CoasterLover

Unfortunately, even if someone knew what to look for, I doubt they would have seen anything. Unless you were riding right next to her and watching her restraint the entire time, you wouldn't really be able to truly know if she just "slipped" out or if there was some sort of failure. Additionally, given the location and height of where the incident allegedly happened, it would be difficult for anyone off the ride, even if they were watching the train closely, to be able to say anything definitive. In previous incidents similar to this, investigators have always been able to find a root cause of the tragedy. Hopefully, this incident will be no different.

Regardless of fault, I'd expect seat belts to be added as a knee jerk reaction. It will be revealing to see what the fault is determined to be. In so many of these cases the fault is singled down to either rider error or operator negligence. Either way, it's always especially sad when someone loses their life having fun on something that is (for all intensive purposes) exceptionally safe.

Has anyone brought up the fact yet that the one "African" name they suggest, "Shango", is Swahili for "chlamydia"? http://translate.google.com/translate_t?bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48705608,d.dmg&biw=1600&bih=743&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sl=sw&tl=en&text=shango&client=ob

According to this video, the county has voted unanimously to lift the park's 200' height limit. According to what I had read previously, the park was previously banned from building ANYTHING above 200' (without exception). The new regulation allows the park to build above 200', however, they need to get special permission for anything that exceeds 200' (though there is no upper limit). When they asked for this change in regulation, the example ride they used for a possible reason to want to go above 200' was a Sky Screamer, so I'd imagine one of those could be coming in the next few years, though the question is if they would build something conservative in the 250'-300' range to be similar to WindSeeker at Kings Dominion or if they would go a little crazier and build something 400'+ along the lines of what SFNE and SFOT are building. Personally, I don't see them building a coaster over 200' any time soon because 1) I don't think they really need to and 2) I don't think Six Flags would invest that sort of capital in the park, however, I could see a Sky Screamer, observation tower, and/or free fall type tower all over 200' (the park's current free fall tower is a measly 150' tall and is riddled with mechanical issues) in the next 5-10 years... The county also voted to allow the park to have more fireworks and stay open later (which will GREATLY help around Fright Fest), both positive changes! http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DCBrand#!/news/local/Higher-Coasters-Possible-at-Six-Flags/214315621

Roar will be a walk on (assuming they have repaired the track). Wild One should also be a walk on. Jinx, Mind Eraser, and Superman might be a two or three train wait worst case scenario, longer if you want the front (especially for Superman). Apocalypse might be SLIGHTLY longer, but still, 10-15 min wait at worst. Batwing generally pulls the longest line (up to about 30 mins on a weekday). Lines may look short but will probably move slow (both because of one train operations and slower operations). Riding all of the coasters within 90 minutes is not difficult on a weekday. Head to Batwing first thing in the morning and work your way back up through Gotham City and you shouldn't have any issues.

On a (non-holiday) Wednesday? 5-10 minute wait for most coasters...

^That's a pretty massive section of track missing, especially for mid-season. The optimist in me would love for this to be the start of Rocky Mountain's next project, the realist in me says that this is just bad maintenance by the park to the point that a mid-year massive fix is necessary. If it was a Rocky Mountain overhaul, you'd have thought they would have said SOMETHING before shutting it down, which makes me HIGHLY doubtful that that is the plan... though, if it was, at least they might have it ready by opening day 2014 (meanwhile, we still wait for the park to open their 2013 addition)...

The phantom camera shots and aerial shots of the coasters really made for some great footage of these rides! I could care less about the whole ranking aspect, I just like seeing all this primo footage of awesome rides!

Have to wonder if Disneyland's drop was due to DCA's massive success. Groups that would have traditionally done two days at Disneyland and one day at DCA now reversing and doing two days at DCA and one at Disneyland. With nothing new at Disneyland and the massive new additions to DCA, I'm sure they're not complaining about the 1% drop. Always surprise me at how well Hershey does. I mean, if you put Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, and Hershey in a line-up, I would think the natural train of thought would be that BGE would be the highest attended followed by KD followed by Hershey, but that couldn't be further from how it really is. I wonder how much the winter events at BGE and Hershey add to those numbers...

Same reason they didn't buy new trains when they moved Iron Wolf to Six Flags America...

^Well, to be perfectly honest, have the Millennium Flyers had THAT much of an impact on Wildcat at Hershey or Gwazi at Busch Gardens? If they added the flyers and Wildcat all of a sudden rode like Lightning Racer, I'd be totally on-board, but that's not the case. Personally, I think a much better option would be a Rocky Mountain treatment, or at least topper track.

Painting of the supports on Batwing continues... Painting on Batwing The comparison between the unpainted and the freshly painted supports is staggering. A shame that it had to get that bad, but so thankful for the new painting. Much better late than never. Even if they do not end up painting the track (which doesn't look so bad as is), the ride will look 100 x better than it did before! For more images, check out SFAfans.com

Not to mention, I'm sure there will be PLENTY of information when entering the park that you need the park hopper ticket to see the entire Wizarding World and I'm sure that the people at the ticket booths at the front of the park will have some sort of script about "are you sure you don't want to upgrade to the two-park ticket for just..." spiel which should help minimize/prevent much of the confusion.

There was a maintenance walkway suspended under that section of the ride. I believe that section was over water/swampland making it impossible to get a cherry picker into that area if they needed to inspect the track.

^Running along the side of the wavepool (the opposite side that the cabanas are on).

Not sure about a 10 year plan, but I can say with a high degree of certainty that Six Flags parks do work from at least a 5 year plan.

We'll accept all three, especially Pandemonium. Thanks, -Six Flags America

Not to mention the ladder pieces at the park match perfectly with the ladder seen on the back of each of those towers... good find, I think that's 100% what these supports are for.

It sounds like the ride was open to the public at the time. If this is true, given the design of the train, chances are the worker was struck by someone's foot/feet. Imagine the lasting psychological effect on that person. I can't even imagine how they would be thinking/feeling right now. My sincere condolences to all involved or related to those involved.

I can only estimate at numbers, but the park was PACKED this previous Saturday for a Kirk Franklin concert. To be honest, in the 10+ years that I have been going to the park, I had only ever seen it that busy maybe once or twice (and both times were during Fright Fest). Their last (paved) lot was nearly full and the midways were packed with people. However, the park was handling it quite well. Trash cans were staying emptied, there was lots of entertainment out and about, all the coasters were running two trains, essentially no trash on the midways, they were keeping the line on their new toy (Apocalypse) moving with almost no stacking... I was very impressed. Operations wise, the park was running like a first class venue. For those that didn't know, the park moved to a new(er) Flash Pass this year. Many other Six Flags rolled out the new water park Flash Pass that utilizes a RFID wrist band and reservation kiosks. Six Flags America is using this RFID stsrem for both the water park and the main park. The downfall is that you don't get the cool Q-bot so you can see the ride times of all the rides and reserve from anywhere, but the positive is that you can use the same (low price) system for both the dry rides and the water park. It also makes it REALLY easy to see who is using the system (because of the bright yellow bands). An on a day that was so busy, I was surprised to see so few people utalizing the system. I guess until SFA is that busy all the time, it will probably stay that way. Then again, the water park always IS that busy, so maybe it will catch on sooner in the waterpark.

Plus, the longer lines will draw more Flash Pass (and Flash Pass Gold and Platinum) sales!

It leaves the question as to what happens now? Six Flags abandoned the property due to issues with the fair board, Ed Hart abandoned the property due to issues with the fair board, and now the Koch's abandoned the property due to issues with the fair board. Every month that goes by the park continues to deteriorate, which is sad given the fact that there are certainly some attractions on the property that would be of value and could easily be used (either in their current location or a new location). I have to wonder if they have a timeline on how much longer they'll wait to find a new operator before liquidating the park or if they plan to just let the park continue to rot until the only thing left is to pave over the property (or film a new Scooby Doo movie there)...

^Add in the fact that Batwing is about the only steel coaster at the park that hasn't had a paint job recently (and it DESPERATELY needs a paint job) and the coaster is TERRIBLY placed in the park and removing the coaster would seem like a very logical move. If it was removed, and they felt a replacement was necessary, I would hope they would put the replacement somewhere else in the park and completely remove the path and station when the ride was removed. Batwing is all out and isolated by itself and the path to Batwing is a terrible dead end. The park has several other "holes" that could be filled and would make great locations for a new attraction (of various sizes) including the area where Two Face sat (which currently looks terrible) and the large concrete pad where the Fright Fest haunted house used to be before it burned down.

The park already has a TON of coasters for the size of the park. I think we'll see no less than 3-4 seasons pass before another major coaster is added. In that time, expect one year to be just a show package (the park's entertainment package has shrunk and downgraded a bunch this year), one year to be an addition to Hurricane Harbor (which is and has been for a while the park's primary draw), and maybe a flat or two (possibly a star flyer). Just my prediction... And when they do add their next coaster, what they REALLY need is not another big, fancy B&M or Intamin, but something for the family (like a mine train or a mouse/spinning mouse, or the like)... something to bridge the gap between the intensity of Great Chase and Wild One.

The listed date (most likely) is the Grand Opening date. Pretty much every new Six Flags ride this year has had a Season Passholder preview day (or two) in the days leading up to the grand opening. Not guaranteeing this will be the case, but it's certainly possible...