New Steel Vengeance Locker System for 2021

I’m ok with following rules, especially if they contribute to everyone’s safety.
But for some time now I’ve wracked my brain trying to think of reasons that Steel Vengeance would have the zero-tolerance policy, especially compared to other rides at the park. There’s:

Intensity/extreme airtime- you mean like Magnum?

Angle of descent- you mean like Valravn?

Inversions- you mean like Raptor?

Proximity to queue or midway- like Corkscrew?

Difficulty in retrieving lost items- like Gatekeeper? Iron Dragon? Mine Ride?

It makes no sense to me. Universal has a couple of rides with similar and seeming arbitrary restrictions established too.

Dan Fielding said:

...there is possibility that while on the ride you could unbutton the pocket and the wallet could fly out causing all sorts of mayhem.

Funny - that was my thought too. And then I looked at everyone wearing watches. What is to keep someone from undoing their watch and throwing it and causing all sorts of mayhem???

So is the SV crew back to hand wanding each and every guest on all four sides?

At risk of stating the obvious, I don't think the park is worried about phones flying out of zippered pockets; I think the park is worried about guests who can't be trusted to keep their phones in zippered pockets. As a former ride op at a different park, I was amazed at how many guests were determined to take photos/videos on rides no matter what...

More broadly, I've always thought that SV's loose article policy is driven primarily by legal concerns. As others are saying, I don't see how a phone is safer on Maverick than SV. But after the phone injury on Twisted Timbers, I assume CF identified a legal liability specific to that and similar rides ("similar" in terms of manufacturer/model given the rationale behind changing Iron Dragon's height requirement years ago).

At the end of the day, I only hope that SV's loose article policy will be enforced less strictly as the years go by...

At the Winter Chill Out in early 2019, the park said they were finding 30 phones a day which were lost on Steel Vengeance. This was given as a reason for the change in the loose article policy. If there was also an incident on Twisted Timbers at Kings Dominion, that could also be a reason...but it is unlikely the park would ever indicate this publicly.

If the park was finding 30 phones a day under any other ride, I'm guessing they might change the policy for that ride also? Seems like both a hazard and customer service/public relations issue.

But you can bring up "legal concerns" and similar things, but that suggests that Cedar Point and this specific ride are some kind of unicorn in the universe that requires special circumstances. I mean, I did a dozen laps when it opened with a phone and wallet in my pocket. Was I unsafe at the time?

^ Maybe? Not because of you or anyone else with stuff in their pockets, but because of people with their phones out in front of you.

I witnessed a “flying phone” accident on another RMC, and it caused a fairly significant injury to an innocent guest. Maybe I’m just a wimp, but I do feel nervous when I find myself behind someone with their phone out on an intense ride.

That said, I don’t understand how CF or any chain analyzes loose article risks and arrives at different conclusions for seemingly similar rides. As Chuck Wagon says, maybe the parks’ internal lost article/injury data informs the decisions.

RCMAC said:

I’m ok with following rules, especially if they contribute to everyone’s safety.
But for some time now I’ve wracked my brain trying to think of reasons that Steel Vengeance would have the zero-tolerance policy, especially compared to other rides at the park.

I feel the same way. I have no problem with following rules, but I'm happier if I can make sense of them and especially if they're consistent. This one makes some sense but definitely falls short in the consistency department.

A little off topic here, but it's like the head-scratcher I encountered at Michigan's Adventure last week: the ride op made me take my sunglasses off on Zach's Zoomer and put them in the bin. That's never happened before. I looked around and saw at least a half dozen people on the train wearing (non-strapped) prescription glasses, which was apparently fine. The same day, ride ops had no problem with me wearing my sunglasses on Shivering Timbers or Thunderhawk! (I actually meant to take them off on Thunderhawk and forgot, then realized I had them on during the lift hill and dropped them down my shirt.)

CF people would freak out at Disney World. People have their phones out all of the time even on the most dynamic rides (even Space Mountain, in the dark, duh), and there are no seat belts and tourists check their own restraints.

30 lost phones a day, whew. If 30 idiots lose their phones each day then that is a service to our great nation.

^ Yeah, nothing but anarchy at that Disney place ;)

Velocicoaster at Universal has a similar locker system to what Cedar Point does on Steel Vengeance. While you are in line, you put your stuff in a locker, then go through metal detectors. The metal detectors can more than keep up with how fast they load the ride. So if Universal can do it without holding up the line, why does Cedar Point? Plus, Velocicoaster has a stall over the midway. In my mind, a loose article on Velocicoaster has a much higher chance of hitting someone than on Steel Vengeance.

Whatever the park decides as far as a loose article policy on the ride, there is absolutely no excuse for trains to be going out with empty rows if there is a line due to the implementation of the policy. If trains are going out less than full (and in some cases more than half empty) with a full queue, that's just bad execution of an already questionable policy.