Accident on Darien Lake's Ride of Steel

[FParker185]

INTAMIN STRIKES AGAIN!!!


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43692529/ns/us_news-life/


Sandor might as well just start hiding in the bushes with a knife.

Let's not forget though Sandor Sez: "If he was holding on, none of this would have happened"


MOD Edit: Changed Title

[FParker185]

The plot thickens...

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

Still wont let Intamin off the hook, but what dumbass let someone with no leg's ride a ride that has tossed a person before and only has a lap restraint.

[tribar]

I have a feeling some people are losing their jobs tonight

[monsterfan99]

^Along with their homes and everything else once sued.

[Luxornv]

The guy shouldn't have been been on the ride. Fault lies with both the victim and the ride ops. Something should have tipped them off that he might not be able to ride when he couldn't walk to the car. People that suffer injuries like this need to realize they have a new set of limitations and they need to learn them quickly if they want to continue to wake up tomorrow. I don't mean to be callous, but this is just a physical limitation when there's not enough of your body there for the harness to hold onto.

[monsterfan99]

People that suffer injuries like this need to realize they have a new set of limitations and they need to learn them quickly if they want to continue to wake up tomorrow. I don't mean to be callous, but this is just a physical limitation when there's not enough of your body there for the harness to hold onto.

Agreed 100%. Problem is, the park would possibly face a lawsuit or at the least really bad press for denying a war vet the chance to ride the ride. It is sadly a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation.

[FParker185]

This is a classic damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. If they denied him a ride, they all might as well have changed their names to Hitler, there would have been a huge stink raised, kinda like the prosthetic arm that prevented that girl from riding, I think it was Shoot the Rapids at CP.

I think in the end this is going to be categorized as an unfortunate accident and not much more. Of couse he should not have been permitted to ride, but at the same time he clearly underestimated the ride. Seeing as he was in the military and lost both legs I think it'd be a safe assumption that he had since built up his upper body strength to probably pretty impressive levels, and by all means if he knew what he was getting into I think he could easily have held on during the entire ride and been fine. I'm going to guess he was quite intelligent as well and should have realized that a leg restraint just wasn't going to cut it in his case.

On the plus side in the story it says..
News 4 spoke with Sgt. Hackemer's mother and father. His mother said, "This is what he wanted to do. He wanted to live."

Maybe they will not use this situation as a payday, and rather use it to set an example letting other people in a similar situation know that just because the government says you have the right to do something, doesn't always mean it's a good idea or in your best interests. However I do have to lean towards the payday route.

[Ilovthevu']

This accident isn't Intamin's fault. You could say other accidents are Intamin's fault, but this one definitely isn't. It's the workers fault. I can't even blame the guy because maybe he doesn't know the amount of airtime that this ride gives. And the problem is that people are going think, hey that roller coaster is dangerous, because maybe they think SFNE's is the same one, but really this time at Darien Lake, it's not the roller coaster at all this time blamed for the accident. So, how do you convince people (if your the park) that their own ride isn't dangerous? Are they going to have take that ride down because of this happening, and the SFNE's other ride's bad reputation. Maybe, that's even why Shapiro decided let's change the ride that killed someone to a different name at the time - to Bizarro.

[Coastermonkey61]

FParker is dead on. He shouldn't have been allowed on, but the park would have come under so much heat for denying him on the ride. The park was screwed. As awful as it is to say, with everything he has gone through and done for this country, this is on the victim.

I have no idea where you're going with the New England comparison, ilovthevu. I would lay very good odds this man had no idea there was another coaster like this at another park, nor do half the people who go to the park. They're not gonna take the ride down because nothing went wrong with it. They'll put the ride operators through another session to go over protocol and that'll be that.

[w00dland]

No excuse in my book. The man should not have been able to ride and that's that. Maybe the ride ops would have got hell for it, but a man would have lived if they would have denied him the ride.



Should have been a no-brainer on a ride thats designed for airtime and doesn't feature OTSRs. Ride ops should have known better, he should have known better, hell, the people watching him get on the ride should have said something. Iraq veteran or not, this was an awful idea.

[Galvan]

The blame on this accident lies with the victim, and the ride ops. Not Intamin, (I cant believe I am saying that). 3 Contributing Factors in a sad but avoidable chain of events led to this accident.

There are warning signs posted at the entrance of the ride, that highlight the inherent risks of riding the ride. The victim failed to heed those warnings.

Contributing factor #1.


Ride ops, failed to acknowledge that the victim failed to heed a warning, and improperly acted when the victim was in the station.

Contributing factor #2

Ride ops, failed to, or ignored the victims limitations and allowed him to ride anyway. Putting him and others on that ride in danger.

Contributing Factor #3


The result was a tragic, yet highly avoidable accident that left a decorated Iraq war vet dead.

[FParker185]

Someone on another forum brought up a very good point...

It's currently believed he was riding without his prosthetic legs, you would think that without the legs he would have fallen extremely short of the posted height requirement. It's kind of an odd thought, but about as valid as it gets.

Either way I think this is all going to fall back on the ride ops, and if the victims family does decide to sue, it's extremely unlikely that SFDL's insurance company will cover it. Though from the quotes I'm reading I think this may be one of the rare cases where there is no lawsuit, but we shall see.

[Ilovthevu']

^Remember, it's not SF anymore. - Just Darien Lake

[tribar]

^ROS does have a 54" height requirement so thats a good point

[FParker185]

SFDL is a force of habit

update on the story:

http://www.wben.com/Questions-Swirl-Fol ... t/10318468

"Hackemer's relatives have said they don't hold the park responsible for his death.

"It's nobody's fault. It was an accident. James thought it wasn't an issue," Jody Hackemer said over the weekend of her brother's disability."

[CstrFan512]

What gets me fired up is that they had the story on GMA and had a reporter talk about both the ROS accident and the New Texas Giant stopping on the lift hill. But they took it a bit far by questioning if roller coasters are worth the risk. They made it seem like it wasn't the dudes fault and instead was the COASTERS! I can't explain it but when I watched it I felt like punching someone!

[monsterfan99]

^Fear sells, no matter how false. Never forget the saying "If it bleeds it leads."

[w00dland]

What gets me fired up is that they had the story on GMA and had a reporter talk about both the ROS accident and the New Texas Giant stopping on the lift hill. But they took it a bit far by questioning if roller coasters are worth the risk. They made it seem like it wasn't the dudes fault and instead was the COASTERS! I can't explain it but when I watched it I felt like punching someone!

Roller coasters are an inherent fear of many Americans, and fear grabs (and more importantly, holds) people's attention better than most other things. You don't see accidents often, but when you do they are often horrific. (think of flying) By using a story like this as evidence for a question of whether or not coasters are safe they are being "ethical" and taking advantage of a sad story.

The fact is you don't see the question "Are cars safe to drive" on the news after every crash because 99% of people aren't afraid of driving.

[aspects]

I went to Great America on Tuesday and noticed that Raging Bull's first rule on their sign at the beginning of the line was taped over with a new rule written on it. It said to ride you have to have three limbs or two limbs and prosthetics (I think that was the second part.) I should have taken a picture just to confirm what it said. This easily could have been like this for a while since I do not go that often, but it did catch my eye.

[CoasterBGW]

I went to Great America on Tuesday and noticed that Raging Bull's first rule on their sign at the beginning of the line was taped over with a new rule written on it. It said to ride you have to have three limbs or two limbs and prosthetics (I think that was the second part.) I should have taken a picture just to confirm what it said. This easily could have been like this for a while since I do not go that often, but it did catch my eye.

I noticed the same thing on Batman's sign Monday... not sure how new it is or I just noticed it becuase of the recent news...

http://rydzblog.com/misc/sign.JPG (full resolution)

[CoasterNick3157]

http://www.coasterforce.com/news/park-n ... until-2012

Closed for the rest of the year.

[FParker185]

Weird, they must be replacing the entire chain rather than just patching the chain back together (minus the broken links of course)

[Ilovthevu']

I know I hear about coaster breaking chains, but it seems like that ride does it a lot (even though there are more than one Superman of course). Maybe, it's because it's a bigger train with 32 people even though B&M has 36.

I guess a question for anyone is a longer train with 2 seats per row heavier than a shorter train with 4 seats per row? FParker, you know about everything about rides (and I'm not being sarcastic either), so do you know the answer?

[FParker185]

I don't have numbers, but I gotta guess the 2 across, 4 person cars are heavier, just be virtue of being physically larger. Much larger frame/chassis which is where the weight is.

Also for the Supermen, not sure on SFDL, but I know SFNE and SFA both broke their lift chains multiple times in the first year or 2 of operation. It was a combination of low quality/defective chains from an Intamin supplier, the (at the time) unusually fast speed of the lifts and the heavy trains. On both counts after patching the chain a few times, SF made the decision to get all new lift chains rather than keep patching the originals.