HappyEisentrout Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I've never really had any issues with lapbars/seatbelts coming undone or loose. The only real uncomfortable ride I've ever had has been both times on Viper at Darien Lake. The seats are lower and it doesn't let my shoulders hit the OTSR as easily and they staple everyone so badly on that ride. It's the only ride I can't ride due to it hurting too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viking86 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 My friends seatbelt became undone during the ride on Cyclone @ SFNE a few years ago. He didnt notice it until the final brakerun. None of us were surprised though as that ride rattled the hell outta us... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal1br3tto Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I'm convinced I have ridden a ride with unlocked restraints before. Some OTSRs freak me out even when they work 100% properly. They seem fine at first, but when the vehicle shifts into another position I realize I have more room than I had expected, yet often not enough for an extra click. This has happened to me on GIBs, X2, and the Evolution I rode at a carnival. Please note: I know it's not dangerous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aviadigit Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Facing the ground on the first lift of Stunt Fall(the Vekoma GIB at Parque Warner Madrid), my restraint popped open 1 click, it was one of the most terrifying experiences in my life . Still one of my favorite and one of the smoothest(!) coasters I've ridden so far... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgal11 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Not the seatbelt, but when I was riding the riddler's revenge at six flags in Cali. My ex-boyfriends lap restraint didn't click and came undone. I thought he was going to fly out but luckily for him he didn't. It was pretty scary knowing that could happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechanic Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Are all of you that claim you've had a restraint come loose absolutely certain that it didn't just get pushed downard by positive Gs and then back up against the ratcheting mechanism by negative Gs, or you pushing/pulling on it? Perhaps you confused that as the restraint loosening? I have never in my life had a restraint end up looser than where it started. Tighter, yes, but looser, no. I'm not calling anyone a liar, I just really find this difficult to believe due to my lack of personal experience with anything of the sort. I mean, I could see a seatbelt coming undone (or more likely not having been fully fastened to begin with) but a mechanically held restraint? Just call me skeptical I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Gumball Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 ^I'm honestly still puzzled about my incident on Drop Tower posted on the last page. I'm not sure if I'm going crazy, or if this really happened or if it's even possible, which is why I asked if anyone here has worked an Intamin giant drop and would have knowledge on the ride's safety systems. I don't want to make myself sound like the GP and say "I almost flew out of Drop Zone because the restraints weren't locked." (No, I'm not insinuating that you guys are making GP-ish statements) Never had anything come loose, only get squished tighter due to g-forces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MayTheGForceBeWithYou Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Mothers Day last year, I was on the Cyclone at Lakeside in Denver. On the second circuit of the day, the axle between the third car and the fourth car became detatched in the twister section (fortunately the retention cables kept the train together). On the out and back section, the third and fourth car kept crashing into each other at the bottom of the hills. Looking behind me (I was in the fifth and last car), I saw that the axle actually broke through some of the track ties. Right on the brake run, we were evacuated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okinawaboy11 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 No, it was a small wooden coaster called "The Skyliner" at Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvainia. I had the same thing happen to me during an ACE event a couple years ago, cresting the first turn around, the airtime was insane. Had my seatbelt nice and tight but man was I scared. Also, Hurler at KD. Seems to be a trend on this ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alilstronger Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Are all of you that claim you've had a restraint come loose absolutely certain that it didn't just get pushed downard by positive Gs and then back up against the ratcheting mechanism by negative Gs, or you pushing/pulling on it? Perhaps you confused that as the restraint loosening? I have never in my life had a restraint end up looser than where it started. Tighter, yes, but looser, no. I'm not calling anyone a liar, I just really find this difficult to believe due to my lack of personal experience with anything of the sort. I mean, I could see a seatbelt coming undone (or more likely not having been fully fastened to begin with) but a mechanically held restraint? Just call me skeptical I guess. I am glad you have been that lucky. I posted that one of my arm restraints came totally loose on the Batwing at Six Flags America and it did. The coaster has a separate restraint for each arm and one of the restraints came totally loose. It extended fully out mid ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyEisentrout Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 ^ That's totally terrifying. I love the Vekoma flyers, and with all the harness on those rides, this is still really scary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesdillaman Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Are all of you that claim you've had a restraint come loose absolutely certain that it didn't just get pushed downard by positive Gs and then back up against the ratcheting mechanism by negative Gs, or you pushing/pulling on it? Perhaps you confused that as the restraint loosening? I have never in my life had a restraint end up looser than where it started. Tighter, yes, but looser, no. I'm not calling anyone a liar, I just really find this difficult to believe due to my lack of personal experience with anything of the sort. I mean, I could see a seatbelt coming undone (or more likely not having been fully fastened to begin with) but a mechanically held restraint? Just call me skeptical I guess. When I was trained on The Beast at Kings Island, as well as the Racer, we were told and it was printed in the handbook: "Occasionally an individual lapbar restraint may come up during the ride. If someone reports this to you, tie off the seat and let maintenance know right away so they can look at it. The guest is in no real danger as the physical design of the ride will keep them in their seat as long as they remain in a seated position." That said, I've had my lapbar come up on a couple different PTC rides. My wife and I also rode the Galaxi at Indiana Beach with the lapbars fully up, but that was because the ride op was an idiot and didn't put them down, even after I yelled at him, he said "They'll come down." Of course they didn't because you have to manually put them up and down on that ride. We just held on. It was sorta fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDCOASTERFAN Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Are all of you that claim you've had a restraint come loose absolutely certain that it didn't just get pushed downard by positive Gs and then back up against the ratcheting mechanism by negative Gs, or you pushing/pulling on it? Perhaps you confused that as the restraint loosening? I have never in my life had a restraint end up looser than where it started. Tighter, yes, but looser, no. I'm not calling anyone a liar, I just really find this difficult to believe due to my lack of personal experience with anything of the sort. I mean, I could see a seatbelt coming undone (or more likely not having been fully fastened to begin with) but a mechanically held restraint? Just call me skeptical I guess. It's quite difficult to go above a normal 1-G pull when you're simply rolling down a flat level stretch of track just before reaching the lift because that is exactly where it happened on grizzly last year & yes the bar came completely up & wouldn't even engage the ratchets at all when pulling it down until the train was already on the lift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twister II Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 My restraint popped open on Blue Streak at Cedar Point. We were sitting towards the back of the train, both restraints were checked by the crew. I guess on the lift hill my restraint and the guy sitting next to me came unlocked somehow and we didn't notice. The first drop is when we both noticed the orange bars were completely up! At the bottom of the first drop they slammed back down and stayed down the rest of the ride. I guess the ride ops noticed and the ride closed down for a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechanic Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I sure hope this never happens to anyone on a B&M or Vekoma flyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougMJr Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 ^ I was riding Batwing at Six Flags America once and one of my arm restraints came loose. So I had one arm fastened in and one was not. I was actually scared. Apparently it has happened on a Vekoma Flyer, I can't imagine how terrifying that would have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechanic Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I actually meant the lap portion of the restraint opening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcdude Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 ^Given how that restraint is locked I don't think it's very likely it would come open. I've had three coaster experiences with no restraints. The first was having the lapbar pop open on Jaguar on the second lifthill. This was before the ride had seatbelts added to it, so I was pretty young at the time. Needless to say, that scared me quite a bit, and I refused to ride it again until after the seatbelts were installed (up until that point, it was my favorite coaster). The second was at Adventure City on Tree Top Racers. On one ride, I rode and found the car I was in had a defective seatbelt that wouldn't latch. Therefore, I rode without a seatbelt and just held on tight. I noted the car number and would not ride in that car for the remainder of the day. The third was at Scandia Amusement Park on the Screamer. The ride operator made sure everyone's seat belt was fastened, then hit the dispatch button instead of the lap bar lock button. The train dispatched, and everyone began to yell. Fortunately, the operator realized what had happened quickly and hit the lift stop button, so the train stopped at the bottom of the lift hill. The operator then came out and manually secured everyone, then started the ride back up. Since the ride had a seatbelt, I doubt it would have been too dangerous to ride with the bar up, but it would probably have felt unsafe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottBrown Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Me and my friends had the restraints pop open 2 or 3 clicks across the entire row on Revoulition (looping starship) at CGA while it was hanging upside down not a very fun experience never been on it since Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
typhoon200 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I had a Lapbar opening during the ride in Walibi Belgium's (Six Flags Belgium) "weerwolf" or "Loup-Garou". This happend a few years ago. It happend a lot of times in that year to other people as wel! Ever sinds, they changed the lapbar mechanical system on the ride (about two years ago). I think it was a production failure, because last year, the replaced the restrains on the Vekoma Woodie in Walibi World as wel! (SF Holland). It happens sometimes on a Tivoli Coaster to! But most of the time, it's someone I know who smashes the pin on the side of the car... These are all pure mechanical Lapbars, never had a failure on Hydraulic Lapbars! (Like the new one's on the Vekoma Woodies in the Walibi Parks). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Not the seatbelt, but the lapbar restraint came undone while I was riding Hurler at KD. I think it was never properly secured though. One of many reasons I won't ride Hurler. Same thing happened to me on Hurler last season on the lifthill. I just pulled the bar down, and it ratcheted back into place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alilstronger Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 ^I was riding Batwing at Six Flags America once and one of my arm restraints came loose. So I had one arm fastened in and one was not. I was actually scared. Apparently it has happened on a Vekoma Flyer, I can't imagine how terrifying that would have been. I was terrified because it happened as we were going down the first drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDCOASTERFAN Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I sure hope this never happens to anyone on a B&M or Vekoma flyer. Aren't the B&M flyer harnesses different? on the vekoma's you have the two shoulder straps with the buckle which is locked by the computer plus the ratcheting lap/ankle bar while on the B&M the ratcheting part is built into the shoulder harness itself & like the ones on the vekomas are locked by two pins that push into the armrest of the individual seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeMeMe Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Hmmmm.... La Ronde (Montreal's park) got into trouble with the Canadian news and citizens when the restraints on half the Boomerang train opened and nearly gave some kids heart attacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texcoaster Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Many years ago I visited Chapultapec in Mexico City and took a spin on the infamous La Montana Rusa. BRUTAL airtime and crushing Gs. On the fifth (and last) ride I took, I was in the front seat and as we crested the camelback after the first drop, the buzzbar popped up and LOCKED in the up position as if it were in the loading station. OMG I thought that we would seriously be ejected from the train before the ride was over.... not because we were in any danger, but because the airtime was so extreme on the previous rides that I was sure we'd be launched into space or something. When we arrived at the station, the bar was still up and the guy next to me was screaming to the ride ops in Spanish and pointing at the bar. The ride ops sorta shrugged, stepped on the lever, tested the bar, then sent the next group of riders off on their way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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