Breakdown At Test Track Leads To Guest Leaving Vehicle By Cutting Through Seat Belt

[Brad Bishop]

One thing which would go a long way when a ride does stop: Cut the audio.

I've been stuck on Big Thunder right by the speaker on the lift hill, which is fine, when you're just passing by for a moment and the speaker is loud to overcome the noise of the lift hill, but it completely sucks to be stuck there with the audio-loop-track blaring in your ear for 30min-1hr while you wait for them to decide, "Yeah, we need to evac the ride - it's screwed."

It adds unnecessary fatigue to the situation.

 

[durhay]

"oh, you lift UP on the buckle! Ohhhhhh - I was trying to break the metal apart!"

 

[Cesar R M]

So, there are strange happenings at Walt Disney World, and then there are strange happenings at Walt Disney World. The latter is the case of a story passed along to me from Sunday night at Epcot when Test Track broke down and a Guest cut the seat belt and got out of the stopped car.

Yes, you have read that correctly.

http://www.doctordisney.com/2016/02...leaving-vehicle-by-cutting-through-seat-belt/

Can you imagine if they keep cutting CMs?
If fully staffed they couldn't find a dude...

 

[Cesar R M]

then maybe going to an amusement park isn't in your best interest... people shouldn't put themselves in these kind of situations if they can't handle themselves accordingly

you mean, during the abnormal situations that are not supposed to happen (aka rides getting stuck?)

 

[Cesar R M]

Things are getting so bad that they really are getting terrible at EPCOT. Gift Shops, dining options, employee hours and now even the Seat belts are facing cuts.

 

[RonnieHare]

So, more metal detectors incoming?

MeNtal detectors you mean.

 

[NMBC1993]

Hey, the guy really needed to get to his Fastpass for Living with the Land. It happens...

Seriously though, one time during a ride-through of Horizons, my family and I stopped by the scene involving the little boy trying to get his shoe back while in zero gravity. 15 minutes later..."Hey Mom, mom. Look Mom I'm flying". As much as I love the attraction, that experience was truly a test of our patience.

 

[t3techcom18]

For the record, I second Adam N. I have lots of friends who work at TT and it did, infact, happen.

All I'm going to say is that it was a perfect storm of events because management didn't follow the 15 minute rule and let the downtime go on to almost 30 minutes (which is unacceptable, no matter what attraction) because TT was 'too valuable' to bring down since Soarin is down. There's plenty of blame to go around, but if it wasn't for the above statement, nothing else would've happened.

 

[Dukeblue1227]

It's the same as someone with an anxiety of crowds or loud noises. You remove yourself from those possibilities so that you can be free of that type of anxiety. I'm not talking about talking oneself out of the anxiety itself, I know that isn't the answer, I'm talking about avoiding, whenever possible, exposure to it.

This is actually incredibly incorrect. The only way to overcome anxiety is to face it head on and accept it. To do that you have to desensitize yourself to it.

I'm not saying you should be wreck less about it. But the sole reason people become agoraphobic to the point they can't leave their house is because they repeatedly avoid situations that cause them stress.

At first you avoid just a few things, then your mind naturally associates it to similar things. Before you know it you only have a handful of safe places you cannot go.

And where common sense exits the equation is around the natural instinct of fight or flight. It's 100% a human instinct, an animalistic response no different than a dog hearing the word sit and sitting. He doesn't know to literally sit down, he's been conditioned to sit down at the command of the word

If someone had a traumatic experience that is completely unrelated to being stopped on a ride for a long time from mechanical issues, they may not know they will enter fight or flight from it. But the mind subconsciously associate the two and tells the person "get out of this situation" and takes over.

 

[halltd]

At some point my brain says, "This is stupid. If it looks plain-jane obvious to get off of this ride, I'm going to do it." That means I've given operations ample time to make their announcements and show some progress and I'm aware enough to know that everything around me is mechanical and if things are still moving, I need to stay put (like boats still moving, animatronics, track gear, etc.).

And this is why people get injured and/or die...and also why we can't have nice things anymore. You should NEVER get off of an attraction without being escorted by a cast member. Ride buildings are not anything like normal buildings so you could fall, get hit by something, get electrocuted, or any number of other things even though it "looks" safe to you.

I can't even fathom why people like you think it's perfectly acceptable to just get out of a ride vehicle and do whatever you want because you're "annoyed by the audio track".

 

[Goofyernmost]

This is actually incredibly incorrect. The only way to overcome anxiety is to face it head on and accept it. To do that you have to desensitize yourself to it.

I'm not saying you should be wreck less about it. But the sole reason people become agoraphobic to the point they can't leave their house is because they repeatedly avoid situations that cause them stress.

At first you avoid just a few things, then your mind naturally associates it to similar things. Before you know it you only have a handful of safe places you cannot go.

And where common sense exits the equation is around the natural instinct of fight or flight. It's 100% a human instinct, an animalistic response no different than a dog hearing the word sit and sitting. He doesn't know to literally sit down, he's been conditioned to sit down at the command of the word

If someone had a traumatic experience that is completely unrelated to being stopped on a ride for a long time from mechanical issues, they may not know they will enter fight or flight from it. But the mind subconsciously associate the two and tells the person "get out of this situation" and takes over.

Give me a break... I'm not saying that either, of course, one can try, but, if it doesn't work you don't go back and ESPECIALLY if it's a child you don't force the issue to cure the problem, that only makes it worse.

 

[Dukeblue1227]

Give me a break... I'm not saying that either, of course, one can try, but, if it doesn't work you don't go back and ESPECIALLY if it's a child you don't force the issue to cure the problem, that only makes it worse.

? I don't really know what you mean. Sorry.

I haven't checked in on the story since the morning only your replies to me talking about anxiety in general. Was it a child? Was it the second time it had happened and the kid didn't want to go on the ride? I obviously wouldn't support that if that's what happened.

Regardless I've just been speaking about anxiety in general. I'm not trying to be snarky or anything haha. Sorry you seemed offended by my response wasn't trying to be offensive.

 

[Goofyernmost]

? I don't really know what you mean. Sorry.

I haven't checked in on the story since the morning only your replies to me talking about anxiety in general. Was it a child? Was it the second time it had happened and the kid didn't want to go on the ride? I obviously wouldn't support that if that's what happened.

Regardless I've just been speaking about anxiety in general. I'm not trying to be snarky or anything haha. Sorry you seemed offended by my response wasn't trying to be offensive.

No it was a general statement that I did because I got responses like "maybe they didn't know" or to say to someone if it is a problem don't put yourself in the line of fire. That was all, but, of course, these things take a life on of there own. People misunderstand or don't read completely or cannot understand and fill in the blanks unless every single letter is included. Always ready to think the worst of everyone.

 

[raven]

I find this story difficult to believe. When something goes wrong on TT, the ride is immediately put into a stop because the ride vehicles are self powered. It is a very complicated system in which many different vehicles are executing pre programmed maneuvers simultaneously. For these reasons I would expect this attraction has added security measures throughout.

I doubt someone was able to exit a ride vehicle and wander around the attraction without being noticed. Especially considering they supposedly exited backstage and went unnoticed.

As like nearly every WDW attraction has, Test Track has an intrusion system in place through out the ride path. If this person supposedly slipped out of a vehicle and through a door, the very instant that door is opened the ride will stop and an intrusion alert flashes upon the display screens at the RAC location and usually in maintenance bay. It displays the exact location of the door and time it was activated. These doors are also located at the bottom of the emergency stairs along the outside loop as well. Each day the opening CM crew for Test Track do safety checks and walk the ride path to activate each door to check this intrusion system. Now having said this, I don't believe this story to be true for someone to completely disappear unnoticed. At the location listed there are 2 or 3 intrusion doors to exit through to get into a safe area. They would've known exactly where this person was and would be able to even meet them at the bottom of the emergency stairs where they exit into the hallway (which happens to lead to the VIP elevator).

And in today's world, no one whipped out their smartphone and got this guy on video?

Exactly! I have video of our evacuation on Splash from a few years ago because a woman with anxiety issues was in such a panic we thought she was going to hurt the CM. So for that purpose I started to record.

 

[lifeguard1020]

I think Raven knows what he is talking about. I know attractions have systems like that and it most certainly been activated. One time a friend of mine and I were riding Spaceship Earth (he's not the smartest guy on the planet) and we got stuck at the paperboy for about 15 minutes. He decided it was a good idea to "get out and walk." Well, within moments, people were there to escort him out. You can even see the sensors if you look at the floor next to your vehicles...

 

[Bairstow]

Regardless of whether the original story is true, I'm sort of on the fence with this kind of stuff.

On the one hand, if the ride stops, I really do think that you should stay put and they'll come and help you and all that. That's normal, to me. It's SOP. It's safe and all that.

On the other hand, though, I think that sometimes common sense ought to outweigh "what does the rulebook say" depending on the situation.

Let's say I'm stuck on It's a Small World at Disneyland for 1+ hours (unlikely, I'll grant you). No announcements. No signs of moving people off the ride. That's the one where only the trough has water, as opposed to the entire building being flooded. All of the boats have caught up to you because it's been so long and you're not going to experience a sudden bump or anything. I'm thinking: Get out and walk on the concrete side walk that's *right there* and leave.

To me, it's dumb for the ride to stop and for people to try to immediately get out and leave. Still, it's dumb for people to sit there indefinitely with no word of what's going on just because there's a rule. At some point my brain says, "This is stupid. If it looks plain-jane obvious to get off of this ride, I'm going to do it." That means I've given operations ample time to make their announcements and show some progress and I'm aware enough to know that everything around me is mechanical and if things are still moving, I need to stay put (like boats still moving, animatronics, track gear, etc.).

I know this will go against the grain of a lot of people but I just don't think you need to sit somewhere indefinitely and never try to save yourself because: There's a rule and someone else will do it.

I'm kind of with you.

I'm not saying the guy did the right thing, but there is a point, maybe 45 minutes, maybe 50, where I would do the exact same thing this guy did.
"Safety" or not, at a certain point, enough is enough.

The fact that the guy just showed himself out and they never caught him warms the dark little anarchist corner of my heart.

And for those who say, NEVER take charge and let yourself off the Disney vehicle...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Walt_Disney_World#Monorail

 

[raven]

I think Raven knows what he is talking about. I know attractions have systems like that and it most certainly been activated. One time a friend of mine and I were riding Spaceship Earth (he's not the smartest guy on the planet) and we got stuck at the paperboy for about 15 minutes. He decided it was a good idea to "get out and walk." Well, within moments, people were there to escort him out. You can even see the sensors if you look at the floor next to your vehicles...

Yeah that's all carpet up in there. SSE isn't all that big & exciting if you think of it as what it really is: just a building.

 

[t3techcom18]

As like nearly every WDW attraction has, Test Track has an intrusion system in place through out the ride path. If this person supposedly slipped out of a vehicle and through a door, the very instant that door is opened the ride will stop and an intrusion alert flashes upon the display screens at the RAC location and usually in maintenance bay. It displays the exact location of the door and time it was activated. These doors are also located at the bottom of the emergency stairs along the outside loop as well. Each day the opening CM crew for Test Track do safety checks and walk the ride path to activate each door to check this intrusion system. Now having said this, I don't believe this story to be true for someone to completely disappear unnoticed. At the location listed there are 2 or 3 intrusion doors to exit through to get into a safe area. They would've known exactly where this person was and would be able to even meet them at the bottom of the emergency stairs where they exit into the hallway (which happens to lead to the VIP elevator)

All true, but it did in fact happen. I'll PM you the full details when I get a chance.

 

[Gabe1]

And this is why people get injured and/or die...and also why we can't have nice things anymore. You should NEVER get off of an attraction without being escorted by a cast member. Ride buildings are not anything like normal buildings so you could fall, get hit by something, get electrocuted, or any number of other things even though it "looks" safe to you.

I can't even fathom why people like you think it's perfectly acceptable to just get out of a ride vehicle and do whatever you want because you're "annoyed by the audio track".

I'm not one to say NEVER as I don't believe NEVER allows for exceptions and sometimes exceptions will save your life.

1985

 

[Gabe1]

I'm kind of with you.

I'm not saying the guy did the right thing, but there is a point, maybe 45 minutes, maybe 50, where I would do the exact same thing this guy did.
"Safety" or not, at a certain point, enough is enough.

The fact that the guy just showed himself out and they never caught him warms the dark little anarchist corner of my heart.

And for those who say, NEVER take charge and let yourself off the Disney vehicle...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Walt_Disney_World#Monorail

Ha! I just posted this before I got to your post. I don't like the word NEVER either.