Arms down??

TTD stresses arms down on the ride (back of the seat in front of you, recordings). Is this ride unsafe to ride with arms up? For that matter, I'm sure ride designers recognize alot of people will raise their arms on any given coaster. Do they design for this even if they place warnings to the contrary? And if someone gets hurt, would they be considered violating park rules & causing their own injury if their arms were up during the ride? Thanks :)

It's "safe" because thousands of people ride it that way ever year. But, I'm sure there could be that one person that is injured because they have weak bones or no arm muscles or something weird like that. So, the warnings are there to partly protect the park from lawsuits and partly protect the riders.

I've always had my hands up.

Except for that first ride...

Seriously, it's unbelievable with your hands up. It feels like you're flying!

Could the park technically prosecute anyone who rides a roller coaster with their hands up? Aren't you breaking one of those Ohio Revised Codes that states you obey all ride operator warnings and such?

I put my hands up on my most recent (5th) ride on TTD. It adds a whole new layer of excitement to the ride. My guess is that they just have the "arms down" there so that they don't get sued if someone gets hurt with their arms up. For example the 4 people who were injured when the cable frayed had their arms up (I believe). In 2006 they would play the arms down thing over and over until everyone had their arms down right before the launch. Now it just plays right when the fins go down and they don't wait on people to put them down. So it seems like they are not too worried since they don't wait for people to put their arms down anymore.

CP probably could prosecute you but they could also prosecute you for doing high five on Gemini and taking pictures from the skyride/ferris wheel but to my knowledge they haven't prosecuted anyone for a "minor" violation like that yet.

*** Edited 7/17/2007 2:47:12 AM UTC by cdrptrks***

Why didnt you come directly to me with this question Randi!??

lol;)

^Because it's all your fault I'm addicted to this ride now, when for all these years I wouldn't even go on it! ;)

I recently rode with my arms up all the whole way as well. but I'm beginning to question my sense of judgement since they repeat over & over "arms down". With all the horrible accidents lately in the amusement industry (another death recently), I'm just wondering if something that is so common place is, in actuality, dangerous. I realize that all the accidents have different factors & none are related to riding arms up, but it got me wondering. I guess I always assumed that if something did happen, holding a bar wasn't going to help anyway since the force would be much greater than my ablility to hold on.

There's also the issue of the drag forces from the air. At the speed that Dragster reaches, there is a LOT of drag force on your arms if you have them up. I could potentially see that if someone wasn't ready for it and didn't brace themselves, there could be some injuries just from the speed of the air relative to your arms.

cdrptrks said:
For example the 4 people who were injured when the cable frayed had their arms up (I believe).

A warning to keep your arms down would not release Cedar Point from responsibility in a case like this.

I have had my hands up for every ride on TTD and had no trouble. I really don't see how it could hurt a person in good health.

Yeah, even on my first ride (front seat!) I put my hands up the whole way. They told us not to do it during the launch, so I at first had them pointed forward, but once we got moving I put them straight up. What a ride... to be honest I can't remember the last time I held on during a ride.

What's funny about this is this past Sunday I had my arms up in the front seat the entire time, including when my restraint was checked and when we rolled out for the launch and no ride op said anything to me...

Later on, it seemed an entire train had their arms up and it was a rollback...so looks like I now know what me and 17 other friends need to do to guarantee a rollback!

I believe they got a new giant speaker on Sunday. They were having issues with it yesterday. The train rolled up and there was just a whole lot of static.

Randi - Putting your hands up may actually be desirable if you're trying to avoid injury. A mother in England claimed the launch of Rita: Queen of Speed (slower launch than Maverick) was so forceful, it ripped her 12 year old daughter's hands from the safety bar and broke both of her wrists.

So, maybe we shouldn't be holding on because it's a safety hazard? :)

That's actually a REALLY good idea tigellinus! Why didn't I think of that before.... I'm making everyone in my group put their hands up next time.

Maybe it is the manufacturer's recommendations. CP always follows the guidelines set forth.

Cedar Point would be liable regardless of the signs most likely. Not much different than a truck that has a sign on the back saying "not liable for objects thrown from truck". They are. So is Cedar Point unless a court decides they aren't. That being said, the manufacturers know hands/arms will be up and design them for that, since they don't want to deal with the lawsuits either from an injury

Don't count on it Dvo. I've seen hundreds of trains launch (with almost everyone with their arms up) and make it over the tower with no problem. In reality, an entire train of "hands up" won't actually cause enough wind friction to slow the train down to cause a rollback. The fact that tigellinus's rollback was with a train in which everyone had their arms up is just coincidence. It's better to blame the rollback on weight, the hydraulics, or even high winds near the top of the tower.

*** Edited 7/18/2007 12:43:59 AM UTC by TTD 120mph***

So... You're saying that we need Hagrid or his brother to blow on the top of the ride to (hopefully) produce a rollback?

Sorry, Harry Potter mania lately. :)

Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 1711.551 states that all rides must obey a ride operators commands. Failure to comply is a misdemeanor. That's a crude abbreviation and I had to use that once or twice while working at KI. They say to keep your hands down as a safety precaution, much like on the Beast it warns you before the last tunnel to keep your hands down (you can touch your hands on the tunnel walls.) This kind of thing technically releases the park from liability.