People Magazine Article

Hey GTTP'ers be sure to pick up this weeks (07-29-02) issue of People. (Sharon Osborne is on the front) There is an interesting article called "For a Loop" which talks about a woman who suffered brain damage after riding "Riddlers Revenge" and is suing for 20 million. The whole thing is a bunch of ALLEGED findings, including a quote from a Doctor that said some of the brain injuries are POSSIBLY caused by thrill rides. I just loved how the attorney that handles claims against amusement parks managed to get his name and location printed, free advertising for anyone else interested in suing an amusement park. What do you know the ^%$#@ lives in Beverly Hills. Go figure that one!!
What I gathered from the article is if I have a pre existing heart condition and have a heart attack sky diving then I can apparently in turn can sue the sky diving company. I'm SURE that Beverly Hills attorney would take my case!

Interesting reading-alot of crap but interesting reading.

Jo
2000 Raptor Crew
Gemini 100 "Survivor"
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Cowboys dig cowgirls in trucks
Cowgirls dig cowboys in Wranglers! ;)

That lawauit is a load of crap! Thats almost as bad as the guy suing fast food restaurants b/c they "mad him fat".

And the American wheels of justice continue to spin, even with flat tires.... :(

That's funny after 209 rides on Millennium Force I'm still doing fine!
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00 MF Circuts=50
01 MF Circuts=124
02 MF Circuts=35

Can you believe that. I could barely go on to the second page. You can tell that they didn't do any research for that story. (They even called Riddler's Revenge, "Joker's Revenge", at one point, not that it matters.)
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A lap bar is all you need!

Coaster Point
http://www.expage.com/coasterpoint

...it sells.

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BTS Cedar Point
http://www.cedarpoint.tk

Although my kids would like to believe that my 563 Raptor rides (so far) have made me "wacked in the head" - that is simply not the case!! Raptor has NOTHING to do with THIS Mom being so wacked!!! :)

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Tony said:
"That's funny after 209 rides on Millennium Force I'm still doing fine!"

You so sure about that Tony?? ;)

Jo
2000 Raptor Crew
Gemini 100 "Survivor"
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Cowboys dig cowgirls in trucks
Cowgirls dig cowboys in Wranglers! ;)

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Welcome back Raptor riders-how was your flight??

Unfortunately, in our highly litigious society, lawsuits like this are filed all the time. Civil juries are much more likely to rule against big companies and throw their money around.

Although it is unlikely that the ride itself caused the injury, all the hype around park incidents tends to make people think that it is possible that the injury was caused by the ride.

In a civil case all you need is a "preponderance of the evidence", not "beyond a reasonable doubt". This lesser burden of proof makes it easier to win a claim.

People need to accept risk on a ride. If it ran off the track, that is one thing, but when the average person whom the ride was built for can withstand it, then I dont think the park should be held liable. It is not the park's fault that a person may have had a pre-existing condition that was aggravated by a ride. Do we have to have a medical clearance to ride from now on?

People have to know their limitations.
*** This post was edited by Digital Daredevil 7/31/2002 12:34:31 PM ***

Jo,

No, but I know it's nothing to do with Millennium Force.

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00 MF Circuts=50
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I had that issue in my hands at my mom's eye doctor office this morning; and I didn't see the article! Oh well, it's just another article about today's lawsuit-happy society.

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Andrew L. of Waterville, OH
Cedar Point, the cure for the Summertime blues! Of course, Summertime isn't blue for me.

People like that are full of crap. It's one person's bad experiance that was caused by a pre-existing condition, and they try to ruin it for everyone. If you can't handle it, don't ride. It's that simple.

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-Chris Woodard
Just because you can't justify charging $3 for a Pepsi doesn't mean you can't charge $3 for a Pepsi.

So I get up this morning and my mom says, "hey, your coaster's in the paper!" So I was like, "cool, for what?" Then she said, "not good news." It turns out that it was an article about coasters causing brain damage and the studies that are currently being done. Here's just a snippet of the quality of the article.

"The spiraling sizes of the monster coasters - some are exceeding 200 feet in height and 70 miles per hour - present real health dangers and need to be reined in, they say. The results of all that speed and height are expressed in G-forces, meaning multiples of the Earth's gravitational force, which is 1 G. Some of today's "hyper-coasters" exceed 6 G's. Space shuttle astronauts, by contrast, experience less than 4 G's on takeoff."

Once again, someone relates height and speed to G-forces. They even follow up that with a reasonable definition of what G-force is, but fail to see the lack of relation between height, speed, and G-forces. It's also funny how they take the term "hyper-coaster" and throw it around like every coaster built today is considered one. They didn't mention the fact that shuttle pilots endure the G-forces for minutes at a time instead of fractions of a second. Also, rides over 200 feet have been around for over a decade and no one cared until now! Perhaps she meant to say 300 feet and 90 miles per hour! :)

And the real pisser - the picture of Magnum, a coaster that has given over 27 million incident free rides in its 13+ seasons with the following caption:

"The Magnum is a popular ride at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Doctors and health officials are becoming concerned about the effects of rides like this on the human body."

Congratulions Debra Melani of Scripps Howard News Service! You just made an ass of yourself with such a piss poor article. Congratulations to the Daily Gazette in Schenectady, NY for publishing such a piece of trash too! :)

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

If they think the ride is so unsafe why don't they find that guy from the Discovery Channel special.

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long live the sky slide

I saw the article earlier today. Yep, it isn't worth crap. It's going to get a lot of people worried and flood amusement park offices with calls.

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Andrew L. of Waterville, OH
So what's better; skydiving or riding in Raptor's front seat?

Ralph, it isn't that the person is trying to "ruin it for everyone". That person just wants an excuse to get a lot of money out of a big company.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

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The MF Mole said:
If they think the ride is so unsafe why don't they find that guy from the Discovery Channel special.------------------

"that guy" from the Discovery Channel special is our very own Magnum Dan :)
There was also some crazy blonde who narrated Maggie on Discovery's latest Top 10 Coasters show but her name slips me at the moment! ;)

Matt instead of telling those newspaper idiots to "shut the **** up" ;) here, like there is a likelihood of them EVER reading this site Why not post the website addy so we can read the articles (for those of us like me who don't have access to those papers) so WE can email (or write them) ourselves? Just a thought! :)

I know when the Columbus Dispatch had one of those type articles last winter I wrote a letter slamming the article and they did print the letter! I also wrote a nasty letter to "People" about their latest article and I would LOVE for them to print that one too!

Although roller coaster "controvercy" is NOTHING new it just seems this year it has just gotten out of control Thank you Markey :(

Do we blame the roller coaster manufacturers and the amusement parks as these same type articles say, or do we blame the "get rich quick" low life citizens who hire themselves low life attorneys? You decide

Next we'll see Johnny Cochran hanging out around Camp Snoopy looking for a kid to cry after riding Woodstock Express

Jo
2000 Raptor Crew
Gemini 100 "Survivor"
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Cowboys dig cowgirls in trucks
Cowgirls dig cowboys in Wranglers ;)

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LuvRaptor said:

Matt instead of telling those newspaper idiots to "shut the **** up" ;) here, like there is a likelihood of them EVER reading this site Why not post the website addy so we can read the articles (for those of us like me who don't have access to those papers) so WE can email (or write them) ourselves? Just a thought! :)

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I checked their website to try to do exactly that, but unfortunately, they don't put the Lifestyles section online! :) It is probably a column that has or will appear in other papers too, so maybe if I come across it, I'll post it. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more idiotic articles for us to pick on real soon...

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew