Woman falls out of Texas Giant roller coaster and dies

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Phobia

There aren't enough details for our typical puns. This death sucks.

Everyone is just showing some restraint.

Originally Posted by cdcox

Everyone is just showing some restraint.

I liked that.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Phobia

There aren't enough details for our typical puns. This death sucks.

Story has been updated. Hope this helps


http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro...man-s-fall.ece



Six Flags Over Texas announced Saturday morning that the Texas Giant roller coaster will remain closed as authorities investigate a woman's fatal plunge from the Texas Giant roller coaster Friday night.

The Arlington amusement park still has released few details beyond reporting that its medical staff and city paramedics had responded immediately. The victim’s name was not released.
Besides keeping the ride closed, Six Flags has canceled a concert by singer and actress Bridgit Mendler that had been scheduled for Saturday night.

Park officials offered their condolences to the woman’s family as investigators began to study the cause of the accident, which occurred after 6:30 p.m. Although the ride was closed, the park remained open through the evening.

Early attention was beginning to focus on witnesses’ reports that the woman’s safety restraint may have come undone.

Carmen Brown of Arlington was waiting in line as the victim was being secured in for the ride. She said she believed that the woman’s son was on the ride with her.
Brown said the woman had expressed concern to a park employee that she was not secured correctly in her seat.

“He was basically nonchalant,” Brown said. “He was, like, ‘As long as you heard it click, you’re fine.’ Hers was the only one that went down once, and she didn’t feel safe. But they let her still get on the ride.”

She said the victim fell out of the ride as it made a sudden maneuver.
“The lady basically tumbled over,” she said. “We heard her screaming. We were, like, ‘Did she just fall?’”

Investigators were interviewing witnesses on the ride, some of whom reported that the woman had been thrown from the roller coaster as it rounded a turn. Arlington police declined to comment on the accident.

Hysterical passengers had to wait to disembark as the train stopped short of the platform.
John and Darlene Putman of Rockwall said they were in line to board the roller coaster as the train in which the woman had been riding returned.

John Putman told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he heard two people screaming, “‘My mom! My mom! Let us out, we need to go get her!’”
Reports from park visitors began spreading rapidly on social media online, drawing worried parents and others to the gates to check on family members.
Joshua Paul Fleak posted on Twitter that he believed that the woman’s restraint had come undone.

“Just witnessed someone fly off of the Texas giant two seats in front of me,” he said. “… Coaster turned and she was gone.”
The Texas Giant opened in 1990 as the world’s tallest wooden roller coaster but was closed in November 2009 to convert it to a steel-and-wood hybrid.
Although the rebuilt ride incorporates some of the original structure, it includes 4,700 feet of new track.

When it reopened in April 2011, the expanded coaster offered a smoother ride and a higher top speed of 65 mph. It features a 79-degree drop and three turns sharper than 90 degrees.
Friday’s accident was the second ride fatality for a guest at the park since it opened in 1961.
In 1999, Valeria Cartwright of West Helena, Ark., drowned when a Roaring Rapids raft capsized. Ten other people were injured in that accident.

In March 2006, passengers on the park’s Texas Tornado ride reported injuries when the ride slowed rapidly and several of its swings collided.

In another amusement park accident Friday, a boat on a thrill ride at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, rolled backward down a hill and flipped over in water when the ride malfunctioned, injuring all seven people on it.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2010 after the company said it needed to shed $1.8 billion in debt. In April, the company posted record revenue.
Staff writer Robert Wilonsky contributed to this report.

[Demonpenz]

Tony Romo's Swing Pass was a bad idea for ride.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

People were like "with that pacemaker you can't ride rollercoasters" and I was like "no problem." This is why. I don't wish to have my fate decided by a teenager making minimum wage to ensure my seatbelt clicks.

Originally Posted by scott free

In the late 90's i rode Batman at Six Flags st. louis with my kids... never again, more scared they were going to slip out of their harnesses than anything else.

These things are designed by engineers who in many instances have never rode them and operated by part time college kids... if i sound like Scarey Larry, its because i know how stupid people can be.

Give me the Log Flume, where atleast i get cooled off on some ridiculously hot summer day and the worst i might get is a water moccasin bite...

Yeah, I rode the Two Face ride at the Six Flags in Maryland back in the day. I was pretty young at the time and always a shy kid. Anyway, the harness was the type that came down from the top with your legs dangling free. I tried to pull the harness down myself but couldn't get it to click all the way. So the guy was walking through pressing everyone's down but didn't even bother to check mine and I watched him give the thumbs up sign to start the ride.

I started freaking out and told my aunt and, in turn, she started freaking out. Luckily the attendant dude that obviously didn't give a **** about his job ran over and pushed my harness down until it clicked as the ride was about to take off.

That ride had so many flips and upside down turns I know for a fact I would have flown out of the seat in no time. I could have died that day...

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Yeah, I rode the Two Face ride at the Six Flags in Maryland back in the day. I was pretty young at the time and always a shy kid. Anyway, the harness was the type that came down from the top with your legs dangling free. I tried to pull the harness down myself but couldn't get it to click all the way. So the guy was walking through pressing everyone's down but didn't even bother to check mine and I watched him give the thumbs up sign to start the ride.

I started freaking out and told my aunt and, in turn, she started freaking out. Luckily the attendant dude that obviously didn't give a **** about his job ran over and pushed my harness down until it clicked as the ride was about to take off.

That ride had so many flips and upside down turns I know for a fact I would have flown out of the seat in no time. I could have died that day...

yep, what you have is essentially, some highly distracted camp counselor from "Meatballs" buckling you in for your life... and thats the Big Money show, i dare not imagine how many times i might've died on some local-schmokel carnival attraction...

Just go flying off that big swing 300 feet into some lemonade stand...

[Reaper16]

One time, at Worlds of Fun, I was riding the Detonator (for out of towners - its one of those rides that briskly elevates everyone up a tower; sort of a reverse Tower of Terror). I couldn't get my harness to click. I knew I wasn't secure, and I was trying to get an employee's attention. Normally they check with every single rider, but for some reason the guy didn't check my section of the octagon (or whatever hexagonal shape the Detonator is); four of us weren't confirmed to be safely secured.

So the ride took off and I held down my harness with all of my strength. I wasn't secure. Thank goodness for g-forces, I guess, for helping keep me in my seat instead of flying off to certain death.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

One time, at Worlds of Fun, I was riding the Detonator (for out of towners - its one of those rides that briskly elevates everyone up a tower; sort of a reverse Tower of Terror). I couldn't get my harness to click. I knew I wasn't secure, and I was trying to get an employee's attention. Normally they check with every single rider, but for some reason the guy didn't check my section of the octagon (or whatever hexagonal shape the Detonator is); four of us weren't confirmed to be safely secured.

So the ride took off and I held down my harness with all of my strength. I wasn't secure. Thank goodness for g-forces, I guess, for helping keep me in my seat instead of flying off to certain death.

That's the good thing about Disney World, I suppose. I've never, ever had the them NOT check any of the restraints. They are pretty nazi-ish about it. I know most of their rides are pretty tame, but at least I'm not going to die on them.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

According to Six Flags, the ride rises as high as 14 stories and takes a 79-degree drop.

They now claim that the drop can be as much as 90 degrees.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

They now claim that the drop can be as much as 90 degrees.

You are a bad, bad man.

[Simply Red]

I think it's terrible her son lost his mom and was there, next to her. I pray so hard for him.

[TLO]

Terrible

[Chiefs Pantalones]

My dad took my sister on the orient express at WoF when she was younger (my brother and I were too young at the time) and there was a malfunction and my dad had to literally hold her down with his arm the whole ride to prevent her from flying out. He told me his arm hurt for two weeks after that. He informed the workers and park officials afterward. He was scared shitless he tells us.

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

Odds are that the woman did something while on the ride. Usually, once the investigation is done it comes down to someone doing something really stupid while on the ride.

Also, when I worked at a theme park we had someone who decided it would be fun to jump out of the log flume at the top of the final hill. The pond for the splash is not that deep and they ended up breaking both their legs.

What a load of bullshit. You don't know that, and it sure doesn't sound like that was the case based on the OP.

Just because you worked at a theme park doesn't mean you have to be a blind apologist for all workers at all theme parks. Some people just suck at their jobs.

[BlackHelicopters]

Tragic