If ride safety restraints fail???

[bradk]

what's 'funny' is that's not the first time that's happened. i believe it happened at a 6 flags park (and i'm thinking it was great adventure) not that long ago and they were upside down for a lot longer.

but as you sit there and think that everyone would be dead if they had just a lap bar, then there you go, that's the point to calling shoulder harnesses psychological. not every attraction even has shoulder harnesses.

Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster for example just uses a lap restraint (whereas six flag's kingda ka has a shoulder restraint).

now personally, i imagine a shoulder harness is more comfortable when hanging upside down than just a lap bar might be, but then again, it's purely relative.

here's yet another example, in 1998, involving a coaster at great america where riders were stuck for 3 hours upside down

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon_(Six_Flags_Great_America)

 

[daisax]

but as you sit there and think that everyone would be dead if they had just a lap bar, then there you go, that's the point to calling shoulder harnesses psychological.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. I understand that the centrifugal (or is it centripetal? always forget) force would keep you in your seat on a loop whether you had shoulder restraints or not -- hence psychological reinforcement, because safety-wise it's not necessary.

But in rare cases like this one, they certainly saved lives, unless you think that those people (especially any small children) would have been held in upside down for a half hour by a locking lap bar. In the "ride stops at the top of the loop" scenario, that shoulder restraint holds bodies IN -- not psychological at all. Very real.

 

[cmwade77]

The gravitational force would hold you in your seat. The looping actually pushes you into the seat, so there is really no chance of falling out, unless you are trying to force yourself out. I have ridden looping rollercoasters with only lap bars for restraints, and the same principal applies. Your legs never even touched the lap bar as you were pushed into your seat. Now should the ride break down during an inversion, you might have a little problem.

Actually the roller coaster woould never stop during an inversion, there are no braakes there, newton's law: An object in motion will tend to stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force. applies here.

 

[bradk]

I'm not sure what you're saying here. I understand that the centrifugal (or is it centripetal? always forget) force would keep you in your seat on a loop whether you had shoulder restraints or not -- hence psychological reinforcement, because safety-wise it's not necessary.

But in rare cases like this one, they certainly saved lives, unless you think that those people (especially any small children) would have been held in upside down for a half hour by a locking lap bar. In the "ride stops at the top of the loop" scenario, that shoulder restraint holds bodies IN -- not psychological at all. Very real.

and yet i totally understand what you're saying. but unless you have some sort of documentary proof that shows those that were held upside down by just lap bars ended up falling out, then what you're suggesting is purely conjecture.

because there are attractions out there. long gone and even today that do the same sort of thing without shoulder restraints and their risks are ever just as bit as real, but nobody's up in arms about it. and my previous posts have cited such examples.

but the reality is, if someone were to open an attraction today without shoulder restraints, there'd no doubt be someone screaming, but that other attraction that's far more mild has them, why doesn't this one?

i suspect this is something easily tested in a lab regardless and i suspect it has been.

plus, on a disney level, in orlando, they are exempt from regulation by the state. which ironically means they do their darndest to insure that whatever could go wrong somewhere else doesn't go wrong there as it will open themselves up to some major legal challenges.