Army Veteran Dies At Darien Lake

Disabled Iraq War Veteran Falls To Death From A Rollercoaster
BUFFALO, New York (Reuters) - A disabled war veteran fell to his death from a 208-foot-tall rollercoaster late on Friday afternoon, tragically ending his miraculous return to normal post-war life.

U.S. Army Sergeant James Hackemer, 29, a double amputee, fell from the Ride of Steel rollercoaster at the Darien Lake Theme Park & Resort about 30 miles east of Buffalo around 5:30 p.m. local time on Friday, according to park officials, who said they were deeply saddened by the incident.

According to local authorities and news reports, Hackemer lost his legs and a hip when a roadside bomb exploded when he served in Iraq in 2008. He suffered two strokes, blood loss, and brain damage in the attack and then spent three years in rehabilitation, during which he re-learned how to eat and speak. He was released in March and lived in Gowanda, New York.

"We are all brokenhearted by this tragic accident and will continue our support of both the family and the investigation," said Darien Lake Theme Park Resort General Manager Chris Thorpe in a statement.

Investigators are still trying to determine how the incident occurred.

Hackemer's mother, Nancy, told local media after the accident on Friday that her son had been helped on to the ride by other people and was "doing what he wanted to do."

"I want to live my life to the fullest from here on out," Hackemer told local news media after his rehabilitation.

Hackemer rode the Ride of Steel, which reaches speeds of more than 70 miles per hour and is considered one of the tallest rollercoasters east of the Mississippi.

"Guests ... with certain body proportions may not be able to ride," according to ride information on Darien Lake's website.

The ride is closed pending results of the investigation. The park remains open.

"The preliminary investigation determined that Mr. Hackemer was ejected from the rollercoaster as it was in operation," according to a statement from the Genesee County Sheriff's office. "As a result of being ejected, Mr. Hackemer received fatal injuries."

Hackemer is survived by his parents and two children.

"It's going to help a little bit that he was happy," Hackemer's mother Nancy told local reporters after the accident. "We shouldn't have had him for these last three years and four months."

source

that kinda sucks, it looks like a nice ride. but lol, the comments are always a good read. "I was on that ride once.On the first drop I could feel myself coming out of the seat.I mean really out of the seat."

I was there on opening day this year and it doesn't really feel different from any other one...but this happens again now which is tragic...something needs to be figured out.

So nice of that article to NOT mention that he was a war veteran and had no legs.....

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/genesee/Cr ... arien-Lake

How does something like this even happen on the turn after the drop?

Well, that's disheartening. How could a guy with no legs be aloud on in the first place? I thought there were rules about that sort of thing..

Makes me wanna cry [:(] Such a tragedy, that would be so horrifying. Although if I didn't have my legs I wouldn't feel comfortable on a roller coaster with a lap-bar restraint... It should've been a red flag to him. Many condolences to the family, and...

"This is what he wanted to do. He wanted to live."

I always told my parents if I died on a roller coaster, not to press charges or make an ordeal of it.

This is totally horrible. These ride operators are murderers. Shame on them, they now have a life on their mind.

"For the restraint devices on this ride to full and safely engage, guests must have two legs [...]"

Condoleances go to the family and to his friends. Requiescat in pace.

LeFLO, how do you know that the operators were aware that the gentleman had no legs? Plenty of people have bad limps with two fully functioning legs. There are also people with no legs and two prosthetics...with pants it could be hard to distinguish between those two scenarios. I didn't see any mention of prosthetics, but I don't think it's fair to call the ops murderers without all the details. I also think the gentleman himself should take at least half of the blame...generally a good idea to read safety signs like the one you posted (that's what they're there for), but if you know you're in some way different from the average guest, especially if it's a difference as drastic as his, you should definitely make sure you know what you're getting yourself into instead of relying on everyone else.

If you ask me at least one but likely several people made some dumb decisions, with terrible consequences for everyone. He lost his life, the operators have to live with what happened, the park gets really bad publicity, Intamin has another negative mark on their records (even if it wasn't their fault), and coaster enthusiasts may see more OTSRs on rides. Hopefully nobody overreacts and nothing drastic changes based on what happened. Either way it's a no win situation.

Originally posted by boneplaya

How does something like this even happen on the turn after the drop?

My guess would be from the banking transition, so it would've been caused by lats instead of ejector.

Both the man and the ops are at fault IMO. He should have known better than to ride (and read the safety warnings if you have no legs, please) and the ops should have known the rules and not allowed him to ride. Either way its a lose-lose situation for the park, but it would have been best to save a life...

[jayman]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43697106/ns/us_news-life/
i am 100% convinced it's the park's fault,this should in NO WAY reflect on intamin even if he insisted they ought to have said no .the didnt follow their own policy .

Actually, this is solely the operator's fault. There is a system called RAP (Rider Accessability Program) that each ride uses. In the case of someone having a amputated lower limb beyond the knee, a harness is used to strap them into the seat. Now on SROS, the operator allowed the guy to put on the harness anyway and ride. The guy thought everything was fine now that he had the harness. So before you start acting like the guy was an idiot just for going on the ride, the operator informed him that he was able to ride with the harness. As most of you know, I work at BGW and it was most of our closing meeting subject. Thanks.

Just because you all happen to work at a park and agreed that it was the operator's fault doesn't mean that's the case. If you ask me, whether or not it's completely true, you *should* consider it operator error because that's all you have control over. There are millions of guests every year, and nobody can make sure every one of them is following directions on their part. Thus, if conclusion is that it was all the rider's fault, then operators will be more inclined to disregard and not worry about it in the future. If the conclusion is that it's operator error, workers will be more likely to remain proactive in the matter and make sure they're following all safety procedures. If you ask me, the way your team approached it was the right way to do so. However, that does not mean the gentleman himself was not at fault...that just means you all chose to take the safe route and realize the operators should not have let the incident happen.

People, including ride operators, make legitimate or dumb mistakes all the time. You can't go through life putting your complete faith in everyone blindly and expect to be taken care of. This gentleman was not a little kid, he should have reasoned that it *might* be unsafe to board a 200' tall ride that holds riders in by a body part that you don't have. I have no experience with skydiving, so if I were to go and I saw that the cables were frayed, I don't think I'd just ask the instructor. I would consult with several people, maybe even check other cables to see if they looked the same. It's all part of being an adult and taking care of yourself. Ride of Steel is, as the name implies, a giant piece of machinery with hundreds of moving parts, high speeds, strong forces, heights, bankings, etc. If you don't respect those things by making sure you're riding safely (and in doing so there only a miniscule chance of injury), then bad things can happen just like with any other kind of machine.

Yes, it's unfortunate, but I do fully believe both the rider and operators should share the blame. As I said though, people have lapses in judgement. Such is life sometimes, and occasionally there are really bad consequences like what happened here. Hopefully nothing similar happens again or anytime soon.

BTW, just to make sure I understand you correctly, was this RAP program in use at Darien Lake? When you say harness, are you referring to the lapbar, or some separate restraint mechanism? It seems like you're speaking of BGE, which is irrelevant if the same RAP system does not exist at Darien Lake. I just never heard anything about a separate harness from any of the news reports, and I don't know if you have any inside information.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Side note: Anyone continually notice how inaccurate coaster news reports are? I've read/heard that this ride is 221' tall, the tallest on the East coast (Kingda Ka, Nitro, Bizarro SFNE anyone?) among other statements that don't agree with eachother or are incorrect. Makes me wonder how many mistakes are made in other news that we don't pick up on because we don't know the details of the situations as intimitely.

Shame :/ Another death from rollercoasters :/
Wait...

That must be a love horrible experience for the people around the person who fell out... Like watching someone fly out of the train and yeah... Woah.

poop happens....
his fault n not the parks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUwyb0px ... v3MGIZk_vg

this summarizes everything [peakhill]

The man should have known not to ride, but at the same time it is the job of the ops (as an op myself) to make sure that something this big is taken care of. Sometimes we have women who look pregnant ride and we make an announcement, but we can't just go up and ask if they are pregnant you know? This sort of thing is more avoidable and approachable though IMO. What a shame.

Originally posted by dcs221

BTW, just to make sure I understand you correctly, was this RAP program in use at Darien Lake? When you say harness, are you referring to the lapbar, or some separate restraint mechanism? It seems like you're speaking of BGE, which is irrelevant if the same RAP system does not exist at Darien Lake. I just never heard anything about a separate harness from any of the news reports, and I don't know if you have any inside information.

They use a similar program and no, there is an actual harness that goes around the waist, and 2 straps go around both legs. They do use the same equipment. The name may be different however it is still the standard program.

We did get a bit more in-depth info about the mishap and had to spend 30 minutes talking about what they did wrong and how to prevent it at our park. So I'm not just blabbering out of my ass haha

This still shows that roller coasters are the safest forms of "thrill" entertainment on earth because --

In order to die or get injured...something truly INSANE and out of the ordinary has to happen.

But in all seriousness, my condolences to the family, that is a sad loss. [:(]

[Mikey]

This incident has caused a lot of head aches for me the last few days. We have had to systematically inspect and audit every single ride in the system that uses a similar type of squeeze type leg / ankle restraint mechanism regardless of the type of ride. For some reason somebody is under the impression that this may have been a mechanical failure. I tend to disagree with this theory however.

The issue I have with mechanical failure is the fact that its a N+2 safety device. Which means that train better be in pieces and flying through the love air before that lap bar releases. Not to say it's impossible, but highly unlikely, and it's never officially happened before.

I suspect in this instance a multitude of things went wrong which lead to this preventable accident. Now if this guy strolled up to the ride in a wheel chair, and nobody asked him what his disability was I think I would have to question the operators on the circumstances of why. Where they not aware of the rides mechanical limitations? What type of training and certification did they receive? Did the training material or certification include mention of this mechanical limitation?

Perhaps in this instance if he was standing up wearing long pants with out any medical aids such as crutches, and nobody figured out that he had prosthetic legs, one could not blame the operators for this death.

You cannot expect someone to take preventive action for something they can't see. There could be 200+ people on that dock and your asking an operator who is scanning for height checks, loose articles, whole operating the dangerous and expensive machinery to look for prosthetic legs under somebody pants in a crowd of people? Jesus. He didnt have a chance, he was caught up in the moment like a deer int he head lights.

No one wins in this case, and it is nothing but a tragic loss on all sides.


It is my belief that all accidents are preventable, but we are only human and we are sometimes subject to errors. We can be the best operators in the world, but we can not read minds, and we cannot undo what is unseen.

^That was very worth the read. No sense in pointing fingers or pinning fault on people when the situation is in the past. Although we all dislike the negative public feedback towards roller coasters, (like what will happen as a result of this) when fatality occurs on them, it's kind of an unpreventable force.

I don't even know what else to say.

That's what I had thought. If the man had long pants and just a limp, the ops as far as I know cannot ask him if he has a disability, and it is his responsibility to read safety information. If he had shorts or crutches to the point where it was discussed, then we can look more to the ops, but until an investigation can give us more info its hard to tell, but there are certainly a number of ways it could have happened.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by GerstlCrazy
when fatality occurs on them, it's kind of an unpreventable force.

Yeah totally unpreventable.

Sure

[GavG]

This is a quote from the article that Jonny Richey posted earlier on n the thread.

""They were helping him in, and we were on the ride, and we started to go, and we went on the first drop. We were about, probably 75 miles an hour, had to be, coming down from that drop. And on the first turn, this kid with no legs, he flies out of the car," said Sommer."

This seems pretty damming in my eyes and that it was obvious he had not fooled the ride ops with long pants and such. This is only one persons view on the situation so may be tainted with what he heard after the event.

I will say Mikey that it would be interesting to know what training these ops had and if they knew about the full limitations of the machine they were operating.

If I am correct though, most ops are not allowed to physically touch the rider, but they can wheel them over to the train. IDK about DL specifically however. I hope for their sake that the ops did not just let him on knowing the situation. This is terrible for the entire industry.