Suicide Attempt on MF?

If I remember right though, the seatbelt is the only thing on Dinosaur. Whereas, as you said, on MF it is the backup. The added cost of making locking seat belts doesn't add anything to the safety of the ride (sorta like seat belts at all on Arrow loopers).

Then why stop rides on the lift when people take their seat belts off? I totally agree with what you're saying, but the seatbelt IS there for a reason. Besides, restraints DO fail - not often, but they have failed before.

Liability.

If an employee spots it and doesn't stop the train and something DOES happen, the park would be in deep s***.

The cost to have electronically locking seat belts is probably high enough, and the occurrence of people undoing them low enough, that its really not worth it.

Something I'm curious about - does CP get their insurance via a set package price, or is it a piecemeal setup, as in per-item/ride/attraction charge? Going further, how does each safety component, such as electronically-monitored belts, impact the cost of said insurance? I'm not looking for a monetary amount, obviously, but rather whether or not such an addition as described above would have any measurable impact on their cost?

That is an interesting question. I would assume it fluctuates based on each attraction, etc... I'm guessing it would be like having safety features on a car affecting the cost of your car insurance. For instance, the really fast and tall rides probably raise their insurance premium while the quadruple safety restraint systems on MF and TTD help lower the cost. I'm sure it's some very complex formula that I'm glad I don't have to deal with on a regular basis.

It would be interesting to see if such a system would lower their premiums though. Knowing how they love to save money though, I'm sure it doesn't lower it enough to justify the cost or they'd already be in place.

I'd be willing to bet putting seat belts on Corkscrew lowered their premium though. :)

I'd be a little worried about the locking mechanism of a seatbelt. If there was an emergency on Dinosaur (or a coaster for that matter) and you had to get out immediately I'm not sure I'd want to wait for a ride operator to get to our vehicle to release the locks.

I belive the simulators (Star Tours and Body Wars) also have the locking mechanism on the seatbelts....and maybe Test Track too.

If I recall correctly, Woodstock Express has a seatbelt that has to be unlocked by the ride op. *** Edited 7/23/2007 7:32:11 PM UTC by Heather75***

^^ In the event of an emergency, someone still has to release a safety restraint. It's really no different. On MF and TTD, they have to bring out a little generator to give power to the train so the hydraulic cylinders can release. The seat belts could be on a similar system.

By the way, Tower of Terror also has locking seat belts. The belts ARE the restraint system on these rides though.

You know, if you had never mentioned it, I never would have known that the belts were locked once the ride started. Of course, the thought never came to me to undo my restraint either.

The bigger emergency on Disney rides, due to 99% of them being indoors, is fire. Something you don't have to be concerned with on Cedar Point's rides (for the most part).

You don't need to worry about fire and your seat belt on Disney's rides. All the safety systems are tied together. Let's just say if there was an emergency, you'd be fine.

So they have a remote release on the train systems. Again, an added cost (over the hand-held battery packs that CP uses) that I don't see as worth it, at least not at CP. It does make perfect sense for Disney though just due to the size of many of their rides, and that, like Dinosaur, you could stop anywhere along that track in the event of an emergency.

Well, most of their rides have power on the ride vehicle. Even coasters like Rock N Roller Coaster, California Screamin' and Space Mountain (some of them) have power for the on-ride audio. But, their ride programs, ride safety systems, building safety systems and lighting are all tied together. They can also be monitored remotely in operations.

^ - that would also explain why EE cost $100M rather than $25M. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the safety systems were 1/4 of the cost of that ride.

Yay for Disney! :) The technology they employ throughout their entire property (at least in Florida) always excites me.

Same here. Even the stuff that's dated (IASW, CoP, etc.) still amaze me. Pretty much in a similar way that Star Wars does. When you look back at the technology of the time, it is amazing what was accomplished.

I got to work with Walt Disney World on my senior project, and it really is incredible. Props to Disney

halltd said:
Then why stop rides on the lift when people take their seat belts off?

Ever get hit in the side of the head with a buckle? You'd laugh at anyone who calls Mean Streak painful. Other than a painful weapon, their only use is to restrict larger guests from riding. I quit thinking them as a safety device after I ripped a seatbelt in half single handed.

If someone was going to try and do something like this, I question if it was a good idea to let them come down the lift at all, walking or riding. If they were really serious about doing it, they could just jump after being let out of the lap/ leg restraint. Why let them out of a restraint? Something is better than nothing.

This is one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't. I just doubt if the story is even true at all.

I'd have to agree that the seatbelts are just the secondary means of safety and maybe not all that reliable. I accidentally undid my seatbelt on Gemini half way through the ride and other than the fact that it was threatening to fly out from under the lap bar I still felt safe, the lap bars aren't going anywhere. Of course, I do like the newer style buckles like on Millie and TTD. It would be a freak accident to unbuckle those. On Gemini I was just trying to repostion it since the buckle kept was wedged between my legs and lap bar, creating a big pain in my leg, my hand slipped at the top of a hill and it was undone...

djDaemon said:
Something I'm curious about - does CP get their insurance via a set package price, or is it a piecemeal setup, as in per-item/ride/attraction charge? Going further, how does each safety component, such as electronically-monitored belts, impact the cost of said insurance? I'm not looking for a monetary amount, obviously, but rather whether or not such an addition as described above would have any measurable impact on their cost?

Last year after the SOB incident at KI, an article I read was claiming that since coasters (generally) are super safe, they're the least expensive thing to insure in the park!!

The article said the liability insurance on flat rides was more expensive, and something like the carousel insurance was twice that of Vortex!!