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Cell phones on rides


Dalefan
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Happened last time I was at the park. The ops literally just said "all clear!" on Diamondback and a guy pulls out his phone. They immediately said "Not all clear!" and waited for him to put away his phone. They watched him all the way up the lift hill to see if he'd bring it back out. And then made a stern announcement over the speaker that loose items and that includes cell phones are not permitted while riding.

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The only thing they have to do to stop this is to actually act on their threats and confiscate the cell phone. Once the person is off the ride call security and remove them from the park for the day. If they are a passholder place their pass on hold for a month. Second time, you ban their name and pass for the rest of eternity. I would even take it a step forward and ban them from all of the companies properties. So if it happens at KI then they are banned from all CF parks. Same with Six Flags and other park companies. If they have someone else buy a ticket for them and they violate the rules again then the park should press charges against the person for trespassing and violating park rules. I still to this day do not understand how any reputable company would let people not only violate park policy but allow people to break state law as well as open themselves up for liability when someone gets their face smashed in by some person who dropped a cell phone. 

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I have actually never seen or heard any ride operators do anything about this.  Maybe they're more vigilant at Kings Island...

We had a ride op stop the lift hill for a guy with a cell phone on Cedar Creek Mine Ride at CP. He stopped the ride and they went up and took the phone from him. But of course when the ride ended they gave him his cell phone back and told him don't do it again. 

We had a ride op watch a guy take out his cell phone on DT at Kings Dominion. They announced over the intercom to put it away. He didn't. They watched him go all the way up and watched him keep the phone out on the entire ride down. Then let him walk away with no consequence. Now if he dropped that phone it would have smashed on the ground right in front of me... Luckily he held onto it. 

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Conneaut Lake Park had an interesting policy for Blue Streak that seemed to work well.

 

Part of the spiel was, "please secure hats, glasss, cell phones, or any other loose articles. If they are lost on the ride, you are NOT permitted to retrieve them, and I am not going to."

 

I rode Blue Streak about 10 times that night, and not once did anyone take out a phone.

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Under the Ohio Revised Code Section 1711.551
riders must obey all warnings and directions
regarding amusement park rides and behave in a
manner that will not cause or contribute to injury
to themselves or others. Failure to comply is
a misdemeanor.

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/images/uploads/file/Guest%20Assistance%20Guide%202015-KI.pdf

 

The actual wording of the ORC

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/1711.551

 

DISCLAIMER: No legal advice is contained in this post, consult a lawyer that is licensed in Ohio for any legal advice on the ORC.

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I have stopped Thunder Run on its hill before after giving a warning. The only difference was this person was attempting to film...with an iPad... His mother dropped him off and was infuriated that after that he was no longer permitted in the park and actually tried to place the blame on park employees. That is one thing the Kingdom does not tolerate.

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If your hands aren't on the grab bars, then you are in violation of park rules and in Ohio and South Carolina, state law. However how many visitors has Kings Island or Carowinds tossed out for this: Exactly Zero.

Now for Filming and photos, Carowinds tries their hardest not use footage with hands off the grab bars.

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I've seen a few times where they stop the train and tell them to put cell away, then after it starts again they pull it right back out. I always expected to see security or at least the ride opps say something to them when we get off but everytime they just get to walk away as i shake my head.

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Thunder Run has no PA going up the hill. Once you stop it the only way to restart is for a maintence person to come do a reset on both the panel and in the lift room under the hill. It's not as simple as on operator restarting it. For newer rides this isn't the case but it probably is with many older ones. And in the case of it being stopped it didn't have the chance to be taken out again as it was confiscated by security. (I assume it was returned upon exiting the park.)

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Calkapepe that is exactly right. The kid tried to tell us he wasn't giving it to us so we said "fine but this thing isn't going anywhere until you do. The maintence guy who went up said that he wanted to say " I'm going to walk down this lift and it isn't starting back up until I hear it hit the ground". While funny he didn't say this for obvious reasons.

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I agree I hear it on The Racer mostly. 

 

Honestly, I think its a pre programmed. seems to happen about the same spot ever-time, and I have heard it standing from the ground. The voice track seems to be the same guy, even when the op is female,  at least that has been my experience on The Racer.

 

On the flats I know its different cause I have seen them say it to guest while riding, ie the scrambler, the zephyr.

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Experienced this on DB a few weeks ago. The operators didn't try to stop the ride on the lift - they made an announcement over the PA (it wasn't prerecorded, I was watching the op in the booth speak into the mic), looked at each other and shrugged, then proceeded to bring the next train in to unload.

 

I've wondered many times, sometimes on these forums, if the operators actually have the authority to stop the ride. I know they have the button there, but is there a culture in place that they would be threatening their own job if they were to enforce the cell phone rule?

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 This topic still gets my same response. Until the parks police YouTube, or any other video post sites, and request videos be removed, this will continue. If you remove the forum, you remove the life it gives. 

  Strict enforcement is also recommended, a few ejections, and a sign that lists " x people have been ejected from the park this year for violating the on ride device usage rule, don't be x+1" would go a long way as well. 

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