Is MF next on the list to be closed?

California’s Department of Occupational Saftey and Health has requested that both Xcelerator at Knott’s Berry Farm and Superman: The Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain be shut down until they can modify the Intamin T-Bar restraints. Although MF is said to be a more modern T-Bar design, could CP be ordered by the state of Ohio to modify MF.

Here is the news article: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/8818417.htm

It would be a sad summer in Sandusky if mistakes made by other parks resulted in the temporary closing of a perfectly safe ride!

I highly doubt they'll get to Ohio just yet. I think if they are going to mess with Millennium Force it would be at the end of the season towards like September and October when Halloweekends are around and the park is hardly busy. I think though that they won't modify any changes until the off-season again.

I saw the article and I don't think MF is going to shut down any time soon. CP will get this restraint problem solved until the off-season, but until then we can only wait until what the state of Ohio has to say.

If this does happen I still hold SF ride ops accountable for all this crap that has happened.

Now lets not be prejudice here Cedar Point King. It was just a few stupid ops from Darien Lake, not all of them.

California and Ohio are two different states. If a Ohioan amusement parks had 2 deaths over a couple of years it would be a different story, but they didn't.

I could see, however, Cedar Point taking their, "better be safe than sorry" motto by replacing the lap bars this off season. This might also help a couple of people ride, if CP did indeed decide to make the lap-bars larger.

If Ohio did decide to make MF change their lap-bars, why wouldn't TTD have to as well. I don't think that the lap-bars ever failed, but the design is the thing that failed.

Also, how are the MF t-bar restraints different then Xcelerator's or S:TE?

As has been mentioned on CoasterBuzz, it was stupid to close Xcelerator because while it may look similar, it's not the same restraint. It has the same deep seats and bent bar that Dragster has. Sit on Dragster and Millennium Force within 20 minutes of each other and you can feel just how different Dragster is. California is being reactionary without any data to support the order, and that's wrong.

Not that I've gone out and measured, but I bet if you went around to every park with an Intamin hyper in the U.S. on January 1 and measured the seat belts, MF would have the shortest of any of them. It certainly wouldn't be 11" too long like the New England ride.

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California is being reactionary without any data to support the order, and that's wrong.

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Hey, they're just following Intamin's lead. The 1" slack rule is right up there for being "reactionary without any data".

The whole thing is surreal. Logic may eventually prevail, but it's sure taking its time.

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I don't think that the lap-bars ever failed, but the design is the thing that failed.

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I don't think it was the restraint's fault, at least there's no evidence. It was most likely the fault of the ride op who let the man ride S:RoS, when he was too big to ride. This is no reason to shorten seatbelts at CP! The man was too big, or he had something around his waste that made him too big. As long as the ride ops at MF, and every other ride, are careful, they shouldn't need to modify any seatbelts or restraints. *** Edited 6/4/2004 12:08:27 PM UTC by Erikjc***

Erikjc, I know about that incident, but the other two fatalities on Hydro and Perilous Plunge...

I blame SF ride Ops. Last time I was at SF, most were rude and careless....unless it was just me. I also doubt MF would be closed...go looks at the lenghty board about the Seat Belt change :P

Not all SF ride ops are rude and careless. Just at parks like SFMM and SFNE etc, I work at SFEG and our management is strict when it comes to safety, they make sure they teach us everything we need to know. Being such a small park we are more organized. Its not all SF parks that have rude employees (SFEG has the best customer service of 2003 and 2002, so i guess that makes up for SFEG being one of the worst parks on the chain) As for the ride restraints, It wasn't the companies fault. It was SFNE's fault for not training the ride operators the simple factor that *people of exceptional size who clearly can't fit in the restraint without it closing properly can't ride* So please don't let SFNE and this incident reflect your views on all of Six Flags *** Edited 6/5/2004 4:38:11 AM UTC by EmrgncyStop***

I have to agree, even tho there are definitely some SF ride ops that are totally rude and inconsiderate, it's only at some SF parks. SFoG for example has very nice ride ops, but I think they should all be trained the same way. I mean it only took a few that weren't paying attention or just didn't care that ruined it for all of us....

There is an obvious difference between SF and CP. CP people are excellent, or are just very good actors, at showing courtesy and being happy around the riders. I don't see any problem with MF being closed in the future, not that im an expert or anything, but I agree that if they do have to close it, it will be around the end of the season.

I thought the problems were that people could get out if they tried, and some people that were partially mentally retarded actually were able to get out of the restraints. Is anyone exactly sure what happened?