Woman falls out of Texas Giant roller coaster and dies

[Deberg_1990]

Wow....


http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2...er-texas.html/


Update at 9:10 p.m.: Our Tanya Eiserer spoke with Carmen Brown of Arlington, who says she was next in line to ride the Texas Giant behind the woman who fell to her death this evening. She told Tanya she witnessed the woman being strapped into the ride. She was sitting next to her son.

The woman, said Brown, “basically tumbled over and you just see her son [go], ‘Ahhh.’ They didn’t secure her right. One of the employes from the park — one of the ladies — she asked her to click her more than once, and they were like, ‘As long you heard it click, You’re OK.’ Everybody else is like, ‘Click, click, click.’ Hers only clicked once. Hers was the only one that went down once, and she didn’t feel safe, but they let her still get on the ride. …

“That could have been me.”

Brown said the woman’s young son was in a seat in front of his mother.

“We heard her screaming,” Brown said. “We were like, ‘Did she just fall?’”

Update at 8:05 p.m.: Six Flags Over Texas spokesperson Sharon Parker just sent a statement that says in full:

We are deeply saddened to share that earlier this evening an adult woman died in the park while on the Texas Giant. Park medical staff and local paramedics responded immediately. Since the safety of our guests and employees is our number one priority, the ride has been closed pending further investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends during this difficult time.

The incident occurred shortly after 6:30 Friday evening. Witnesses, like the one below, say the restraints came undone, and the woman simply vanished off the towering ride. Others say people on the ground directed rescue workers to her location.

On Facebook, a woman who said she was next in line to ride the Texas Giant wrote that “the lady whose seat I was about to get into on the Giant wasn’t there when the red train came back!! Seriously! People in front row screaming when they came back that their mom was gone. We waited about 50 mins & now kids are freaking out.”


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

[Simply Red]

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

[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.

[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

[chiefsncats]

http://m.toledoblade.com/local/2013/...dar-Point.html

And there was another amusement park ride accident yesterday at Cedar Point. No one died in that one though. Guess the amusement park gods decided to take a break yesterday.

[Nickel D]

It's well-known that everything is bigger in Texas, so the "Giant" part of the rollercoaster's name is redundant.

Since her restraint only clicked once, that suggests to me that this lady was obese and ended up finding out the hard way that crash diets don't work.

[Nickel D]

Originally Posted by chiefsncats

http://m.toledoblade.com/local/2013/...dar-Point.html

And there was another amusement park ride accident yesterday at Cedar Point. No one died in that one though. Guess the amusement park gods decided to take a break yesterday.

THOSE NO-GOOD SLACKERS!!

[Aries Walker]

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.

Usually that's the case - the kid who got decapitated by the Galaxi at King's Dominion in the 80's had to try really hard to reach his head up to where that low-hanging beam was. Same with the Shockwave stand-up coaster in the 90's (I think), and as far as I know it's still there.

Also also, I just need to link Action Park in New Jersey, because it's awesome to read.

[Predarat]

The thing I am most afraid of is not me falling off a ride, but my son. That would be more horrible then just about anything imaginable.

[Rasputin]

Talk about close calls, holy crap I went to that 6 flags over Texas in the early 80's. That could have been me

[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.

[Deberg_1990]

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.

The witness in the video at the link confirms the woman was "heavy"

I have seen ride operators kick people off of rides before because they were overweight and didn't fit properly in restraints.

[teedubya]

We went to World's of Fun last Saturday... and if I had read this before going, I'd probably of not taken the kids.

If something happened to my kids while riding a ride, that would have been the most horrific thing to see... or if I flew off and my kids had to see that. Holy shit.