Adventureland (Iowa) Discussion Thread

[prozach626]

How is that far fetched at all???? It seems naive to believe being short staffed in maintenance would never lead to shortcuts being taken or things accidentally overlooked, whether on an individual or management level. This happens throughout daily life, and it's not done on purpose. Airplanes fall from the sky, cars crash, and buildings collapse, often times because there wasn't enough time or resources to catch errors or do things right.

If I give you two widgets a day to inspect, test, and clear for quality, and it takes 3 hours to inspect each widget thoroughly, the job will probably be done right, in your 8 hour day.

I had 10 people working in my widget factory, and now I only have 5. Now, you have to inspect four widgets a day. You might be able to get them all inspected on your checklist, but you may not have had time to be as thorough. But, you completed the checklist, so #safe.

I have no idea if this was applicable to this accident.

[CoasterGuy06]

13 hours ago, grsupercity said:

These river rapid rides ran like 20 something years without issues and now I feel like its a yearly thing 

I mean in 1999 alone you had a raft flip at SFOT that resulted in a death and one at Visionland within days of them opening their ride. Hell that ride alone had a boat flip at least 4 times from 1999 until it closed in 2011 (although one was said to be the result of off duty employees jumping on the raft trying to flip it).

[mikeykaise]

The report I read this morning was saying that the children couldn't undo the seatbelt which is understandable if you're panicking. It's a real tragedy about the child dying. It's really hard imagining a raft dipping down that much that it flips over. I'm thinking maybe instead of letting people get onboard and sit anywhere maybe spread out adults around the raft to try and balance it better. 

[tndank]

The video of this accident is just heart breaking.  So sad.

[anonymouscactus]

There is a a cell phone video circulating from the boat behind them. They all witness the boat overturned and it's basically them yelling that they are about to get hit by their boat, and then freaking out with what they are going to do next after passing it. You can see some of them in the water getting out of the trough. I didn't look too closely and it was a one and done for me.

Scary **** do not recommend. Makes me feel uneasy.

[KarlaKoaster]

This is such a horrible story, and I'm devastated for the people in the capsised boat, but also the people who witnessed it, who were working on the ride, who responded to the accident and the park, even if they are found to have been neglectful.

[abovethesink]

Wow, some of what is being alleged is really, really bad for the park. As bad as it gets, basically.

 

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2021/07/09/adventureland-park-fatal-accident-2021-raging-river-ride-11-year-old-drowned-michael-jaramillo-david/7912842002/

 

Summary:

• The emergency access gate was chained, so first responders struggled to get in.
• When the ambulance did get in, they were furthered barred by stored fireworks.
• Bystanders called 911, not the park.
• Park security was not immediately notified. 
• Employees did not use the emergency release valve to rapidly drain the ride.
• Employees watched and did not act during the emergency.

A sixteen year old boy remains on life support as well, though there does seem to be some hope for a recovery there thankfuly.

This very well could be a lawsuit on the level that pushes out ownership if this level of negligence can be demonstrated in court. 

[KarlaKoaster]

Yes, it's not surprising because more often than not when an accident like this happens, it's not normally just one mistake but a series of mistakes. See also: Smiler (Alton Towers), Thunder River Rapids (Dreamworld) etc.

[SharkTums]

Super sad. I've always felt uneasy going on any water ride with a 'restraint'.  In fact, I will NOT go on a water ride where I cannot undo or get out of the restraint myself. Such a horrible accident. 

[KBrylczyk]

5 hours ago, abovethesink said:

• The emergency access gate was chained, so first responders struggled to get in.
• When the ambulance did get in, they were furthered barred by stored fireworks.
• Bystanders called 911, not the park.
• Park security was not immediately notified. 
• Employees did not use the emergency release valve to rapidly drain the ride.
• Employees watched and did not act during the emergency.

 

Holy crap, Adventureland, get your shit together.  I can guarantee there are lawyers champing at the bit to get a piece of this inevitable lawsuit.

[disownedpear]

Water rides should not have seatbelts you can't easily escape IMO. I get they want to make them safer taller ect. but I never felt safe on Shoot the Rapids and we saw what happened there. Kings Dominion has just a really loose lap seat belt on their rapids ride, which is really there for show. Maybe lives would have been saved if the restraint was simpler. 

 

[prozach626]

Was this just the standard seatbelt where you lift the tab to unfasten? 

Not all employees are trained first responders. It's probably a standing order to not go into the water in this type of emergency.

[tinaalsgirl]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:58 PM, SharkTums said:

Super sad. I've always felt uneasy going on any water ride with a 'restraint'.  In fact, I will NOT go on a water ride where I cannot undo or get out of the restraint myself. Such a horrible accident. 

That's why I always liked the restraints on Lost River at SDC. They were just velcro, so you felt safe enough wearing them, but they'd be easy to rip apart in an emergency. Can't imagine going on a ride like that without that kind of safety belt.

[disownedpear]

@prozach626I think it was the one where you lift the tab to unfasten. Children often have more trouble with it then the red button type. 

[prozach626]

I'm not buying that it was just the seatbelt that kept the person from surviving.

[grsupercity]

And sadly if the park wouldn't have chained the gate closed stupid teenagers would prly break there way in 

[disownedpear]

^I don't think that's much of an excuse at all. 

[KarlaKoaster]

The gate should be locked, but the park should have made sure access was made available to the emergency services by the time they arrived. It just sounds like a complete meltdown in response really. 

[SharkTums]

^Like you said, it was a series of unfortunate events. Hopefully this will be a lesson to ALL parks and re-training and new procedures are put in place to help minimize the chance that something like this happens again. 

[sdcfan88]

On 7/11/2021 at 3:20 PM, tinaalsgirl said:

That's why I always liked the restraints on Lost River at SDC. They were just velcro, so you felt safe enough wearing them, but they'd be easy to rip apart in an emergency. Can't imagine going on a ride like that without that kind of safety belt.

100% agree on this. Should be a standard on all water rides IMHO.

[prozach626]

Is everyone just assuming it was the seat belts, or did I miss something? (genuine question)

Why are we all acting like it's difficult to pull a seatbelt tab back? Panic or no panic. The primary cause of injury and death was the damn boat tipping over, not the seatbelts. I'm not trying to be insensitive.

[disownedpear]

"Family members have said they were unable to free Michael and David from their restraints after the raft flipped, which left them submerged for several minutes.

“When it flipped over, all of us were trapped in the safety seat belts," their father, also named David Jaramillo, said in an interview with "Good Morning America" earlier this week. "I see the silhouettes of my sons trying to grab each other, grab us. They want us to help them. We couldn't do it.”'

 

From https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2021/07/07/adventureland-accident-teenage-brother-boy-killed-raging-river-life-support-des-moines-hospital/7889822002/

 

First hand accounts from accidents are notoriously bad but I think this is what people are going on. It's not hard for me to believe it was the belt, even in no panic situations kids have trouble with those types.

[SharkTums]

Yeah, I mean, the thing flipped and that's the #1 problem, but obviously some people were able to get the seatbelt right off and get out un-injured.  It's a timing/panic/terrifying thing.  What if you breathed in just as you went under, you would be choking and have no chance to undo a seatbelt.  What if you banged your head on something and were out of it? What if you're a child and the belt is a little tight? I mean, I've had issues undoing some seatbelts on coasters and I'm a 'pro'.  This goes back to my whole thing that there should NOT be hard restraints on any water ride. I'm with others. Velcro or no restraints please!

[RaccHudson]

I did some research into this ride, and I'm of the opinion that Adventureland was extremely neglectful of its operating condition and had established no procedures for a water rescue in the area where the raft overturned even though they knew rafts being stranded there after a ride stop was possible

https://medium.com/@spennydc/lack-of-maintenance-and-disregard-for-industry-recommended-safety-procedures-may-have-contributed-bfe6a22cd232

 

[wingsofmelody]

On 7/21/2021 at 3:32 PM, RaccHudson said:

I did some research into this ride, and I'm of the opinion that Adventureland was extremely neglectful of its operating condition and had established no procedures for a water rescue in the area where the raft overturned even though they knew rafts being stranded there after a ride stop was possible

https://medium.com/@spennydc/lack-of-maintenance-and-disregard-for-industry-recommended-safety-procedures-may-have-contributed-bfe6a22cd232

 

that's some really interesting stuff you've pointed out. i don't know exactly how you could do it, but i think contacting local media or investigative parties would be a good idea