Industrywide Maintenance and Safety Concerns

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mikes

mikes

Oct 23, 2019
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The GP is going to start to lose faith in ride safety soon. Parks and manufactures need to get a handle on this sooner than later. We can agree to disagree, my wife is already questioning things.

I'm not a structural engineer in any capacity, but with how many components are interconnected on this attraction, it almost seems like it may have made it too stiff in areas. It's just such an odd support system (ugly too).

[Admin Note: I broke this discussion off and created a new thread]
 
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mikes said:
Parks and manufactures need to get a handle on this sooner than later
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Maybe this should go to it's own thread, but heavily agree.

Just one look at r/cedarpoint and practically every other story involves downtime. SF parks are notorious for being cheap on everything, and the recent fiascos at GAdv don't help.

While I haven't been to Kennywood, it's between this ride and Phantom's Revenge that'd make it a destination (I'm sure there's more than that to bother going, but these two stand out). I'm not a credit-seeker, so it'd bum me out if I had tickets to find out that one of their two major rides I've heard about is closed indefinitely and knowing that the other may be subject to random downtime like the rest of the industry means it'll be a wasted day to go.
 
The Fury crack situation has pulled way too many eyes to roller coasters from people who don't know anything about them. I'm personally getting sick of being notified of rides being stuck on lifts or being block checked and people acting like I'm insane for knowing how roller coasters work. Magnum had a lift evac and it made local news in Richmond. WHY? It concerns me and I'm worried there could be voices that develop calling for the taming of rides or something REALLY stupid because that's some stupid BS the media could run away with.
 
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Local news outlets reporting on e-stops and evacuations isn't really anything new. While it is possible that the Fury crack will give these stories more traction, generally "concern" lasts for about one news cycle.
 
I’m not a ride removal advocate but:

I think much of this increase is partly due to just news spread being easier. But it’s also that it feels like it might be starting to turn into too much to manage. To preface - I don’t have any data to back this up.

But take Kennywood specifically. They don’t roll in money. They have 3 historic woodies to maintain in Jack Rabbit, Racer, and Thunderbolt. They have a few historic flats to maintain. Those take a lot of time and money. It almost puts the stress on them to check in on their steel coasters of Phantoms Revenge, Skyrocket, and Steel Curtain. Luckily for them every other coaster is really reliable that it doesn’t hurt a ton. But it hurts when they need to keep going back for things on one coaster that shouldn’t be a problem.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind if more parks took their time in new coaster additions. It’s not just the upfront costs but the backend costs and labor they need to be ready for and sadly don’t seem prepared.
 
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Nicole said:
Local news outlets reporting on e-stops and evacuations isn't really anything new. While it is possible that the Fury crack will give these stories more traction, generally "concern" lasts for about one news cycle.
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While I generally agree, I think what can be lasting from situations like this are perception and distrust. People visit parks and recall big news stories about a ride when the event happened years ago, so it can certainly alter how the general public views the ride or even the park itself. Fair or not, that just seems to be the way a lot of people think.

One example of this: I know several people who had negative perceptions of Shockwave at KD following the two incidents that took place in 1999. People were talking about them over a decade later.
 
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The Orlando Freefall incident certainly didn’t help matters any. I did end up doing a presentation on it for a class, but it more or less boiled down to 3 things: the modification that was made shouldn’t have happened to begin with, the victim should not have been riding in the first place, and there should have been a seatbelt.

The general public took this accident as “all drop towers are unsafe and should not ever be built again!”. When, in actuality, there’s multitudes of safety mechanisms, that are there to ensure you cannot leave the ride vehicle. Minimum verifies exists for that reason. Seatbelts on roller coasters and other thrilling flatrides exist for that reason. Manual release keys exist because harnesses are not supposed to unlock mid-ride.

The only reason so many people are terrified of rides is because the media blows everything way out of proportion. Fury’s incident, while very much shocking and a huge concern, continued operation without anyone noticing, or getting injured, for several cycles. It speaks to how overengineered these rides are. Additionally, when media sees something like an E-stop (as mentioned above), they think it’s the end of the world, when the ride was stopped as intended. I know my grandparents have asked me way too much, “Are you sure it’s safe? [insert ride e-stop in news story here] happened, and it doesn’t look like that was supposed to happen.” The media needs to take a chill pill. Report on actual news. If something like fury happens again, by all means, report on it. But don’t make a ride having to be evacuated seem like the end of the world.
 
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I'm wondering if making connections with local news outlets as knowledgeable enthusiasts could help for the next story when they want to get a quote from someone not employed by the given park?

Not saying that would be a perfect solution, and could possibly backfire, but I think it could be a start.
 
Jonesta6 said:
I'm wondering if making connections with local news outlets as knowledgeable enthusiasts could help for the next story when they want to get a quote from someone not employed by the given park?

Not saying that would be a perfect solution, and could possibly backfire, but I think it could be a start.
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They're not going to care. They want the big headlines even if it isn't 100% accurate.
 
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Coasternerd said:
The Orlando Freefall incident certainly didn’t help matters any. I did end up doing a presentation on it for a class, but it more or less boiled down to 3 things: the modification that was made shouldn’t have happened to begin with, the victim should not have been riding in the first place, and there should have been a seatbelt.

The general public took this accident as “all drop towers are unsafe and should not ever be built again!”. When, in actuality, there’s multitudes of safety mechanisms, that are there to ensure you cannot leave the ride vehicle. Minimum verifies exists for that reason. Seatbelts on roller coasters and other thrilling flatrides exist for that reason. Manual release keys exist because harnesses are not supposed to unlock mid-ride.

The only reason so many people are terrified of rides is because the media blows everything way out of proportion. Fury’s incident, while very much shocking and a huge concern, continued operation without anyone noticing, or getting injured, for several cycles. It speaks to how overengineered these rides are. Additionally, when media sees something like an E-stop (as mentioned above), they think it’s the end of the world, when the ride was stopped as intended. I know my grandparents have asked me way too much, “Are you sure it’s safe? [insert ride e-stop in news story here] happened, and it doesn’t look like that was supposed to happen.” The media needs to take a chill pill. Report on actual news. If something like fury happens again, by all means, report on it. But don’t make a ride having to be evacuated seem like the end of the world.
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Without real data, we don’t actually know what (or if) most people think about drop towers, in general.

I seriously doubt “most people” are afraid of thrill rides, because of media reporting on accidents. Thrill rides, by their nature, are designed to look and feel scary. People look at a long drop, or an inversion, or a lap bar, or whatever and feel fear/excitement/thrill/etc. That is literally the intent.
 
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Jonesta6 said:
You're missing my point - I'm not saying the sole story comes from one of us, I'm saying pull a PR move by making it easier on the reporter when they're trying to get any public reaction
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No offense, but unless you have an engineering degree, what you know doesn't matter to the GP. I'm not saying you don't know what you are talking about, so don't take it as that, but an enthusiast talking is just opinions at that point. Even if an "educated" person is wrong, most people will take that as fact over the non educated person.

Headlines are the problem and reactions from people who can't do any research on their own and then spread false information are a big problem.

But back to my original point. Companies need to be better. The 2nd crack found on Fury, but state inspectors, is unacceptable IMO. Might be time for a rigs that attach to the track and can video/photo areas that are difficult to see without being on the track
 
mikes said:
Headlines are the problem and reactions from people who can't do any research on their own and then spread false information are a big problem.
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Actually, this proves my point.

We can look at many news articles on a variety of topics and see where they bring in the reaction from random people as a way to guide the narrative and fill space - doesn't matter that the person being interviewed has no subject expertise.

When reporters are covering such stories, they usually have to go and find some random person to get the quote - hell, I've had it happen to me a few times for local news crews because I happened to walk by at the right time.

The challenge for the reporter is finding a person if they're writing their story from the newsroom instead of on location - which could be for several reasons why they're doing that. In these scenarios, it's always going to be easier to get in touch with a willing person the reporter has contact info and a rapport with that also happens to be an enthusiast for the interview than it would be to go find someone truly random and get their consent.

While we shouldn't expect any publication to do any major fact-checking on such a minor topic for the average person (unless there's actual injuries/deaths that are being reported on), being the person most of these reporters turn to for public reaction coverage helps the publication in turn generate more accurate reporting while still getting to be able to get the panic clicks they rely on (as much as we all wish that wasn't how it works).

Source - I worked in the news industry for a few years.
 
Nicole said:
Local news outlets reporting on e-stops and evacuations isn't really anything new. While it is possible that the Fury crack will give these stories more traction, generally "concern" lasts for about one news cycle.
Click to expand...
Didn't a group of guests at BGW file a lawsuit because of injuries sustained from their train on Apollo STOPPING NORMALLY IN THE FIRST SET OF BREAKS? GPs filed a lawsuit because the ride stacked, complaining of neck injuries. Am I misremembering this? Maybe 2 years ago?

EDIT: Yeah it was something like this- Apollo's Chariot E-Stop Results in Multiple "Injuries"

Still not sure if it was an emergency stoppage or normal ride operation, but regardless it is quite silly.
 
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mikes said:
But back to my original point. Companies need to be better. The 2nd crack found on Fury, but state inspectors, is unacceptable IMO. Might be time for a rigs that attach to the track and can video/photo areas that are difficult to see without being on the track
Click to expand...

This part I don't disagree with in theory - in practice, there may be multiple methodologies that could work including a good ol fashioned tie off a maintenance team for scheduled section walks.

But otherwise, using the Fury weld issue as an example, the real question is if there can be a relatively cheap and reliable method to catch weld and/or other non-visible materials issues before they break?
 
Jonesta6 said:
Actually, this proves my point.

We can look at many news articles on a variety of topics and see where they bring in the reaction from random people as a way to guide the narrative and fill space - doesn't matter that the person being interviewed has no subject expertise.

When reporters are covering such stories, they usually have to go and find some random person to get the quote - hell, I've had it happen to me a few times for local news crews because I happened to walk by at the right time.

The challenge for the reporter is finding a person if they're writing their story from the newsroom instead of on location - which could be for several reasons why they're doing that. In these scenarios, it's always going to be easier to get in touch with a willing person the reporter has contact info and a rapport with that also happens to be an enthusiast for the interview than it would be to go find someone truly random and get their consent.

While we shouldn't expect any publication to do any major fact-checking on such a minor topic for the average person (unless there's actual injuries/deaths that are being reported on), being the person most of these reporters turn to for public reaction coverage helps the publication in turn generate more accurate reporting while still getting to be able to get the panic clicks they rely on (as much as we all wish that wasn't how it works).

Source - I worked in the news industry for a few years.
Click to expand...

For what it is worth, BGWFans has, in fact, been contacted in the past by local media to explain and verify things they were hearing.
 
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