Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky

[Krozar]

Semantic debates

:dazzle::dazzle::dazzle::dazzle::dazzle:

Reason #32854672305 that I don't go to Six Flags parks. I do not like Six Flags parks and I will continue having those feelings, thanks.

I feel so bad for this poor girl. What probably started out as a fun day with her friends ended with her having no feet. I hope they will at least be able to be reattached.

Disneyland - The accident happened on December 24, 1998. The victim, a 33-year-old man, was killed and two women were seriously injured as the Columbia, a full-size replica of an old American sailing ship, was docking. The ship had passed its normal docking point, but before the helmsman reversed the ship back into position, an employee had already lashed the ship to the dock. The mooring rope, which was designed to break under so much tension, tore off a foot-long metal cleat from the ship's hull, sending it flying into a crowd. The man and his forty-three year old wife were struck in the head and the other woman, an employee, sustained serious injuries to her legs. All three victims were hospitalized. The man was removed from life support about 11 hours after the accident. His wife suffered serious injury and underwent plastic surgery due to cuts to her face.​

I am never going back to a Disney park again!

Ouch!

And I can't believe the didn't [sic] the quotes from the witnesses! "I seen..." Gah! That drives me crazy!

What I find annoying is the overuse of "[sic]" when it's obvious to the reader that the quotes are vocal in origin and the source being unprofessional in nature, such as eye witnesses. Especially in news reports which use a lot of quotes. It would be as bad if new on TV inserted a "sic" sound clip while people are talking. It interrupts the flow of the inner voice.

However, I have my peeves as well. The greatest one is the common misuse of "it's."

So people can't dislike Six Flags? They have to enjoy it? Six Flags has some nice AMUSEMENT parks. But some people like THEME parks, which Six Flags doesn't have. So if people like being immersed in a theme, they won't like Six Flags.

Awesome point. WDW and DLR are a different ballpark.

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

It's also here:

http://www.rideaccidents.com/

Poor girl!

There's some pretty friggin gross injuries on that site.....that one about the 12 year old girl on the bumper car....how horrible!

That's really unfortunate what happened. I mean, anything could happen to any of us at any time, but it really stinks to have it happen while you're out having a good time with family and friends. I live in KY (never been to Six Flags, though), and I didn't know about this until now (actually haven't turned on the tv all day). Does anyone know if they were able to reattach the feet?

 

[haveyoumetmark]

For EVERYONE picking on Maelstrom: Six Flags has a concise history of horrific ride accidents, Disney doesn't! Let the poster have their own preferences. You don't have to agree on everything they decide. If they decide they don't want to go to Six Flags because it can be considered unsafe based on historical evidence, then that's fine. No reason to freak out on them, live and let live.

majortom1981: I don't think you're understanding what Champion's trying to say, to say the least.

Let's look at the news this way.

ALMOST EVERYONE: Take a look at your feet... (you seriously have to look at your feet, move them around...) they're there. This poor girl is 13 and does not have feet because she went and paid to enjoy herself at an amusement park. She was doing no harm, and now she's stuck without feet. She won't be able to share in the excitement of driving along with her other friends when they turn 16, she's unable to practice most sports, and she has even been denied walking, something most of us take for granted, at such a young age. Let's give this story a break. That's just IMO. My thoughts are with this girl and her family during her recovery, not Six Flags -- they can cover themselves.

 

[the-reason14]

Wow, that is incredibly awful. I sure hope that she and everyone else involved is ok. We had a ride like that at Astroworld in H-town the Dungeon Drop, and it used to be like my favorate drop ride. Im glad it closed and we stopped going there, I stopped back in 04 when me and my dad became Annual Passholders.

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

And I can't believe the didn't [sic] the quotes from the witnesses! "I seen..." Gah! That drives me crazy!

...Did you catch the double negative? Anyway...like I said in my earlier post, I was born and raised in KY. I'm surrounded by poor English. But it's not emphasized in most schools...at least, not until it's too late.
As Krozar said, it's just a raw quote from someone from the region...and that's just how people from this region of the US speak. I don't mind it except for the fact that everyone who hasn't been here now assumes we all speak like that.

But besides that, haveyoumetmark is right...the focus in this thread is getting way off the point. There's a young girl who now has a life-altering injury....and instead of focusing on that, we're focusing on bad grammar and if it's Six Flags' fault. In the big picture of what happened, that stuff doesn't matter. What's done is done and this girl and her family needs our thoughts and prayers.

 

[Fun2BFree]

Who's job is it to inspect their rides? Who's job is it to ensure their rider's saftey? Who's job is it to make sure there are no malfunctions on their rides? Who owns their rides? Six Flags. Six Flags, Six Flags, SIX FLAGS! And because of this, it is their fault for what happened to the poor girl on their ride.

Whose. Whose. :zipit: Anyhow, this is an accident. There have been more of these-type incidents in WDW than Six Flags in the past few years, and as much as it is not WDW's fault in the case of an accident, it is also not Six Flags' fault.

 

[PintoColvig]

Try as I might, I just cannot wrap my mind around what it is like to be that poor girl. She went to a park for a simple day of fun and left with a changed life. My heart breaks for her.

 

[scorp111]

Crazy.

Six Flags over Texas (Arlington) has a Superman Drop Tower, I would assume it is the same model.

 

[Lightyear]

Prayers to the little girl and her family.

 

[SpongeScott]

Has it been long enough yet so that we can bash Six Flags?

Six Flags sucks.

But I knew that before this accident.

 

[mary219]

That story gave me the heebie-jeebies.Oh,could you imagine what this poor girl must be going through?Stuntman freefall sounds like the same type of ride.Its in sixflags great adventure.It was one of my favorites but now i dont know if i could ride it after hearing this.

 

[coasterphil]

Crazy.

Six Flags over Texas (Arlington) has a Superman Drop Tower, I would assume it is the same model.

Not only is it not the same model, but it is from a totally different manufacturer.


As long as it doesn't turn out that the cable snapped due to lax maintenance, there isn't really anything Six Flags could've done. It is just an unfortunate accident that had a horrific outcome for the poor girl.

 

[ErinBrookeTX]

Six Flags in St Louis has the same ride by the same name. The one in Chicago has a ride like it, but a different name. I think this ride was at the Kentucky Six Flags the two times we went, but I don't think it was called Superman at the time.

That kind of ride doesn't thrill me much. It's along the lines of Dr Doom's Fearfall at IofA. They talked that ride up alot, but when I got on it, I thought it totally sucked and wasn't worth the hoopla everyone was giving it.

The one at St Louis was at Astroworld from 1997-2005. It was called the dungen drop. That is.... before Six Flags took away Astroworld from us. I know it constantly was down or atlease some of the seats were taped off when I remember riding it. I miss Astroworld...even though Six Flags let it go down hill majorly when they took over.

 

[Tramp]

Simply unimaginable. My heart aches for the young lady.

A neighbor of mine was nearly killed when the spring on his garage door snapped and it whipped down hitting him in the head. He didn't have the safety cable running thru the center of it. I guess I'm surprised that the ride's cable doesn't run inside some sort of harness to prevent it from snapping wildly in the event it broke.

 

[Bug715]

I live in Louisville and saw this in the paper this morning and on the news. This ride use to be called the Hellevator before Six Flags bought the park and changed all the names and has been in the park as long as I can remember. I have never been one to ride rides there because of the bad track record. My friend was on a ride when it broke down and almost died and has a huge scar because of it. I remember watching the travel channel years ago and there was a show of the 10 most unsafe rides. What was formerly T2 was number 2 or 3. That ride has been taken out. I know that accidents can happen but it seems that they happen a lot at ky kingdom. Years ago at a roast for a local news personality the host joked that the people in the box seats may want to move because the boxes were built by KY Kingdom. I've always felt safe at Disney but never at Kentucky Kingdom.

 

[Timmay]

A truly sad story.

The fact is that Six Flags is responsible for a ride failure...just as any other park would be.

One other thing...in the future, can we please do away with the silly notion that the media only reports on incidents that happen at Disney. This story is on the front page of several national news sites.

 

[jiminy.cricket]

Oh no!

 

[coasterphil]

I live in Louisville and saw this in the paper this morning and on the news. This ride use to be called the Hellevator before Six Flags bought the park and changed all the names and has been in the park as long as I can remember. I have never been one to ride rides there because of the bad track record. My friend was on a ride when it broke down and almost died and has a huge scar because of it. I remember watching the travel channel years ago and there was a show of the 10 most unsafe rides. What was formerly T2 was number 2 or 3. That ride has been taken out. I know that accidents can happen but it seems that they happen a lot at ky kingdom. Years ago at a roast for a local news personality the host joked that the people in the box seats may want to move because the boxes were built by KY Kingdom. I've always felt safe at Disney but never at Kentucky Kingdom.

1. I doubt Travel Channel would ever do a show such as "Most Unsafe Rides" and if they had I would know about it. I've been involved in enthusiast websites for 4 years and have never heard of such a thing. A show like that would've been a huge topic of discussion as park and coaster fans are very touchy when it comes to the safety issue, just as you guys are when the news portrays a death at WDW.
2. T2 is still at the park, running without a problem.
3. The fact that you lied about T2 and that I believe the show you described doesn't exist, leads me to doubt the rest of your claims.

 

[hls1023]

1. I doubt Travel Channel would ever do a show such as "Most Unsafe Rides" and if they had I would know about it. I've been involved in enthusiast websites for 4 years and have never heard of such a thing. A show like that would've been a huge topic of discussion as park and coaster fans are very touchy when it comes to the safety issue, just as you guys are when the news portrays a death at WDW.
2. T2 is still at the park, running without a problem.
3. The fact that you lied about T2 and that I believe the show you described doesn't exist, leads me to doubt the rest of your claims.

Terminator 2?

 

[dandaman]

I think T2 is a Vekoma SLC.

Someone on PointBuzz made a pretty valid point, I think:

The odds of this happening again are so remote, there really is no danger to anyone else riding these rides. The ride will be inspected for cable wear and be back up within a week.

I'm always amazed, when an amusement ride has a failure, every ride like it in the country has to go down. But when a plane crashes, we don't ground the entire country. This is very unfortunate, but nothing more than a freak accident.