SigENeaT

I'm from Australia so things are a little more laid back for us, but here's two stories to help give some perspective ('against' the mother being discussed).. I went to highschool with a guy who scalped himself at a laser-tag place in year 8 at a birthday party (~13). He did a decent job of it as well; stiches from ear to ear over the top of his skull. He was hiding under a staircase and then stood up after being shot by someone else and hit an exposed bolt which was holding one of the steps in place. This bolt caused a tear in the skin on his head and as part of his reaction of jumping back/sideways/wherever the rest of the skin was torn/ripped sideways towards his ears as the bolt slid across his skull. Our health system in Aus is free to everyone so there was no call for the centre to cover any medical bills or similar. Infact from memory i think the only thing that happened in the aftermath was the money for the laser tag games was refunded and the section under the staircase blocked off so you couldnt hide under there to stop it happening again. Why couldnt the mother in this instance take a similar approach? I also have a similar story. At one of the few water parks we have in Western Australia there is a long speed slide that accommodates 1 person at a time. From 8 or so years ago and prior the slide used to have a typical vinyl lining in it which allowed people to go down without a mat/tube/etc. You just crossed your legs and away you went! In the heat and weather though, over time the vinyl began to ripple on the sides. Think of the slide as a large "U" shape. One season i went down this slide (as thousands had done before) with my legs crossed and one of the vinyl ripples caught my foot and spun me around so that i was heading backwards. Ended up tearing some muscles through my groin (stop giggling!!) and hobbling ensued for a week or so later. The lifeguard saw the event and shut down the ride immediately. As it was nearing the end of summer they ended up leaving the ride shut down. Next season it was opened again with no vinyl lining. Instead they had put an extra layer of smooth fibreglass or plastic or whatever and you went down on a mat. Problem solved! Surely people have to accept that when you ride/partake these sorts of rides or similar that you do so at your own risk. Sure the operators have to take some responsibility but there are clear guidelines set on how to ride/use rides/slides, if you go out of these guidelines and something bad happens as a result only you are to blame. I guess insurance companies in America must do it hard.

I was tempted to post "Tits or gtfo" when i saw this thread.. Enjoy Spain. ¬_¬

It's only appropriate that Mr. T makes an appearance in this thread. =3 Mr. T pities the fool who rudely line-jumps

I have only started following the whole amusement park scene recently, but is it normal to have so many of these types of incidents? Already in the last 4 months there have been countless tragic incidents such as this involving loss of life or severe injuries. I'm not having a punt at the safety record of any parks or the types of rides in general. Statistically im sure its safer spending time on a coaster than a plane, which is statistically safer than being on a bus, which is safer than being in a car! =P

Here's some code for the programming junkies! ;D FoundWebsite = FirstResult(Google("Theme Park Review Japan"));

*Gulp* I might put an asterisk next to that ride on my itinerary.... Eat some dry toast, see if that helps with your throat! (Tonsillitis?) Going to see a quack would be a good move though. Get well! ;D

I'll just go fetch my 'inverse-platform' shoes. Tee hee.

Some nice shots there mate, especially of that Gasser Vette. ~1956? Do you race your Skylark?

Like many others i too am terrified of heights! Scared to death. But i know 99% of things that involve being high these days are usually quite safe so i force myself to take advantage of the fact that i am afraid of heights push the fear. I think the best thing i have done was bunjee jump when i was last in New Zealand. The fear adds to the adrenalin rush and makes me want to go again! =P

Edit: Snipped rant about Melb being closer! I guess we should cut you guys some slack beacuse you wont be able to drive any decent cars until you are like 25 >.>

Adventure World is too busy coming up with more 'packup' thrill rides methinks. They have bucket loads of land; how much would a small to mid sized woodie cost?

Once i line jumped, but i did it with so much gusto that i ended up on the other side of the line, missing my opportunity completely! There is a joke in there somewhere, i promise. I think Robb needs to write a book on park navigation to avoid the long lines. =P

I still cant work out the question, Robb! First coaster i rode would have had to be the stock standard, "pack me up on a truck, im a travelling heap of junk", Mouse coasters that travel around to events. This one was in Perth (Western Australia) and i'd be stuffed if i can remember the name. Its not a very safe ride though; a couple of dangerous shutdowns and dislodged carts have come off the tracks since i can remember, however they keep letting it come to the same show every year to operate. Crazy. Forget about comfort. It's over rated anyway.

I guess its good to see more coasters propping up in Aus, but why cant they build something exciting for goodness' sake!? Then again, my rants are premature going on the pictures available so far! Fingers crossed it ends up being something which would help justify a 4,000km trek from the West Coast! =D

Yeah in this instance you would probably right. I didnt watch the video when i made that post, going off descriptions it sounded as if part of the struts towards the middle was on fire rather than a static part of the ride.

Whoah whoah whoah! If you were to speed it up you would only make it worse; air (technically oxygen in the air) is a highly flammable fuel source for fire. If you were to increase the ride's speed you would increase the amount of air that the fire has access to. Sure, theoretically speaking if you were to be able to get enough air flowing towards the fire you could effectively "drown" it (Think of it in terms of cordial. If you add lots of water to the cordial syrup you will dilute it so much that it isnt tasty any more =P) but for a fire of this nature with the available combustible fuel it would only make things worse. Ever seen a house fire or a bushfire? If there are strong winds the thing will spread so freaking quickly its not funny. Sad accident, i would have hated to have been on the ride at the time, or even in line for it! =|

Theres a bunch of things that can be going on here, but most importantly "Yes, yo do need a program to write to DVDs." Windows (i am assuing you're using WinXP as your os here) will pretty much pickup and allow you to use any CD-rom, DVD-rom, CD-RW or DVD-RW drive without any additional drivers and being a Sony you are more likely to see success than failure with Windows detecting the drive and installing drivers and letting you do it and drinking tea. HOWEVER, what it doesnt do is allow you to write to DVDs by default. I can only assume you are trying to write to the DVD using Windows Explorer, ie opening My Computer, opening the DVD drive and dragging the files you want to burn to that space. Windows XP cant figure this out by default and you need a 3rd party application. Unfortunately MS (to my knowlege) have never implemented DVD burning into its shell and with Vista now out i doubt they will care about it in the future. Usually when you buy a DVD drive a application will ship with it you can legally install and use to write files to a DVD, however if you have picked it up second hand then i doubt you have any software with it. Sony drives usually ship with a Nero suite which does everything you could ever want to do with regards to writing to a DVD/CD. If you can find a legal copy of this then probably your best start. Other than that i am not familiar with any free-ware applications which allow you to write file structures to a CD/DVD, however ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/) is probably your best bet for reading an writing images to a DVD. Note: ImgBurn will not allow you to create an image of a Movie DVD given the security on these discs, plus its illegal! Hope that helps you a little bit mate! ;D

Noone else may want to post but i will >.> Happy Mothers day, Mum! <3 I took mummy and the rest of the family to a fancy Spanish horse show called El Caballo Blanco; http://www.elcaballo.com.au/ Fantastic show and a great sit down meal afterwards. =D

Cheers for the pro-tip, spaceace. I wasn't referring to cash-ish and materialistic wise though. I meant the life (as "life force" .. but thats a corny way of saying it! =P) they have in them and present to the world is incredible. There is only so much you can squeeze in to a day until your brain and body start to show signs of weakness and fatigue, but from what i have perceived this is not something Robb and Elissa present!

How does the house of Alvey manage it? Through what i have read of the exploits you guys (Elissa and Robb) get up to on the many trips you have taken over the years and the planing that goes behind them, as well as arranging and running the group tours which appear to be quite frequent, maintaining and regularly participating on such an active website and forum as well as running your own merchandising store and now that there is another mouth to worry about feeding and all the responsibilities that come with that aspect of your lives and still keeping up with your full time jobs and i assume there is a social life that gets crammed in there as well... how do you do it? I thought i was busy enough with the exploits i get up to in my day to day activities but in your shadows it seems like nothing! Taking in to account the mouthful above, you both still maintain such a bubbly and happy attitude in the various movies you have made available here and in the posts you contribute which is awe inspiring and incredible. AND YOU ARE SO FRIENDLY ^_^ I'm such a suck-up! ;D ...but when i grow up, i hope i can be just like you Robb! ...actually i hope i never grow up. Kudos! =D NB. I realise that posting this and hoping for a reply is a tad on the ironic side of things!

As much as this incident is a tragedy, ghost007jas makes a good point! However, i'm not going to quote credibility, but Garet mentioned earlier that approval by govt. to reopen may not be so forthcoming... http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=380052#380052 This now begs the question, will the park be open in time for the Japan tour this year? Or will it close like the water park on Santosa island in Singapore after the girl was killed there. If so how would this incident effect peoples eagerness to go to the park? Personally i have a big trip planned to Japan mid this year and have this park on my itinerary... fingers crossed it will be back up and the ride will be open again (Surely lighting cant strike twice.. surely...).

Poor girls and their families ='(

Nothing more than that really needs to be said. At the end of the day this appears to have been an unfortunate accident based on a combination of gambling and bad luck. I'm no mechanic however i would say the pivotal factor causing this accident was the rescheduling of the annual check that they usually do at the start of the year. If it was not put off for 4months (the gamble) then perhaps the faulty axel may have been discovered, or it may not have.. in which case the maintainance procedure will probably be updated to include mandatory, routine replacement of parts such as axels given this experience. Id say something like that would happen worldwide as well (if parks hadn't already adopted the procedure) Coming from working on very high safety risk mine sites where safety is the first thing you think about before you do anything, and i mean on the scale of if you accidentally get hot water on your hand making a coffee or kick your toe when changing boots, you have to log a safety incident report, there is a huge potential for very serious and realistically fatal accidents to happen without warning, unless proper precautions are taken. In my workplace, these serious incidents provoke a significant investigation in to how appropriate procedures need to be improved to prevent similar incidents or the same reoccurring. I would be supprised if maintenance procedures don't come out better than what they were for all parks globally since this incident.

...prompt me to look up who Terry is in Wikipedia. Ahh an Actor/Foosball star. Incidentally, it turns out Terry was also widely known in Italy for his skill of...

Hi guysss, i'm Callum I'm 20, male *giggles* and enjoy long walks on the beach. Currently residing in Perth, Western Australia (Aussie land!! =D ) however i get forced on to planes so many damn times by my boss these days that i may as well just pitch a tent in the ol' 727! Oh and on a side note; Robb you probably wont read this but i think i'm in love with you <3 (Plutonically or supersonically or whatever the word is...) Last week you were the 30-sumptink year old who (along with your partners in crime) made me split my sides from laughter due to various videos and park reviews on your site.. today i can praise you for CoD:UO ^_^