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I am appalled that Slingshot group / Icon were open and running the other attractions yesterday. I'll never set foot on their properties my lifetime.

You all can discuss this but please don't resort to any personal attacks. This incident is a big deal and there are too many variables at play to make a definitive decision about the cause. There's definitely an issue with the harnesses not having seat belts and potential verify limits, but there's also an issue with the behavior of the operators as evidenced by the video, and the Sling Shot group's general operational attitude. Please stick to "I think that" or "I believe that" until details are officially released from the investigation.

I’m 100% with those saying don’t blame the operators. These multi million dollar (deadly if not run properly) machines are literally put in the hands of teenagers and low wage employees. They need to be engineered to not ALLOW unsafe operation. A light on a panel saying restraints are good naturally gives a false sense of security to the operators that everything is 100% safe if the ride wasn’t engineered to contain anyone it could dispatch with. That’s just exactly what’s happened here. You don’t have to be an expert in control systems for this to be obvious, but when you are one it’s even more obvious.

^ There's no way that boy should have been allowed to ride this. He is clearly too big for those restraints to hold him. The ride ops should have realized by the way those restraints were fitting him that it wouldn't work.

Oops, thanks for the correction! And yeah, still plan to try... Cant hurt! But the fact that Intamin has a height limit due to that support, which could have been designed to be non-issue, is just so... Intamin.

Intamin drop towers did not originally have belts on them. They were added after an incident similar to this occurred at what is now California’s Great America but was at the time still owned by Paramount in I believe the late 90s. Just putting the blame on the tilt is a mistake, although I believe tilt definitely made it more likely to occur. I hate seeing accidents repeat. I would not be surprised to see the tilt removed, but I also expect Funtime to come to the same conclusion Intamin did, a seat belt between the riders legs connecting the OSTR to the seat is necessary. My understanding is this park is owned by a subsidiary of the manufacturer. Roughly a year since they had a cable break on the slingshot over at Old Town. Also a few years ago they had an employee death during maintenance on the sky flyer.

ICON Park was looking for a record holder and didn't want to spend a lot of money here we are. Funtime wanted to make a record holder but didn't want to spend money designing testing seats/restraints so here we are. This is the exact reason why parks do not mind paying top dollar for a Bolliger and Mabillard. The cost of one mistake is literally worth the millions. I recall Mack showing off their new restraints (now old because it's on many of their rides) and they clearly spent a lot of time researching it and ensuring it would be safe and comfortable. I knew when they came out with that restraint design that their sales would spike. I think it was at an IAAPA expo but can't find a clip. This change in restraints and intro of a hyper model literally made Mack an Intamin/B&M alternative when it used to be a Zeirer alternative. Gerstlauer needs to stop letting 3rd parties use their technology. It's ruining their reputation. I noticed these are the same restraints as TMNT etc. The guy riding FF appears to have the restraint just as high as the victim on Icon Park's tower. Again such a tragedy and so sad he was from out of town.

For discussion this is the picture: Source I haven't cropped it this time because the other riders are already censored and as you can see from the post above and the numerous news articles, the poor guy's face is now everywhere anyway.

I think the diagram shows perfectly what could have happened. The sad thing is that if it was a regular drop tower without the tilt he likely would have survived even with the restraint that high. Whether he should have been allowed on even a regular drop tower with the restraint that high is debatable though. Some people have discussed how the ride wouldn't depart if bars are too high but do we know if this kind of drop tower allows that? The worker is seen pulling down empty bars but I've seen a few drop towers or rides that can depart with restraints still up. There are plenty of rides that don't green light restraints: Vekoma family coasters like HKDL Grizzly cars for instance. I know for a fact that the S&S Hyper Drop in Korea can run with restraints open because there is video of people riding next to empty chairs and them slamming shut from the forces mid-ride. I know most people are talking about them adding seat belts to the ride when the investigation finishes but I wouldn't be surprised if they also remove the tilting function and turn the ride into a regular drop tower.

Yes, exactly my thoughts too. The seats and restraints are actually Gerstlauer and designed for their coasters. It seems unlike most drop towers, when it hits the brakes most of the vertical force will pull the rider towards the gap between the seat and the restraint. (sorry for the terrible diagram)

It seems to me that the manufacturer didn't take the tilt into account when determining the restraint tolerance/threshold. The victim's body type only allowed the restraint to close to what looks to be about 30 degrees shy of vertical, closely matching the tilt of the ride. There really wasn't much in way of the victim falling out, aside from the little bump molded into the front of the seat. While I do think that the ride operators should have erred on the side of caution upon seeing how high the restraint was, my opinion is that the manufacturer holds most of the blame here. My thoughts are with everyone involved. I cannot imagine how traumatic this situation was for anyone who happened to witness the accident.

Meh. Especially on a low intensity ride like this, most of the fun is gone if you can't communicate with your friends. Sitting silently between a group of strangers is much less fun. Just try to take the whole train, nobody is going to care. On second thought. Just assess the situation. Does it feel appropriate to take up the whole train? How will people judge you? Do you want to sit in your friends lap. What will happen if you ask to sit in your friends lap? Can you still be friends, or is this a road you can't go back on? Think this over very carefully, it could change your friendship forever.

Along with seat belt backup, that tower also 'tilts back' prior to (or just entering) brake run so high G's are pushing body straight down into seat. It really surprised me Icon has their tower hit brakes still tilted forward, which puts extreme amount of force on the exact portion of OTSR's which allowed guest to slide out. Prior to accident I assumed it also tilted back during drop, but nope. *of course we'll only know reasoning after full investigation. Video and picture clearly shows how high OTSR's were prior to ride, and moment he slid out was when braking started.

No, I will not be arguing with no ride ops... You kidding me? I simply will try to get in line and if they deny me, then I move on and move on with life. While I like coasters, I am not some credit whore who will get all upset and throw a tantrum because I couldn't get on a ride. Plenty of other great things to do in the park and this won't make or break my trip/visit by any means. And no, I doubt my "bell" will get rung at 70mph by being 1" over the max height (also note, people hold their height differently... So while some may be 'short' enough to ride, may have longer arms and/or torso than I, therefor, their bell can be easily as rung while still being 'legal' to ride).

A Six Flags park sending out a train in 30 seconds This is the same park that had their star attraction (IR) running one train on a Friday during spring break last week. There was a 3-hour line and filled entire empty rows from the singer rider line rather than try to find groups of two from standby. That MCBR is there only to feature a second near vertical drop. Capacity is the last thing on their mind.

The only chain pizza I will eat is BLAZE. Going to pick up a pizza later for $3.14 in honor of their pi day promotion (that is good all month!). I like them because you can customize your pizza with literally more than 20 different toppings, cheeses, etc, and it's still one price (less than $11! Though I typically get the "high rise" because their regular pizza is way too thin it's an extra $2.50 I think). Any other pizza place in the area charges like $1.50 per topping or whatever, and my wife loves a bajillion toppings, so a pizza costs like $25 anywhere else. Typically for a "normal" Buffalo pizza I get cup & char pepperoni (it's a WNY thing), and maybe mushroom or Italian sausage if I'm feeling frisky. Keep it simple. At BLAZE I like the spicy red sauce, fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, pepperoni, Italian sausage, chicken, artichoke, banana pepper, jalapeno, roasted garlic, mushroom, topped with a balsamic glaze, oregano, and red pepper flakes. It's not a typical pizza but damn it's good in my eyes. They opened a crumbl cookie store next door a few weeks ago, and everyone is raving about their key lime cookie and glazed oatmeal this week, so I'll stuff those down my throat, too. I've never been, so it will be an interesting evening and I'll be rolling home.

One of the rides are already on site a chance wipeout) and the area should have a flight theme. I love how they are actually emphasizing the theme aspect of the areas vs just throwing in rides. Guess it's easy to theme a park with such rich history. The park said, long ago, that the people have spoken and the people want more flats and that is what they seem to be installing now. It went from a handful to this. I am impressed.

I keep seeing a rumor that the whole crossroads section is going to get gutted and rethemed. A bunch of new rides including a disco, NebulaZ and chance freestyle. New quick food options, a new bar and moving afterburns entrance into this area. I have heard it from a few outlets but I am sourcing a park fans image since it looks very legit

I'm just here for the experts.

The ride itself should have not allowed this to happen, regardless of what the operator did or did not do. The ride obviously had control issues to allow the restraint in that position. I dont forsee blame on the ride operators at all here, unless some type of override occured, which I doubt, unless they have maintenance mode capabilities. Flawed engineering here.

From Clickorlando: Worker 1: What are you doing? Worker 2: I don’t know. Worker 1: Didn’t you check it? Worker 2: Yeah. The light was on. Worker 3: We both -- we checked it. The light was on. Worker 1: You guys are sure you checked it? Workers 2 and 3: We did, yeah, the light was on. That would suggest it does have interlock and wouldn't send with the seats open.

Well either way...the ride is closed for who knows how long right before peak season...AGAIN. No way I can put a positive spin on that.

After watching a POV I can see why they dont have it for a regular sized person, but the redundancy wouldnt hurt either.

Lucky.

It appears the park is ready to take the "first in flight" to new levels. . .

That drawing perfectly captures what I was imagining in my head for how this happened. I don't dare watch the video and never will. What a horrible, horrible accident. It's 2022 and this should not be happening. And the ride has been operating for barely 3 months. It never made sense to me that this does not have the redundancy belt that clips to the restraint, when the slingshot immediately next door features the exact same seats and restraints and has a seat belt. I hope this ride gets those redundancy belts, and perhaps even a separate lap belt underneath the restraint. I would 100% welcome that change. Slowing down so abruptly at that angle really was a strange and unnerving feeling, versus a regular drop tower where you are completely into your seat or like Falcon's Fury where you are completely into your restraint. This puts you in between the two. What an awful, awful thing to happen. I can't imagine what the poor family is going through, or the bystanders who witnessed it.

Horrible accident. Seems much of the blame is on the ride manufacturing and engineering. The excellent drawing above make sense and could explain things. I noticed Drop Line at Dollywood was closed today. Wonder if all their towers are shut down for now?

^Exactly. ^^Yeah, they know that, they're just showing that due to the tilt PLUS the forces on the brakes is why he slipped out.

Did you last ten seconds on prom night?

I know, and I think DougMJr knows that too, but what I mean is that when you're perched on a little hump/ledge because of the tilt and the restraint being in that position, you're more likely to slide down and under the restraint when you're slowing because of the g-forces pulling you down.

^It does tilt, but 30 degrees I read today, not a full tilt onto your stomach like FF. That said, I can't believe such a ride does not have also have a secondary seatbelt restraint. Less than 3 months of operation and this ride already killed someone. Unbelievable.

Thank you all! I'm glad I found this community!

Id try it anyway, let them tell you youre too tall

^ You get a vest, you get a vest, YOU get a vest, EVERYONE GETS VESTS!

It's a horrifying and terrible accident. Clearly the restraint and body shape of the boy did not work. A seatbelt might have helped but we have seen this exact accident before. I'm sure we'll see FunTime add seatbelts to all of their towers now but we also have to be careful with OTSR's positioning.

WARNING: Be careful looking up this news. There's video and it's... Just, don't watch it.

You're putting way too much thought into this.

This is a weird take, but I actually feel like if this park just went back to exactly the way that it was in 2015 it would be a better park. Much prettier, better food, better Mystery Mine, Slidewinder and no coaster that never works making you feel like you're missing out when you show up and it's closed 50% of the time. The only thing that I'd miss is Drop Line and a few infrastructure upgrades.

I feel like the park gets slightly uglier every year and all you ever here is "But wait until it's done!". Between cutting down tons and tons of trees and not even always clearing them, Wildwood Grove (just... all of it), removing the theming elements and leaving an abandoned track piece on Mystery Mine and this it seems like they're much less focused on aesthetics and small details lately. I love the park, but it does seem like it's taken a few steps backward recently in that area.

Being further away from parks like MIA and VF now they will have an excuse why they forget about them lol

OMG such drama! He’ll be fine.

Taylor Hawkins, drummer for the Foo Fighters has died at age 50.

Oh STFU

Very sad. Here is a interview from the dad of the 14 year old boy who died.

Terrible news. The young man was from St. Louis so the story was on our local 5 pm news. According to that story he was 365 lbs and 6'5", down there for a spring break trip as most of our area school were off this week.

Appalling news that a 14 year old boy died after falling from the Orlando Free Fall last night. As an enthusiast I can normally mentally piece together what happened when there is an accident but I'm drawing blanks as to how someone can fall from a 4 month old ride with overhead restraints. A tragic story, whoever and whatever is to blame. Teen dies after fall from drop tower ride at Orlando's ICON PARK, authorities say A teenager fell to his death while riding an Orlando-area drop tower attraction, according to officials with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Several law enforcement officers, firefighters, and paramedics responded to ICON Park late Thursday evening after a 911 caller reported the incident at the popular tourist attraction on International Drive. Witnesses on the scene told deputies that someone had fallen off the Orlando Free Fall ride. The Orange County Sheriff's Office later confirmed that a 14-year-old boy was transported to the hospital, where he died from his injuries. Source: https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/orlando-drop-tower-ride-death