Corkscrew got seatbelts.

Ejmcoaster said:
I hardly think this will slow down loading/unloading by that much to even make a difference. It's not that hard to use a seat belt. Do you think Raptor's loading/unloading would be any faster if that ride didn't have seat belts?

There are some stupid people in this world. You would think a seatbelt would be easy but well you know.

Corkscrew sees very small crowds anyway. An extra 30 seconds won't hurt anything. And 3 train operation isn't even needed.

Those seatbelts look like... makeshift seatbelts... like the maintenance crews woke up and said "hey let's throw some seatbelts on there!"

ShiveringTim said:

Anybody been on Double Loop @ GL lately??

Just waiting for RideMan's filibuster on the matter :)

I went on it 6/10 as of then no seatbelts have been added.

Gomez - small lines do not equal small crowds. Sure maybe the ride isn't as popular as it once was, but it is still the 8th most ridden ride at Cedar Point according to their own site (http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/tips_faq/faqs.cfm). I suppose by your logic you could say Magnum doesn't experience large crowds. And yet it is one of only two rides that gave over 2 million rides last season. Who's going to be happy about waiting in a 30 minute line for Corkscrew? Remember when Gemini ran 6 trains and never had a line? Now with only 4 trains, it has a line on busy days. Corkscrew will be the same way now.

The ride has run for 29+ seasons without anyone falling out and now they find the need to add seatbelts. Hell even if there was some sort of incident this year, I'd say it could probably be blamed on bad maintenance and not something unsafe about the ride's design. But in true CP fashion, rather than fix the real problem, they just put a band aid on it.

When I was on Corkscrew last Thursday night they were stacking with two train operation. I think you can forget about three train operation improving capacity.

This really ticks me off.

Useless safety precautions everywhere are ruining the experience of The Point.

The fact is CP needs stitches.

No, CP needs Lipo. Get the worthless fat out and you are left with a leaner and hopefully more efficient process.

I have been driving for 21 years and fortunately have never needed my seatbelt. Does this past history mean that I should stop using it? No. The trouble with safety is that it is not about the past - it is about the future. Safety prevents future accidents from happening. So saying that since something has been accident free for 29+ years does not mean that an accident cannot happen in the future.

I am not rushing to the park's defense on this one but look at it from their perspective. A seatbelt is a simple way of adding another layer of safety thus minimizing their risk.

What I can't figure out is the fuss over the Corkscrew belts. Wicked Twister, Raptor, and Mantis use belts as well. Why are there no angry threads about them? Why are the belts accepted on these three rides but not Corkscrew? I could see the argument that the belts on Raptor and Mantis could keep someone from falling out of the harness but that argument does not hold on WT since its belt is on the side. It appears that its belt is there solely for a potential harness release. If that is so why aren't we mad at that ride?

As of 6/9, there were no belts on Corkscrew, so not seeing any on Double Loop on 6/10 may be meaningless.

What I don't quite understand...

First of all, the Arrow shoulder bar has, if I remember correctly, three locking mechanisms: a double ratchet, and a hydraulic cylinder.

Second, the forces on Corkscrew are such that if the shoulder bar did fail, you would still be in the train when you got back to the station. That goes double for Double Loop.

Third, if they were going to install a safety belt on Corkscrew, why didn't they do it in such a way that it could be checked visually? The reason that most rides that use them put the buckle on the shoulder bar is so that if it isn't fastened, the belt will literally fall out of the latch. Heck, why use seat belt components at all? Why not just put an eye-bolt on the shoulder bar and use a snap-hook on the end of the strap that can be fastened in an instant, and that won't appear to be fastened if it isn't? It's not like there's no precedent for that sort of thing...just look at the Lolli Swing in Camp Snoopy...!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I'm reasonably certain that you've seen the way things are done at Cedar Point, Dave. But, just in case, I'll spell it out for you as plainly as possible. When improving the "safety" of a ride, it must be done with as few man hours, and as little material cost as possible.

From what I see in the pictures that were posted previously, it seems the belt loops around the restraint and is secured to itself with a screw. There's nothing actually securing the belt to the restraint other than a loop of itself. The hardest part of the install the way this is would have been mounting the latch to the seat (which, by the way, I'm willing to bet is only anchored to the fiberglass shell and not the chassis of the train). Had they mounted the latch on the restraint and the belt on the seat, there would have been double the drilling, double the time. Plus, why pay for four screws when you can pay for three?

Mr Darling, that was an unfair slam. CP has proven time and time again it's willingness to invest in itself. Just because you don't agree with an investment doesn't mean the park "takes the cheap way out" all of the time.

And I agree with most that seatbelts on a ride that has given tens of millions of rides without ejecting someone is foolish. Maybe the belts are just for show and that's why the investment was minimal.

MrScott
*** Edited 6/20/2005 6:55:19 PM UTC by MrScott***

Did you happen to see the Woodstock's Express seatbelts? They're seatbelts from Magnum with a pice of plexiglass with a hole in it glued over top of the buckle . You can't tell me that gluing scraps of fiberglass over a buckle rather than investing in something of higher quality isn't taking the cheap way out.

I am fairly certain I would enjoy a ride on Corkscrew with or without this seatbelt.

But, I don't understand all the fuss, unless you look at all of the complaints this year as a whole.

But, if we just look at this particular instance: Could it be that there was a failure since the beginning of the season...or maintenance found a problem that needed attention right away? Could it be that the fix would be time consuming and thus they want to wait until the off-season for the repairs? Could it be that they felt comfortable that this seatbelt would be a sufficient temporary fix before the real fix is complete?

Or, do you think they are just doing this in order to piss you all off some more?

Just remember, Our lives are spent in, on and around items built by the lowest bidder. Why would a park be any different.

John, How would going out and buying brand new belts and buckles have any affect when they can do just as good a job with an old buckle and piece of plexiglass. It doesn't add to the strength of the buckle, but it does keep some curious kid from opening the belt halfway through the ride.

Why spend 50 bucks for whole new buckles, when you can get the same result with a 5.00 sheet of plexiglass?

DING! DING! DING!

Jugga wins da prize! :)

MrScott

No way will this be a temporary thing.

Say they removed the seatbelts and, then, something completely unheard of happens such as a catastrophic restraint failure (not likely, but you never know). Imagine what a lawyer would say: "So, there used to be a backup seatbelt on this ride, but it was removed?"

The reason this has pissed people off is that it's another one of those *visible* "safety" changes, that protects from lawsuits, but not much else.

It's unnecessary- but, then again, so is the seatbelt on any B&M OTSR. There's no single point of failure on the locking mechanism on those restraints... at least all of the B&M rides actually *open* with the belts now, rather than being added during their 30th season (or 3rd-ish in the case of Mantis)

John, we haven't seen photos of the buckle yet. Those buckles are probably welded to a stalk that goes down through the 'glas and bolts in place. Corkscrew doesn't have any chassis to speak of to attach anything to unless you go down below the floor pan. Okay, then why not use that same method to attach a belt with a dog-clip on the end, and use the exact same attachment to the shoulder bar as they used...but a shorter belt with a ring on it. Ever ride any Wave Swinger at any park other than Cedar Point?

You know, the way they did the seat belt for Woodstock also suggests the way to fix it: Just get a drill and a 1" Forstner bit (cuts flat-bottom holes in wood) and drill right through the plexi, being careful not to cut into the pushbutton...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

A + B = C.

Protect yourself from a lawsuit. (A)

Insurance doesn't go up faster than gas. (B)

Ticket Prices don't go through the roof. (C)

Again, we see this all around the world now. Why should amusement parks be exempt?

At Christmas time, how many of your children's toys come in a package that says, "Warning...please do not let your children play with empty bag"?

Have you ever read the back of an event ticket...like a baseball game? It would be faster to read "War and Peace".