Darien Lake's rollercoaster accident, can it happen at Disney?

Lee

Adventurer
I'm surprised no one has mentioned that this has happened before, with the same ride at Six Flags New England. Huge story a few years ago, still called the "Death Coaster" in these parts. A full-bodied but disabled man (MS? CP?) slid right out under the restraint and died.

And I'm not sure, but I remember that that wasn't the first one associated with the Man of Steel, either.
If I recall correctly, that gentleman was ...um...mentally challenged. He actively worked to get himself free of the restraints. He succeeded.
And though the name is/was similar, the two rides are totally different in layout. The one at SFNE generates some CRAZY negative Gs. I thought I might fly out on some of the final hills. Way fun, though.
The rides I think that could happen are...
No.
No WDW ride other than Tower generates enough negative Gs to force a full sized adult out of the restraints.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
It's a very sad story, and shows the importance of employees knowing the importance of policies and following them. Without training, people often look at rules and say 'oh, those are just CYA type rules' and they often discount that the rules are there for a good reason they may just not understand. The more people know and understand.. the more weight they put into things. It's ashame the operators didn't stop this - but I'm happy the family is taking responsibility for their own action as well. I'm surprised the civil agencies aren't pursuing stronger penalties against the park honestly.

It's hard to say without pictures... the articles don't really say how much leg stub the guy had left.. but saying he lost half his hip, I'd image not much! I would only hope for everyone involved he had some leg stumps that made it seem 'reasonable' when he got on the ride the lapbar and safety restraint had stuff to hold in. So I assume everyone had good intentions and it seemed reasonable at the time. But a sad story for everyone involved...

Edit: ok, looking at images of this ride.. this guy MUST have had reasonable stubs for anyone to even consider this guy riding the attraction. It's a lapbar in the sense of it's a hip-hugger per rider. See images at http://www.themeparkreview.com/buffalo03/sfdl/dl25.jpg . Sounds like more a misunderstanding of how much leg would really be required and why.. sad

I mean, just think if you were the people on CA screamin' last week and saw a backpack fly out... that would freak you out. But imagine seeing a PERSON fly off... that stuff you just can't comprehend.


Big Thunder at Disneyland is probably the worst; bad maintenance caused a car to break off from the locomotive, the locomotive flew in the air and landed on a rider, killing them.

Reading that sounds extreme.. it was more the front car running into the loco vs. things flying around. The locomotive's rear bucked up after the locomotive caught structure on the track, breaking the link between the loco and the front car. Immediately after the following car slammed into the locomotive which still had it's rear up on the air. Nothing flew and landed on people.. it was more like running into a stopped object... but the rear of the loco was up in the air when it should not have been of course.
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
I had seen the headlines & had the basic gist of what happened but not the details. Reading the articles in the links was a real eye-opener. Honestly, I feel like this is a case of shared responsibility and negligence. Both the ride operators and the guests have to be aware of what limitations exist and follow the rules in order to ensure safety. In this case the guest was obviously aware of his own limitations. The park had done all they could to inform the guest of the safety restrictions for his particular disability both by offering him the information pamphlet and with the safety signs posted at the attraction itself. Unfortunately, when it came time for the restrictions to be adhered to both the guest and ride operators chose to turn the other cheek. The guest ignored the signs & pamphlet (if he read it at all which clearly he had the opportunity to at least once) in his efforts to feel the way he did before the accident that changed his life. The employees had to have seen the guest who wasn't wearing his prosthetics seated in his wheelchair. The procedure mentioned in the article was that the guest with mobility issues would access the load area thru the exit ramp. This guest would've been easy to take notice of. To top it all, he had to be physically lifted from his chair into the ride vehicle. He wasn't assisted. His nephew lifted him to transfer. The final straw was when the employees would've done the obligatory restraint check. It's definitely a shared responsibility and negligence. I hope the family keeps the perspective they've expressed in their willingness to acknowledge that fact.

It's such a sad thing that a war veteran who survived such an unthinkable ordeal went out this way. It's also tragic for the poor nephew who was riding with his uncle who now lives with the k owledge that he physically placed his uncle in the ride. The ride operators, also noted that they are young adults, have to live the rest of their lives with a horrible tragedy that they naturally will likely feel some amount of responsiblity for. Just terrible all the way around.

You know, I can honestly say that there have been times where a CM has lingered near me and been a bit overbearing in their fervent demands to pull or push a restraint during a restraint check and I rolled my eyes or thought some unkind thought or made a snarky remark when they walked away. You know what? Next time I'll take a moment to look at them, smile, and say thank you. It's not just their butts they're trying to cover, it's mine, too. Ya know?
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
If I recall correctly, that gentleman was ...um...mentally challenged. He actively worked to get himself free of the restraints. He succeeded.
And though the name is/was similar, the two rides are totally different in layout. The one at SFNE generates some CRAZY negative Gs. I thought I might fly out on some of the final hills. Way fun, though.

No.
No WDW ride other than Tower generates enough negative Gs to force a full sized adult out of the restraints.


I'm not arguing... but it could happen on a few of those rides I mentioned.

-WondersOfLife


The last original pavilion. :king:
 

JT3000

Well-Known Member
No WDW ride other than Tower generates enough negative Gs to force a full sized adult out of the restraints.

You don't need a bunch of negative G's to fall out of a ride when you have no legs. The restraints are irrelevant because simple lap bars don't work in this situation. At all. The guy only had half a lap. A lap bar might as well not even be there.

You also have to remember that since a significant portion of the person's body is missing, they don't weigh as much as the average adult and have a much higher center of gravity. It really wouldn't take much to turn them into a ragdoll. Such a person probably risks being thrown from most of the rides that were listed.
 

iDonaldette

New Member
So Sad

Unfortunately this can happen at any thrill ride, at any park.

Disney is trying to provide more safety for guests, so incidents like this won't happen. I'm glad that they installed lapbars in Splash Mountain because people were exiting the ride before the final drop, "thinking" it was over believe it or not this has happened to me twice, and causes the entire ride to hault.
Disney is trying to be a safe place, but unfortunately bad things
Can happen anywhere.
 

cymbaldiva

Active Member
Okay, after reading the news articles it appears as though he was not wearing his prosthetic legs. This causes me to lean more toward the ignorant/negligent side of things for the ride operators. Not to be further insensitive, but I would think that he would also fall under the "you must be this tall to ride" rule. Again, not being insensitive, how many times has a child under a certain height been turned back from riding a particular ride? To me regardless of him not having legs that should have triggered at least one of the operator's common sense gene.

I was actually thinking the same thing - Once again, not to be insensitive, but without his prosthetic legs, how would he have met the height requirements for the ride?
 

EvilQueen-T

Well-Known Member
i could see letting him ride if it were an over the shoulder type harness but not a lap bar/strap type. the only way a lap type would work is if her were a below the knee amputee or just above the knee if he was tall...i.e., basically he would have to have had enough "body" to balance out and catch on the bar. sounds like he didn't. i don't think there is any ride at wdw orlando that would really be a problem though. i think at worst maybe there could be a potential to fall out of the seat on tower of terror or maybe space mountain could be an issue (maybe). rnrc is over the shoulder as is ee, thunder the worst that might happen is he could end up on the floor of the cart.

it's to bad the rides don't have a secondary lap belt with a between the leg harness kind of like the one they use on sorin for smaller riders, that kind of system in conjunction with what's normally offered might be able to allow people with disabilities to safely ride these types of rides.
 

AEfx

Well-Known Member
Reading that sounds extreme.. it was more the front car running into the loco vs. things flying around. The locomotive's rear bucked up after the locomotive caught structure on the track, breaking the link between the loco and the front car. Immediately after the following car slammed into the locomotive which still had it's rear up on the air. Nothing flew and landed on people.. it was more like running into a stopped object... but the rear of the loco was up in the air when it should not have been of course.

Ah, that changes everything, doesn't it? Oh wait - the guy is still dead, and died horribly and painfully.

So not really. ;)

I'm just going by the State of California report, which specifies the locomotive was "airborne". No matter if the vehicle was completely, or just partially, it was still a horrific accident, and a lot scarier to me than what happened to the gentleman written about in this thread (who is no less deceased but his death was a lot more predictable). I'm shocked Disney got out of the BTM incident so lightly.
 

AEfx

Well-Known Member
If I recall correctly, that gentleman was ...um...mentally challenged. He actively worked to get himself free of the restraints. He succeeded.
And though the name is/was similar, the two rides are totally different in layout. The one at SFNE generates some CRAZY negative Gs. I thought I might fly out on some of the final hills. Way fun, though.

I recall he was mentally as well as physically challenged, but I never heard that he tried to get out. The version I always heard was that he slid under the restraint.

And thanks for the info about the ride differences - I didn't realize that the Man of Steel rides were not identical. Interesting, though - that they are so involved in these incidents. DC must be thrilled with their choice of going with Six Flags now.
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
Well there's a surprise. I figured it was only a matter of time although you always hope for better. From the comments under the article it seems the law firm that's representing the family is known for it's blood-sukking qualities. Wouldn't it be fun for the companies named in the suit to counter-sue the family for the negligence of their family member who failed to observe safety warnings resulting in bad press?
 

JT3000

Well-Known Member
Wouldn't it be fun for the companies named in the suit to counter-sue the family for the negligence of their family member who failed to observe safety warnings resulting in bad press?

Do they want even more bad press? If not, that would be a terrible idea. The park is just as guilty as the man who lost his life. They didn't train their ride operators properly. Should there be a lawsuit? It's hard to say, but a large part of me thinks the park deserves to lose a lawsuit, even if they weren't the only guilty party. Maybe they'll actually start training their employees properly, so this doesn't happen again.
 

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
The park was wrong, so I hope the family wins some type of award. However, I don't want to see some crazy eight figure award because the man/the family hold some responsibility, too.
 

spoodles

Member
I hate all the lawsuits these days, but this one certainly isn't frivolous. I was surprised when I heard the family first comment that it was no one's fault and they were not going to sue. I imagine the family was hounded by law firms like crazy. I guess they were finally persuaded.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
well... based on what we know.. the guy was significantly responsible for the accident, but the ride operators were also at fault for failing to enforce their own safety policies and rules.

The suit would likely be addressed with comparative negligence where the claim will be reduced because of the guy's own negligence which contributed to the accident. So if they feel the guy himself was 75% responsible for the accident, and awarded a $10mil claim.. the claim would be reduced by 75% and the park would still pay them 2.5mil

This is why even if the guy was responsible for the accident, it can still be attractive to sue.

I'm not sure if NY has special amusement park laws regarding liability for accidents caused by the rider's negligence.. but I think most lawyers try to blow right past such laws anyways :)
 

juniorthomas

Well-Known Member
well... based on what we know.. the guy was significantly responsible for the accident, but the ride operators were also at fault for failing to enforce their own safety policies and rules.

The suit would likely be addressed with comparative negligence where the claim will be reduced because of the guy's own negligence which contributed to the accident. So if they feel the guy himself was 75% responsible for the accident, and awarded a $10mil claim.. the claim would be reduced by 75% and the park would still pay them 2.5mil

This is why even if the guy was responsible for the accident, it can still be attractive to sue.

I'm not sure if NY has special amusement park laws regarding liability for accidents caused by the rider's negligence.. but I think most lawyers try to blow right past such laws anyways :)

I wonder what happens to the ride attendants
 

plaz10

Well-Known Member
I don't know about other theme parks - but I know that at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, PA - there is a rule in the park guideline book that says every rider must have 3 appendages in order to ride the roller coasters and other "jerky" rides. I don't know if this is a widely used rule but perhaps he should have never been allowed on the ride in the first place for his safety.
 

Yodadudeman

Member
^^^ Yep, Channel 4 out of Buffalo reported last night that the family has filed a lawsuit against Darien Lake

And honestly I have no problem when it comes to this lawsuit. The park was careless and it cost someone there life. Should the guy have thought twice before he went on the ride? Yes. But it is the ride operators job to make sure that people with these types of disabilities don't ride. The blame is on the park. The lawsuit was inevitable.
 

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