Scared To Death on Mantis

Today, I became SCARED TO DEATH on Mantis. The lift was all nice and happy, as I anxiously awaited my wonderful B&M ride. But, as I made my way around the initial curve, my shoulder harness POPPED OPEN! Thank the good lord for the belt!! Naturally, it took about .0001 secs for me to push it down on myself, and hold on for dear life on the ride. But, on the midcourse, I decided to see if it relocked. It had, but I still did not release myself from the clench I had on that bar.
Now, last year, one of my friends told me that the bar unlocked, and I did not believe him. Now, I owe him an apology. As I got off, I tried to tell an OP, but nobody would listen to me!! Now, I figure, if that happened with a child, that could be dangerous. HAs this ever happened to anyone, and ops, have you ever heard a complaint about it.

So I guess there really is reason for those annoying seatbelts they put in last year...

That sucks! I wuz just their today. What time did you ride it??? We rode it around 4:00 or something. I would have been scared to death!
Thanks for those seat belts!

Yeah Cedar Point Doubles safty on most of their rides. Either with seat Belts or the thing to keep the OTSR down

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Millennium Force Rids:1
Magnum XL-200 Drop:3

That's exactly why they added the seatbelts, because the bumpiness of the ride can pop them open. It also happened to my friend on Raptor and Iron Dragon.

Iron Dragon and Disaster Transport still don't have seat belts, right?

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Dispatch Master, This is Transport one! I'm losing control, I'm losing control!

Iron Dragon doesn't, but I don't now about DT.

There are no seat belts on DT.

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Brandon Sorc
Millennium Force count:41
www.spiritofthepoint.com

On the Arrows (I don't know about the others) the restraints tend to open two or three notches. It can feel like they open but they often go back down by you pushing on them and not realizing. This happens the most on the Arrows but I guess it could happen on some other coasters as well. This can effect small riders and Cedar Point realized this. Instead of raising the height requirement they added seat belts on many rides. The only three coasters that do not have them are Disaster Transport, Jr. Gemini, Iron Dragon, and Corkscrew. I am going to go out on a lim and say that the Intamin coasters do not have this problem and do not need seat belts (Millennium has belts because it uses the new T-bar). The corkscrew design must not have the problem either or at least you won't fall out if it opens a notch because of the way you are seated.

It is also worth a mention that all CP coaster built Mantis and beyond will have those opening gates (or will not let you wait on the platform).

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Dispatch Master, This is Transport one! I'm losing control, I'm losing control! *** This post was edited by Magnum is sinking! on 6/22/2000. ***

Why would you need seatbelts on DT? Back to the original topic...WOW! That is one of my worst nightmares. I'm glad nothing happened and you are O.K. I am constantly checking the seatbelts on Mantis and Raptor in case an occasion like this were to happen.

In my opinion, the B&M stand-up restraint is not a particularly good design. If the latch should fail, you're out of the train. Period. So the safety belt is a good idea; it's just that on Mantis it's about 3" too short unless they changed them this season.

I believe Jr. Gemini does, in fact, have seat belts.

Mine Ride's lap bars are not going to pop open during the ride. The latching mechanism is very secure unless the person in the front seat somehow manages to pop the pedal. On Gemini and Magnum, though, I have had those style bars (once on Gemini, twice on PKI's Adventure Express) pop open one notch. It usually happens if the bar is down too far to begin with and is thus not fully engaged...the ratchet pawl is engaged not with the tooth of the ratchet, but with the tip of the tooth. By design, it can't pop open more than one notch unless it moves very quickly, and it will immediately re-lock, so that by pulling down on the bar you can get it to re-latch. This is one of the reasons I usually push the bar pretty hard when I self-check it...so that if it isn't fully engaged I can force it to fail back to the previous notch where it will latch properly.

Iron Dragon and Disaster Transport would probably be perfectly safe with no active restraints at all. So would Wildcat except for the sudden stop at the end. I sometimes wonder if Wildcat got seat belts because the sudden stop comes *after* the lap bar is released.

Blue Streak and Mean Streak both have seat belts because seat belts are standard equipment on all PTC trains and have been for a number of years...they meet factory specs that way. Likewise Raptor and Millennium Force. and their respective manufacturers.

That leaves Woodstock and Corkscrew. Woodstock would also be safe with no active restraint, except that you're dealing with small children. Pity the belt is too short to go around two adults. Corkscrew probably doesn't have anyplace secure enough to attach a belt to, and 24 years of operation without them have proven them unnecessary. The shoulder bar on Corkscrew has two independent locking mechanisms (one mechanical, one hydraulic) and besides, except for the second hill, the ride would probably be safe with no active restraints at all.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It's not just B&M stand-ups, I think it's B&M in general, because it's happened to me on Raptor, and it scared the hell out of me. Why do they do this?

I know someone who rode Gemini, and their bar never latched to begin with (it didn't pop open, it just didn't work.) The ops weren't paying enough attention to notice, according to them. They said it was one exciting ride...

The same thing happend to me on 6/21. Mine popped open just before the top of the lift hill, so I had a little more time to close mine and check my daughters. I'm glad it wasn't my kids that popped open because she would have freaked out. Thats the first time that has ever happend to me on any ride. I rode the rest of the ride with a death grip on her harness. Not too fun.

That happened to me the first year of Mean Streak on the way up the hill -- popped right up. That is why I won't ride Power Tower, Im just sure it's going to pop open and PT is NOT a ride I want that to happen on!!!! But for some reason I will chance it and ride the space shot side.

I hate to break it to you CPAnimal, but the effects of an open shoulder harness would be much more devastating on the space shot side than the turbo drop.

Don't worry about it, though. Those harnesses are so stiff, I don't think they could pop open. And they have a seatbelt to keep them down, too.

*** This post was edited by RPerz on 6/23/2000. ***

I heard this somewhere, and I think it was accurate. The harness CAN'T pop open on Power Tower because there is a sensor on either the seat belt or harness that goes off if it malfunctions. If this happens, on the turbo drop, it will be lowered back down, and the space shot will not go up. (not 100% sure though)

There is no telemetry between the Power Tower car and the ride while the ride is in operation. There is an electric busbar at the base of the tower to release the bar, and I believe a set of busbars was added in the ride's second season to make sure all the shoulder bars are down before the ride can start. But once it is going, there's no telling what the bars are doing.

I am not certain, but I think the bars on Power Tower are hydraulic, meaning that, since the control valve closes when power is released, the only way it would open up is if the plumbing fails...and since the only source of pressure in the system is bar movement, that is unlikely to happen. If it does happen, the safety belt will prevent disaster.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Last year, a friend of mine forgot to buckle the belt on Mantis. The ride ops didn't notice-he looked down and saw it during the corkscrew. Imagine if his harness would have come loose. That is really scary!

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Jeff Young

Dosen't Iron Dragon have the same system as Corkscrew?

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Dispatch Master, This is Transport one! I'm losing control, I'm losing control!