Woman dies while riding New Texas Giant

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-575 ... r-coaster/

ARLINGTON, Texas A woman died Friday in an accident while riding the Texas Giant roller coaster at a Six Flags amusement park.

The accident happened just after 6:30 p.m. Friday at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. Park spokeswoman Sharon Parker confirmed that a woman died while riding the coaster at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington but did not specify how she was killed.

Witnesses told local media outlets that the woman fell from the ride, which is billed as the tallest steel-hybrid roller coaster in the world.

"She goes up like this. Then when it drops to come down, that's when it (the safety bar) released and she just tumbled," said Carmen Brown of Arlington. Brown said she was waiting in line to get on the ride when the accident happened.

As reported by CBS Station KTVT Dallas, Kanisha Howell said she and her daughter were waiting on line to get on the ride and that the roller coaster closed after the accident.

Six Flags expressed sadness over the death and said it was temporarily closing the section of the park around the accident site. It didn't say how long the area would be closed. A message left for Parker by The Associated Press wasn't returned.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends during this difficult time," the park's statement said.

The Texas Giant reaches 14 stories high and has a drop of 79 degrees. It can carry up to 24 riders. The ride first opened in 1990 and underwent $10 million in renovations in 2010 before reopening in 2011.

Brown said she was next in line behind the woman and saw her being strapped into her seat next to her son.

"We heard her screaming. We were like, `Did she just fall?"' Brown told The Dallas Morning News.

Arlington police Sgt. Christopher Cook, the department spokesman, referred all questions to Parker. No other details were available.

In 1999, a 28-year-old Arkansas woman drowned and 10 other passengers were injured when a raft-like boat on the Roaring Rapids ride at Six Flags overturned in 2 to 3 feet of water about 200 feet from the end of the ride.

[Oscar]

[:(]

Seriously, this story breaks my heart, every time. Those poor kids, I really hope they are doing okay.

Anyone have theories on why certain companies (such as Gerstlauer, who made the NTG trains) decide not to put seatbelts on their designs as a fail-safe? This is exactly what a seatbelt would prevent.

Blame Texas's lack of regulation. They require them in New Jersey.

On a coaster this forceful I don't know why they weren't installed as a failsafe. Makes no sense. El Toro has them. They also make it much easier to enforce a waist size limit. If you can't close the belt then the person is too big. I have a feeling that the woman who was ejected from the train was at that limit, but unfortunately without a seat belt the ride operator had to make a judgement call on whether she was okay. Its also much more difficult to tell someone they are too large when you don't have something like a belt to justify it.

I don't understand either. I honestly have no ideas, I'm speechless as to why any company at any point in time would choose to not include seatbelts. Seatbelts or harness belts. B&M always has harness belts (excluding megas, which still perplexes me) and I've talked to friends who have had their harnesses (on a B&M) come undone and get caught by the harness belt.

It isn't necessarily a size issue, the problem with t-bars is that even on people who can fit safely in the train the bar can be lowered in such a way that it is resting on the rider's stomach instead of lap and fails to restrain the rider properly, this problem also doesn't exist in newer overhead lap bars as the arc the restraint follows can't intersect anything before the legs unless the rider is definitively too large to ride. Intamin's seat belts seem entirely for determining if a rider can safely fit, that said they don't ensure proper restraint contact but do decrease the instances of poor contact.

EDIT:

Originally posted by tiepilot35

I don't understand either. I honestly have no ideas, I'm speechless as to why any company at any point in time would choose to not include seatbelts. Seatbelts or harness belts. B&M always has harness belts (excluding megas, which still perplexes me) and I've talked to friends who have had their harnesses (on a B&M) come undone and get caught by the harness belt.

On B&M the seat belt is there mainly to ensure the restraint is far enough down to properly lock and that even very skinny riders can't slip out under the OSTR if the restraint is in the full down position but is still loose on them.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Was she a whale or a normal person? If she is a whale then she should like follow directions and stuff. Given that it's Texas I'll bank on a whale.

Finally a picture of her. As I suspected she was likely too large to ride.

I doubt those restraints were designed to accommodate or hold somebody of her size in place. I don't think it was a mechanical failure so much as a case of the harness making contact at her gut as opposed to her waist.

She was obese. Ops shouldn't have let her ride. I doubt seatbelts would really act as a fail safe in this case. With that amount of airtime, a single seatbelt couldn't hold an obese person in the car. But I guess you could argue if the ride had seatbelts than she definitely wouldn't be able to fit it around her and ride, hence accident avoided.

Also, blackhand, you're an idiot. New Jersey has the same regulations as Texas. Nitro doesn't have any seatbelts.

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Was she a whale or a normal person? If she is a whale then she should like follow directions and stuff. Given that it's Texas I'll bank on a whale.

Was waiting for someone else to break the ice. Now I can contribute.

Originally posted by blackhand1001

Blame Texas's lack of regulation. They require them in New Jersey.

Umm Seaside Heights, even without the storm that boardwalk was built terribly.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by Kyle Sloane

I doubt those restraints were designed to accommodate or hold somebody of her size in place. I don't think it was a mechanical failure so much as a case of the harness making contact at her gut as opposed to her waist.

Dem' amorphous solids are hard to contain

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Was she a whale or a normal person?

That's kinda insensitive.

as is 80% of his posts

[SauronHimself]

Whether or not reference to the deceased's size is insensitive is irrelevant. These rides explicitly warn customers that they are designed to accommodate passengers who are sized within a specific range, and anyone outside that range risks injury or death. It's for the safety of the riders and also to avoid wrongful death civil suits.

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Was she a whale or a normal person? If she is a whale then she should like follow directions and stuff. Given that it's Texas I'll bank on a whale.

This was my first thought when I heard the news, honestly. Seeing that it's confirmed, my prediction is that this will all end just like the SROS incident. Ride-ops will be blamed and Six Flags will add lap belts.

...and how about that "witness" who says she saw the bar release and the woman tumble... and right after that she says she was NEXT IN LINE (and therefore in the station) so there's no way she could've seen the woman fall.
She also says the other bars went "click click click" but the victim's only went "click" - more false info. Those bars don't click at all.

I work at a park. People don't give two sh*ts about the signs, warnings, or risks that come with rides.

So on Gerstlauer's prototype spinner at MOA (with the same lap bars as NTG) they decide to add a seat belt, but not on a ride with airtime as insane as NTG?

Different states different parks different rules different people making decisions.

This is basically what happened I'm sure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 0KmTMf0VVQ

Operations fault for allowing a guest to ride without the lapbar touching their legs, like the ride signs state.

[hyyyper]

Originally posted by Jakizle

Different states different parks different rules different people making decisions.

This is basically what happened I'm sure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 0KmTMf0VVQ

Operations fault for allowing a guest to ride without the lapbar touching their legs, like the ride signs state.

I totally agree with this. It's the only plausible explination I can come up with.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by SkyArrow
That's kinda insensitive.

Nobody feels bad for someone anymore when some idiot in a car doesn't wear a seatbelt and consequently dies. Occasionally I still get rural idiots around who say car seatbelt laws are liberals making money for "the black family in Chicago I'm supporting with tax dollars". I usually tell those people their bloated ass flying through the windshield could kill a pedestrian. I'd like this kind of incident involving being too fat to ride to progress to that point. Stop eating so much and substitute a carrot in for sugar/fried everything once in while and this won't be a problem.

Also don't bring the "regulation vs. deregulation" thing in here. If you actually cared about that beyond wanting to be a spiteful political troll as a response to our current do-nothing Congress you would have brought it up when the veteran with no legs was ejected a few years ago on a Superman somewhere.

EDIT: Noticed the lady had a hispanic last name. Are the warning signs in spanish also down there?