It's a Small World UPDATE!...

[Sledge]

That's probably why you can't unbuckle your seat belt on Kali River Rapids, and the ride won't start unless everyone buckles them.

I don't know if anyone knows but it was all over the news here, The Six Flags Over Texas version of this ride actually flipped over and a lady couldn't get out of her seat belt and drowned as the boat continued through the water. Apparently at the bottom of the "river" there are tubes running across it that makes the waves (no clue how that works), but the boat dipped down too far when going over one of the "bumps" and got caught on one of the tubes and it flipped the boat over. The ride was closed for a while and they changed something up with the tubes. I thought that was pretty freaky but one of those fluke things that probably won't happen anywhere again, or at least for a long long time.

 

[ogryn]

I found this...

Reports about accidents concerning guests at Busch Gardens are *very* rare, tho they do occur ... This I viewed on CNN around the end of the '00 season: A woman (in her mid twenties) drowned when her 'boat' overturned, pinning her, and several other guests, under the one-and-a-half ton vehicle. The report also included an eyewitness that speculated riders were rocking the boat before the accident happened. An employee of the park informed me the overturned craft story is true, however, he claims, no death actually occurred.

The tubes are just like rocks on a real river bed, they disrupt the flow of water (pushing it up, thus the boat goes up, and back down over it and SPLASH!).

 

[Sledge]

Wow maybe it isn't as rare as I thought. I don't understand how you could live. Those seat belts are tricky enough when you aren't upside down underwater. On top of that you have to get out from under the raft which is probably hard with the current pushing you and the raft. That would definitely suck.

 

[ogryn]

In this country, none of our rapids have seatbelts on. I don't know if it American legislation, or the because the boats are bigger over there, or what?

 

[Dredd15]

I'm taking my daughter to Disney World in February, it'll be her first time (she'll be about 14 months old). I was really hoping that It's a Small World would be open then.

I was about 16-18 months old on my first trip, and the only thing I remember was "It's a Small World" ... I guess its a pretty memorable ride, especially for infants!