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Diamondback Rumor


PKIVortex
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For all of you complaining about DB getting seat belts if this rumor is true, I have an idea that might make you reconsider how you are viewing this as a negative.

Personally if this happens, I don't see them as like a normal seatbelt like, let's say, Millennium Force where it crosses over your lap. Instead, I'm thinking of something more like, let's say Gatekeeper, where it doesn't actually go across your body but rather connects the restraints to the car. I could see DB's seat belts being attached to the ride car itself, with slots to lock them into place (sorry for lack of a technical term) attached to the clamshell lapbar. So it would just be another backup just in case for some reason the lap bar would fail. Having a seat belt like this would also allow for people to still fit and not have their airtime diminished since it will not actually come in contact with your body.

Just my two cents.

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There were people on this forum who claimed that Diamondback's restraint "went up" by one "click" last season. Even though the issue was (presumably) investigated and determined not to be a failure of the redundant restraint system, seatbelts would provide reassurance to any guests who experience it.

I will have to let you know, that a Diamondback restraint DID go up by one click during the 2013 season, my mother's restraint went up a click during the drop, and after that, was worried it may do it again. There was no problem with it, it was just that the restraint was half-a-click in.

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to be honest whats more important safety (or perceived safety) or capacity?

If people dont ride because of a perceived fear, then capacity doesnt matter.

Remember the general public does not know the difference between an Arrow and a BM. All it takes is an accident on a coaster and it causes the general public to have that fear in the front of their minds.... IF a simple seat belt can alleviate some of that fear, is that so bad?

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I wonder how a seat belt would affect capacity.

How much worse than last year could it get?

Diamondback gave 1,861,093 rides last year which represents the most rides given in one year on the tallest and fastest roller coaster at Kings Island.

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There were people on this forum who claimed that Diamondback's restraint "went up" by one "click" last season. Even though the issue was (presumably) investigated and determined not to be a failure of the redundant restraint system, seatbelts would provide reassurance to any guests who experience it.

I will have to let you know, that a Diamondback restraint DID go up by one click during the 2013 season, my mother's restraint went up a click during the drop, and after that, was worried it may do it again. There was no problem with it, it was just that the restraint was half-a-click in.

If it was only a half-click in, then can I assume it didn't go up one click, but rather just went to the spot in its mechanicism that its designed to sit in since it couldn't move to the next spot?

Something similar happened to me last season, seemed like the bar had come down farther than it had in the past. I had lost some weight, so I just figured it went down farther b/c of that, however over the first hill it the restraing went up a bit, kind of freaks you out for a split second until you realize its not going up any further. This was a bout a week or so before the thread on this topic was posted on the forums. I didn't think much of it at the time, in fact I rerode Diamondback about an hour later; I figured the bar came down a little further, but not enough to actually click into a new spot, so once gravity took over and my body weight pushed back up on the restaint, it "popped" into the spot it was suppose to be at. Perhaps I should have said something, but I figured it was a "me" issue, not really a ride issue, kind of sounds like the same thing with your mother.

With all that said, I wouldn't mind a seat belt attaching to the side of the restraint. Safety on top of safety on top of safety? Perhaps. I trust what the people smarter than me on this subject have told me about the restaint system, heck I even trust terps instance that if you had no lap bar the seats are designed in such a way that you would stay on the ride (I said trust, I'm not going to actually test that trust, at least on this subject) however sometimes a visual safety system helps put the mind at ease, even if the odds of that system ever coming into play are lower than the odds of anyone winning Buffet's Billion. Aside from cost, the only downside is load time, which may or may not be significant.

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I must say that I love Diamondback, but it's one coaster that, for me, is a little unnerving because of the safety system. I do trust that the lap bar is sufficient, but I think it's just something in your head that knows that if the bar was to fail, there's nothing else to keep you on (even if you are able to stay in the seats without anything). Even though seat belts might be unnecessary, I think they add comfort because it gives you a secondary safety system. It's like a backup. You know that if, by chance, the lap bar fails, you've got a seat belt there to hold everything in place. This puts your mind at ease and for that reason I wouldn't mind a seat belt really.

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Dr. Claire Lewicki: "control is an illusion, you infantile egomaniac. Nobody knows what's gonna happen next: not on a freeway, not in an airplane, not inside our own bodies and certainly not on a racetrack with 40 other infantile egomaniacs."

From Days of Thunder

Control of the visitors at all times during their visit to the park and certainly on any ride is an illusion. Most likely, the very cause of the New Texas Giant accident.

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:unsure: Even in the highly unlikely event the clicks were to somehow fail, doesn't the tilt-back seat and overall coaster design minimize the risk of ejection?

Minimize, maybe. But eliminate, absolutely not, and that's the real concern here. I know little of the science behind Diamondback's seat design, but I have heard exactly what you said. But that having been said (cue Bill Nye voice here) consider the following:

Let's say that you're riding Diamondback and your restraint completely disengages. You WILL panic. It's human nature. Others around you will panic. A sack of potatoes may be able to arrive back at the station with no restraints, but a panicking human, flailing their arms about and certainly NOT sitting calmly still, would be at a much greater risk of being ejected from their seat.

I get that the idea of adding seatbelts is all about the perception of increased safety, as the systems already in place on B&M hypercoasters are some of the safest in the industry, but if the unthinkable happened, and a restraint DID fail, they might help alleviate the panic. I have to wonder how much of B&M spotless safety record comes from their design and how much of it is due to fortunate circumstances. If Ride of Steel had been a B&M, would its incident have still happened? I'm not willing to say that it wouldn't.

As an added aside, being in the "undeweight" BMI range and having ridden Phantom's Revenge, there are times when the seatbelt does quite a lot to ease your mind. I know that the lap bar on that coaster is almost certainly adequate even for a rider of my size. But let me tell you, if not for that seatbelt I almost certainly would have refused to ride what is now my second favorite non-inverting steel coaster.

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I wonder how a seat belt would affect capacity.

How much worse than last year could it get?

Apparently they had the most in the rides history, I guess they forgot to hit the empty seat button because we all know that's impossible.

Or maybe just maybe it only seemed slow for you guys. I know I had no issue with the Diamondback line last year even though I was looking for problems because of whiners like you guys.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

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Well this is already going to prove to be a verrrrrrry interesting season...Banshee, Bat, new show, and now Diamondback seat belt rumors...mmmm...

The seat belt won't affect me at all as I am a smaller person. I guess it will just be sort of frustrating to have something else to fumble with while getting seated ( if this rumor is indeed fact ). I have always enjoyed just sitting down and pulling back the lap-bar. Wah-lah! Its refreshing in a way I guess. Either way it won't affect my opinion of Diamondback. I still love it.

If this really is true, I would love to see a cute logo of a Diamondback rattle snake sitting in a seat fastening his seat belt as a visual reminder when sitting down ^_^

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The seat belts are not necessarily to hold you in, the concept is if you fit with the seatbelt attached, the rides lap bar system should click and hold into place.. Unfortunately a passenger from texas giant which used a lap bar system similar to Diamondback failed due to the lap bar not being clicked and locked in the correct position because of the occupants size, which ultimately lead to her death. The seatbelt will help prevent from larger folks from bypassing the test seat in front of the line and trying to squeeze into the restraint.

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Texas Giant is a trademark used by Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. As such, it is always capitalized here.

The cause of the Texas Giant death is currently a matter in controversy in litigation. Industry, industry observers, safety experts and others besides the litigants themselves have been closely watching this case. There are many theories for what went wrong and who could best have prevented the tragedy at Six Flags Over Texas that day.

I was not aware causation had been conclusively determined.

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If you are worried about your restraint failing on Diamondback, then you should sit in the even numbered rows which have more space between you and the other seat in your row. This provides you the ability to reach the bottom of your seat so you can really clamp down if you have a good grip.

The area circled in the image below is what I'm referring to:

msy5n6.jpg

Hold on tight!

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I wonder how a seat belt would affect capacity.

How much worse than last year could it get?

Apparently they had the most in the rides history, I guess they forgot to hit the empty seat button because we all know that's impossible.

Or maybe just maybe it only seemed slow for you guys. I know I had no issue with the Diamondback line last year even though I was looking for problems because of whiners like you guys.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

Or I'm just rational, at least Im not calling people names.

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I wonder how a seat belt would affect capacity.

How much worse than last year could it get?

Apparently they had the most in the rides history, I guess they forgot to hit the empty seat button because we all know that's impossible.
Or maybe just maybe it only seemed slow for you guys. I know I had no issue with the Diamondback line last year even though I was looking for problems because of whiners like you guys.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

Or I'm just rational, at least Im not calling people names.

No but you are complaining about little details of the park on the a fan site of said park.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

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And you

I wonder how a seat belt would affect capacity.

How much worse than last year could it get?

Apparently they had the most in the rides history, I guess they forgot to hit the empty seat button because we all know that's impossible.
Or maybe just maybe it only seemed slow for you guys. I know I had no issue with the Diamondback line last year even though I was looking for problems because of whiners like you guys.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

Or I'm just rational, at least Im not calling people names.

No but you are complaining about little details of the park on the a fan site of said park.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

And you mean to tell me that I am the only one on this site that has talked about the little thing in the park on said fan site?

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Anyway...

If I get too big for a ride, I have two options, lose the weight for it (which I am doing for Disney, I want no surprises there) or not ride it.

I always find it ironic when people say they're losing weight for Disney, because Disney is the most large-person-friendly park there is! I've been fortunate enough to have 5 trips to WDW in the past 8 years, and I have never had an issue with any ride there, unlike most other parks I go to. I have a friend who lost weight years ago for his first Disney trip, and we like to laugh about that. When he first told me about it, I said what I did above about it being large person friendly. He responded "Yeah, I found that out when I got there!"

Here is a great resource on WDW rides and attractions for people of the larger persuasion: http://allears.net/tp/ridsiz.htm Links on the left side of the page will take you to the sections on each park.

For all of you complaining about DB getting seat belts if this rumor is true, I have an idea that might make you reconsider how you are viewing this as a negative.

Personally if this happens, I don't see them as like a normal seatbelt like, let's say, Millennium Force where it crosses over your lap. Instead, I'm thinking of something more like, let's say Gatekeeper, where it doesn't actually go across your body but rather connects the restraints to the car. I could see DB's seat belts being attached to the ride car itself, with slots to lock them into place (sorry for lack of a technical term) attached to the clamshell lapbar. So it would just be another backup just in case for some reason the lap bar would fail. Having a seat belt like this would also allow for people to still fit and not have their airtime diminished since it will not actually come in contact with your body.

Just my two cents.

Even that may be a negative for me. In order to ride DB, I have to be stapled, and I know just by the feel of the restraint on my legs whether it's sufficient or not. I can usually get it down enough on my own. If it's not good enough, I'll say my seat number, such as 8-3, before the driver has a chance to say it over the loudspeaker to alert the ride ops in the station to push down for me. I've only been wrong once.

I have faith in DB's restraints. But I do remember the thought crossing my mind during DB's first year "What would I do if the restraint failed." My solution: wrap my arms around that black bar next to the seat and hold on tight.

Even with seatbelts that don't cross the body, I and many others have had problems with those that connect the restraint to the seat. Examples being: Drop Tower is impossible for me, Flight of Fear is iffy (it depends on the seat), Gatekeeper is very questionable, Vortex is fine. Don't let anyone tell you that all seatbelts are the same length on all seats: they're not.

I've lost 12 lbs since December in my attempt to slim down for Banshee. Unfortunately, I'm still 7 lbs over where I was for GK's Media Day last year. With Banshee's restraints being the same as GK's, it's questionable whether I'll be able to ride on April 17th. I still have 15 days to go, so I'll do what I can in that time. If I do get the dubious distinction of being Banshee's first Walk of Shame, which believe I was for GK (after I had already ridden it once), then I will just enjoy the experience of being in the park after 6 long months and enjoy spending time with family & friends in between their Banshee rides.

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Yes there are things that the park does that I don't agree with (like this rumored seatbelt) but I still love the park.

I'm not pushing some agenda buddy and you should not falsely label me as one.

Just because a baby is crying on a plane I'm not going to push some movement to stop crying babies on planes but I can still be annoyed by it.

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