Legal Requirements

[Henry M]

Hi all,

 

I was wandering if the ever boring Health and safety has got their hands on restricting things on rollercoasters yet. For example, is there a limit as to how many G a ride can legally pull, and is there a duration it must be under. Also, are there rules on how rough a rollercoaster can get? Please tell me if you know if these restrictions or others exist and what they are if you know.

 

Thanks,

Henry M

[robbalvey]

You seem to wander a lot...

[Henry M]

You seem to wander a lot...

I do...

 

"I wander lonely as a cloud" and so on. So, Robb, do you know of any of these requirements?

[Projektion]

There was a post on the Nolimits-Exchange a few days ago about it, it linked to this pdf.

 

Quick Summary (Originally written up by Luisvaldez989 of the NLE):

 

A few terms used:

 

Restraints

 

Base Case (Class 4 or 5 Restraint) – Some kind of restraint device that provides support to the lower body in all directions and maintains rider contact with the seat at all times.

 

Over-the-Shoulder (Class 5 Restraint) – Included in the base case, but with the added specification of being able to support the upper body.

 

Prone Restraint – The most common application of this is your standard flying coaster. A prone restraint is one where the rider is oriented “face down” at a point or at several points during the ride cycle. A prone restraint is designed to allow the patron to accept higher acceleration in the -Gx (eyes front) as compared to the Base Case and Over-the-Shoulder restraints.

 

Orientation

 

+Gx (Eyes Back) – For practical purposes, these are the Gs felt during a period of forward acceleration, such as a launch. Alternately, these are the Gs felt while on your back during a flying coaster’s loop.

 

-Gx (Eyes Front) – These are the Gs felt during a period of deceleration on a standard coaster, such as a brake run. Alternately, these are the Gs felt on your chest while in the flying position of a flying coaster.

 

+/-Gy (Eyes Left or Eyes Right) – Simply put, lateral Gs.

 

-Gz (Eyes Up) – Airtime, or in the case of a flying coaster, braking deceleration.

 

+Gz (Eyes Down) - Positive vertical Gs, or in the case of a flying coaster, the Gs felt on a launch track.

 

[canadianparkfan]

^Those limits seem to make sense.

 

Makes me wonder if different parks/chains set their own limits though. For example, CF has been pretty conservative lately, sticking mostly with B&M, however, Hershey built Skyrudh a few years back, which probably pushes the upper limits of some of those scales posted.

[Comeagain?]

To my knowledge there aren't many legal requirements per say. Some states/governing body may have their own restrictions, but it's not very widespread or consistent. However there are standards (ASTM) that most manufacturers willingly follow that dictate things like forces that riders experience and types of restraint systems. Luckily overall this is a pretty safe industry and as such hasn't attracted a lot of attention of law makers.

[djcoastermark]

So if you're in Canada, no assisted suicide coasters anytime soon I guess. Or quoting John Allen, " the ultimate coaster is built when you send out 24 people, and they all come back dead. Don't see that happening soon either. I guess that's what sets limits. imho.