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Diamondback Evacuated


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Definitely sounds like an overreaction, but I guess in a way, I'm glad to hear that their safety features work well. 

 

Edit-- I mean, rides break down sometimes-- right? No one died or got hurt. Guess it's a slow news day.

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Love how the media loves to blow anything with rollercoasters and accidents out of proportions. I've seen this with FoF last year (I was there when it happened the first time, June 2, 2014) and when Vortex stalled on the lift as well when the motor malfunctioned (also there, something always happens when I go to a theme park) All media outlets know that blowing it out of proportions will have more views/page visits, and unfortunately many do instead of reporting the pure, unbridled truth. Kids can get injured all the time on carousels or at county fair rides, but it will be quickly swept under the rug, but if something that does not harm anyone happens on a roller coaster, it will be a media field day. Take what happened on The Smiler for example, yes it was bad, but the media acts like everyone died or something.

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Take what happened on The Smiler for example, yes it was bad, but the media acts like everyone died or something.

 

So, life-changing injuries such as leg amputations are not significant and newsworthy?

 

Diamondback stopping safely on the lift and doing a lift evacuation is hardly newsworthy; no one was ever in harm's way except from the sun's rays.  Standard operating procedures were followed by both the ride and its operators.

 

The Smiler took a girl's leg.  It badly injured several other riders.  That's extremely newsworthy.  Standard operating procedures were not followed by either the ride or its operators (or both).

 

The same?  Not even close.

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Take what happened on The Smiler for example, yes it was bad, but the media acts like everyone died or something.

 

So, life-changing injuries such as leg amputations are not significant and newsworthy?

 

Diamondback stopping safely on the lift and doing a lift evacuation is hardly newsworthy; no one was ever in harm's way except from the sun's rays.  Standard operating procedures were followed by both the ride and its operators.

 

The Smiler took a girl's leg.  It badly injured several other riders.  That's extremely newsworthy.  Standard operating procedures were not followed by either the ride or its operators (or both).

 

The same?  Not even close.

 

Yes, but much WORSE things happen in the world, car crashes do that all the time but are hardly reported heavily. Yes it should be publicized, BUT there is obvious view mongering.

EDIT: But yes that was a bad analogy, sorry.

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The Smiler accident has more media attention because the chances of something like that happening on a coaster are extremely small due to all the safety precautions and therefore is something that is news worthy. Random car accidents with no major injuries will not be reported because they are very common.

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You're right.  Nuclear warfare would be much worse; let's only ever report on the possibilities that it might occur.

 

*shrug*

Yeah, I'll admit the Smiler thing was stupid on my part, what I was trying to go for was it seems media tries to dish out blows against thrill rides every chance. Probably not for any specific reason other than it increases viewership.

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You're right.  Nuclear warfare would be much worse; let's only ever report on the possibilities that it might occur.

 

*shrug*

Yeah, I'll admit the Smiler thing was stupid on my part, what I was trying to go for was it seems media tries to dish out blows against thrill rides every chance. Probably not for any specific reason other than it increases viewership.

 

 

I completely agree that routine evacuations based on safety systems shutting down the ride and standard operating procedure being followed are not newsworthy.  Like I said, nobody was in harm's way on Diamondback this afternoon except from the sun.

 

That's also why I said that SOP was not followed with The Smiler, and people were not only put in harm's way but received life-changing injuries.  That's not just media-speak - you try living with an artificial leg.  I can only imagine what one must go through.

 

When SOP is followed and no one is ever in any serious danger, it's not newsworthy.  It happens everyday to keep people safe.  The media does it because they know people will eat it up.  They have to be out there first because everyone will otherwise find out via social media.

 

When SOP is not followed and people receive life-changing injuries, that's extremely newsworthy.  If you don't care, fine, but you better believe I want to know any time an amusement ride has a serious accident.

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So just to point a few things to everyone on here:

1.) news stations do report accidents. Radio reports them every ten minutes, and TV reports them all of the time. Some are minor fender benders that slow traffic and some are serious and close highways.

2.) again if people didn't want to know about this, the stations wouldn't report on it.

3.) how is it over reacting when the news says "don states the ride did what it was suppose to do". They are literally reporting to inform people that it's okay.

Everyone wants to hate on the media.

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Please don't try to compare news coverage of car accidents to news coverage of safe roller coaster stoppages.

 

The difference is that when a car accident occurs, obviously something happened that wasn't safe, whereas with a ride stop like this, all of the safety systems worked exactly as they were supposed to.

 

Also, the media as of lately is over-sensationalizing stopped roller coasters and blowing them way out of proportion. With car accidents, the news generally covers them without sensationalism, and with the correct level of attention (e.g. a minor fender-bender without injuries will usually only get a brief mention with regard to the resulting impact on traffic flow).

 

And finally, when a car accident that is worthy of a news story occurs, there are typically injuries, significant property damage, and so forth that has a significant impact, either temporary or permanent, on people's lives. This afternoon's incident (if you can even call it that) on Diamondback was nothing but a simple inconvenience compared to that. Reputable news sources should not be wasting time on reporting that some people were inconvenienced for half an hour, which is what today's Diamondback coverage amounts to.

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The road construction worker who was killed last week on I-70 received less news coverage in my Facebook feed than either yesterday's Diamondback evac OR the pigs that were spilled in the wreck near Xenia. My husband didn't even hear about the worker being killed except from me, but he forwarded me a link to the story about Diamondback tonight.

I don't really know what to say about it except it has to do with a combination of media sensationalism and the public's desire for such sensationalism.

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How high up was it? I'm scared of heights and get major vertigo on things such as ladders, roofs and unprotected stairs. I feel completely fine on coasters however...not so much up on the Eiffel. I'd have a major problem evacuating a coaster down the lift stairs or even coming down a crane lift.

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