all that he then dies on a coaster.

Also this clearly has nothing to do with Intamin, the guy should NEVER have been allowed to ride and stupidity from the ride-ops has resulted in the mans death. It's almost manslaughter.

 

[Nic]

Ah, but did he get the cred if he flew out halfway through?

</obligatoryinsensitivejoke>

Seriously though, thoughts to the family etc and everyone on scene who witnessed it and tried to save him etc etc

</obligatoryemotionallipservice>

 

[tks]

Yeh it's not really Intamin's fault. Who the hell puts a double leg amputee on a ride where the restraints are designed so you can't slip your legs through and stand up?

 

[davidm]

Found this image of the restraints...

!!!

 

[spicy]

Well it doesn't take a genius to work out that somebody with no legs will probably fall out of those restraints.

 

[Martyn B]

I think the rant about Intamin is a bit unfair, as you can see in that list Intamin offers a lot more products than likes of B&M, who just focus on coasters, so they obviously have a LOT more rides around the globe, therefore theres a much higher chance of an accident to occur on an Intamin than a B&M (accidents do happen, no getting away from that).

Its similar to that discussion that was had on here a while back regarding the death rate at Disney parks. People die, and many millions visit Disney parks each year, so there's a much higher chance of a death at a Disney park, than say, Flamingoland.

Anyway, I can think of 2 incidents that need to be added to that list: Hydro and EGF...

And where is that rant on Screamscape?

 

[Nic]

Hydro IS on that list. Anyway, most of those incidents were the fault of the park/rider. So, all those people saying there's never been a death on a B&M, why not count the people who had heart attacks on Nemesis and Black Mamba, or the guy who got his head taken off whilst trying to pick his hat up from under a Batman clone? They're as much the fault of B&M as many of the incidents above were the fault of Intamin.

Don't know why I'm jumping to Intamin's defence, I'm not exactly a big fan of theirs.

 

[gavin]

The key to this accident is lapbar.

Lap:
–noun
1.
the front part of the human body from the waist to the knees when in a sitting position.

Last time I checked, a person without any legs can't possibly have a lap. Maybe it's just me being stupid?

Or maybe it's all kinds of absolute stupidity on the part of the park, ride ops and, partly, the rider himself, and absolutely nothing to do with Intamin.

In fact, Intamin should sue these dumb f**ks for damaging their reputation.

 

[Snoo]

^That.

The M bars leg restraints are an extra protection for just this type of thing. Minus that, as we can see, can be a problem.

 

[marc]

Mark and I were shocked once in Orlando.

When we got out on ride photo from Everest we noticed the guy behind us had no arms, in the UK they would not have been allowed to ride.

 

[Mark]

Mark and I were shocked once in Orlando.

When we got out on ride photo from Everest we noticed the guy behind us had no arms, in the UK they would not have been allowed to ride.

Indeed.

I've never seen anything like it over here although I was mainly shocked because of the safety warnings stating that a rider should be able to brace themselves against the rides forces etc. This ride by its very nature etc etc etc...

However, I was also shocked to see Disney allowing a child with an electric heart monitor machine ride Splash Mountain (with the heart monitor).

 

[tomahawk]

They probably didn't want a lawsuit for "discriminating" or the teenage ride ops were just being dumb. Terrible that this happens, but personally if I was a double amputee, I wouldn't go near anything without OTSR's.

 

[Hixee]

I just don't see how he was allowed on in the first place! I mean surely, however 'diverse' the park are trying to be, it's obvious that it just wasn't safe...

I just don't understand...

 

[ciallkennett]

I think the rant about Intamin is a bit unfair ... Anyway, I can think of 2 incidents that need to be added to that list: Hydro and EGF...

And where is that rant on Screamscape?

Martyn, the rant is an old(ish) rant when Xcellerator's cable snapped, injuring the front passengers and the on-ride video went up on the net, hence why the EGF incident wasn't listed on there.

Personally, I'm horrified by the stupidity of the park ops and reluctantly the stupidity of the rider. It's obvious that a double amputee simply cannot ride such a ride as the restraint system works on the passenger having LEGS. I'm seriously lost for words for how stupid a decision that was, especially as he had to be helped into the train. I hope a full investigation is held both by the park and by an eternal organisation and the staff held responsible have charges put against them.

If we get anything from this case, it'll be MUCH clearer ride signs displayed indicating that amputees of any kind cannot ride roller-coasters.

 

[Error]

I'm also a bit shocked about this. I know when I was at Cedar Point/Six Flags, they had a "rule of 3", being that all riders of coasters must have three existing limbs, prostatics not including. As for the rider's safety signs, 99/100 no one reads them. They're too eager to go on then care about safety (which made our jobs more difficult).

And I didn't notice until now how little accidents/deaths B&M has had...

 

[tomahawk]

On b&m's behalf for injuries, two were people with heart conditions, one was a kid with a death, and as far as my knowledge extends they have never had someone fly out, train derail ala EGF, or cables snapping. Even the biggest intamin fan can't deny that.

 

[marc]

Sorry but what launch coaster do B&M make where they can have a cable break? They still use slow chain lifts on their coasters.

B&M just make the same thing over and over again and never push the limits anymore.

There are far more Intamin rides in the word so of course they and going to have more problems, but people keep mentioning problems that were not actually their fault but the parks fault for not maintaining the rides properly.

All that will happen is trains will be changed and fitted with full restraints and then people will bitch and moan about them as well.

In this case the person should have not been allowed to ride, this is 100% the parks fault. But as the report on Sky News has said he chose to ride and died doing something he wanted to do and that is according to his family.