Seat Belt/Restraint Failure at Wonderland Amusement Park in Texas

[Creed Bratton]

One of my local news affiliates shared a story and a video from a sister station in Texas today about Wonderland Amusement Park in Amarillo Texas. A safety belt failed and it was sort of caught on camera:

 

 

 

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — Delbert Latham is skeptical his son will ever get on a roller coaster again. This comes after he and his 6-year-old rode the Mousetrap at Wonderland Amusement Parkfor the second time Friday night.

 

"We ended up being in the exact same seat again," Latham said. "We put the seat belt on, latched it, went to pull it tight and it had actually come undone at that time. I just thought I didn't get it clicked in well enough. I re-clicked it and tightened it up. It was fine. There were no problems with it."

Latham says his son, Kaysen, had so much fun the first time, he wanted to video the joy for his wife to see. What he caught on camera wasn't what he was expecting.

 

"We went to hit the very first drop, and as soon as we went over, I felt the seat belt release," Latham said. "

  
See the link below for more information:

 

http://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/caught-on-cam-boys-terrifying-roller-coaster-mishap-goes-viral

[shark6495]

Straight up my biggest fear (at 30) about roller coasters. That's the reason I like the extra little bit on Diamondback etc....

But holy cow....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RollerNut]

Meanwhile said visitor is holding an iPhone in his hand taking video, other than the visitor's hand(and this is stretching it) there is no safety device to keep said iPhone from getting loose and injuring him or his son let alone an innocent bystander. "Judge not, that ye be not judged"

[Creed Bratton]

Meanwhile said visitor is holding an iPhone in his hand taking video, other than the visitor's hand(and this is stretching it) there is no safety device to keep said iPhone from getting loose and injuring him or his son let alone an innocent bystander. "Judge not, that ye be not judged"

I'm so glad I am not the only one who thought that!

[Tanna]

Meanwhile said visitor is holding an iPhone in his hand taking video, other than the visitor's hand(and this is stretching it) there is no safety device to keep said iPhone from getting loose and injuring him or his son let alone an innocent bystander. "Judge not, that ye be not judged"

 

strangely, my first thought was that he was recording the unusual event, being that the park kinda failed his kid.

[RollerColt]

Just saw this article on CNN. Looks like the news is making waves. Just wow...

[Creed Bratton]

The thing that bothers me is that this made the news. It's not all that uncommon. 

Gatekeeper media day, while on Millennium Force a friend (I didn't know her at the time) had her seat belt break as we were going up the lift. Her and her husband got the attention of the ride hosts...they stopped us and evacuated us because they determined it to be unsafe. This didn't make the news and there were cell phones out, I had my picture taken sleeping (it was posted on Facebook by someone I didn't know, I hadn't slept at all the night before). A picture could have easily been taken, but to those who had their phones out, it wasn't a big deal. 

I guess what I'm saying in my opinion it's more common than these folks think. Only so many of the "incidents" get reported.

Anyway.

[Italian Job 2005]

To me it seems that smaller coasters (sometimes older, smaller coasters) may get overlooked in terms of their safety.

 

Sometimes I'm a bit frightened for my younger cousins to get on Woodstock Express by themselves because they're only held in by a seat belt; as they could easily slip passed that make shift "lap bar" if their seat belt came unbuckled.

[jcgoble3]

^ But that's what makes it more fun! Also, IIRC the coaster at Kings Island now known as Woodstock Express did not originally have seat belts. They were added later, and were (I assume) what caused it to lose its ACE Coaster Classic recognition.

[freaks76]

It lost it's recognition because they added seatbelts, and that don't make it original? Wow.

But The Beast added belts and changed lapbars, and it's still an ACE coaster? I'd hate to think they they declassified it for making the coaster a little safer.

Things that make ya go hmmm.

[malem]

^ The ACE Coaster Classic designation is entirely separate from the ACE Coaster Landmark designation that The Beast has.

[jcgoble3]

Indeed. The requirements for the ACE Coaster Classic award are listed here: http://www.aceonline.org/CoasterAwards/?type=1 Among them, it is required that riders must be able to slide from side to side. Woodstock Express's seat belts are individual belts anchored in the middle of the seat, which prevents side-to-side sliding. For local ACE Coaster Classics, try Teddy Bear at Stricker's Grove, or Sea Dragon at the Columbus Zoo.

 

The ACE Coaster Landmark honorees are listed here: http://www.aceonline.org/CoasterAwards/?type=3 Notably, both The Beast and The Racer have this honor, making Kings Island one of only two parks in the world to have multiple ACE Coaster Landmark awards (the other is Kennywood, which has three: Jack Rabbit, Racer, and Thunderbolt). The Beast's plaque is just inside the queue entrance on the left, before you reach the queue houses. I don't remember where The Racer's plaque is.

[freaks76]

Yea, I've seen The Beast plaque. Not only do I not remember where The Racer plaque is, I don't know that I've ever seen it.

I guess not being a member of ACE (or any other coaster club, which may change very soon, for maybe obvious reasons) I've never paid attention to the different awards they have for coasters.

I don't know, not being a member or anything else, I know my opinion doesn't matter. But you think almost any wood coaster that has stood, mostly unchanged for over 40 years, they'd wanna do something for it.