Seat Belt Issue Lead Item At NewsChannel5.com!

The story says the belts were moved causing a tighter fit. Hmm...

should be newsnet5.com

sorry,been a long day *** Edited 5/20/2004 1:41:34 AM UTC by MFJedi2***

but is it talking about how pissed off people are at being turned away after fitting in the test seat and waiting in line assuming they can ride??

is it talking about how many people wont be back because of this??

i certainly hope this comes out looking bad on CP. i love the park, dont get me wrong. but sometimes, not all publicity is good publicity and MAYBE they will see how badly this is reflecting on them.

BTW, where is Mr Kinzel in all this?? why havent we heard from HIM?

What is the address for this article? When I type www.newschannel5.com I get a station out of Nashville.

http://www.newsnet5.com/entertainment/3324814/detail.html

Fox8 new at 10, in Cleveland will have a story tonight. The ad for it said, "can you pinch an inch? You may have to if you want to ride Millennium Force this summer". Maybe that should be Cedar Point's new slogan for this summers advertisements.

Wow, the Fox story is already over with. I didn't expect it to really be the top story, but it must have been a slow day for news.

The lead in to the story said "Are you too wide to ride"? There really wasn't much said that we didn't already know. Robbin spoke about safety, and they interviewed a fellow who couldn't ride. They only briefly mentioned the Superman incident, and stated the Intamin A.G requested the new policy.

At the very end of the clip they mentioned "fans on the internet" think that Cedar Point should offer a discount for guests that are unable to ride.

(I wonder who here tipped off the news).

If you look at the picture in the news link above, the belt is routed above the metal bar. I would think you might get a little more room by routing the belt under the metal bar. Has anyone who was on the border tried routing the belt this way? Is it even possible to route it under the metal bar? *** Edited 5/20/2004 3:35:44 AM UTC by Fighter-X***

You can see the routing difference in these two pictures. Compare Dragster with Millennium Force . Clearly, Dragster's belt is routed under the side bar while Millennium Force's belt is routed over.

I can see where people with 36-38" waist are being turned away. Although it realy is more of "lap size" than anything else, the effective belt size beging shortend by a few inches on top of the inch slack rule creates a big problem.

All the times I have ridden it, Millennium Force has NEVER used the belt routing shown in the Dragster photo.

They did not change the Millennium Force belt routing this season.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The Dragster is routed differently but then MF and thats the way its always been. Last year i tried to get away with routingit underneath the bar and got yelled at buy the ride op eventhough it makes it much easier to buckle. The belts on the dragster are shorter the MF but becasue of the way their routed it makes it much easier to fasten then MF.

RideMan, I do remember for at least the first 2 seasons of MF the belts were routed underneath as in the TTD link above. Now whether they were positioned that way on purpose on all those many times I have ridden those seasons or were accidentally passenger modified I couldn't answer to.

This story was on Detroit's local news channel 7 this morning at 5am. They mentioned the seatbelt issue, larger people being asked to try the test seat and related the problem to the Superman accident. Unfortunately, they missed the hugest issue which is that a large population of folks that used to be able to ride and for many that can still even fasten the seatbelts are being asked to leave the ride. :(

It is also important to note that TTD seatbelt routing was definately changed for this year.
*** Edited 5/20/2004 10:28:56 AM UTC by cyberdman***

MF's belts were never routed any different than they are in that photo on 5's story.

But that image does show just how absurd it is that 1" of slack on the belt would make the ride safer. Stupid.

I spent two summers looking at MF's seatbelts over and over and even a winter installing the seatbelts on Millennium trains. I'm with Jeff & Dave. Those seatbelts have always gone over that sidebar on the seat.

The news has said "Cedar Point officials say the ride's manufacturer mandated the seatbelt brackets be repositioned". I'm not sure what they are talking about. The only thing different that I can see is that they are requireing extra slack at the end of the belt.

I noticed that part about the seatbelt brackets as well. I wonder what that's all about?

I may be crazy, but to me, routing the belt under that bar seems more secure than over it. Routing it underneath means that only the rider is between the belt and the seat. Routing it above secures the rider and the bar together. It would seem to make more sense to me to route it under, but again, I am a crazy person.

Fighter-X,

You are not a crazy person, just nuts.

Everything is done for a reason. Maybe the reason IS to secure the belt to the seat?

MrScott

I just don't get it. If the belt buckles, what difference does 1 inch make? And I agree, I would think you could get more slack if the belt was run under the bar, and not over it. I think its crazy, if it buckles, it buckles.

Is anyone else as sick of this topic as I am? If you can get into the ride-great. If you can't get into the ride-oh well, try again next year. No one's gonna feel sorry for you when you tell your pitty story on the boards here cuz I think I speak for all of us when I say that frankly I don't care....

If you don't care, then why bother contributing to the topic?

I didn't really care at first either but now that I saw people get kicked off the ride and all the issues CP is having this is becoming a big ordeal. You may not care since you can fit but trust there are many people out there who can't and they want to know why and discuss how stupid this is.