The “Safety Netting” is supported/attached by rigid hoops.
If the kid’s head (with or without the raft) was pushed up into the netting, the netting would have guided his head into a hoop.
A very thin, hard, hoop. Which, at 50+ mph, just might double as a blade.
Gratuitous misogyny straight out of left field in a dead kid story, yeah, I guess so.
I interpreted it as an injury to the face from getting hit with the decapitated head! :eek:
I assumed it was a reference to their faces slamming into his body, but yeah.
You have to wonder about the thought process that went into putting the net there.
I mean, if it weren’t there, there’s at least a decent chance that someone who gets launched upward lands back on the boat, or at least in the gutter. The track is straight, so you’re unlikely to get launched far enough sideways to fall out But if you hit the stationary net at full speed with the part of your body that is highest…
So, it’s a feature that looks like it adds safety, but actually makes the ride more dangerous.
People are talking all over the city about it. Most people though, since the park and ride are so new, have never been on it. But those who have said they felt it was unsafe.
Isn’t that what people are supposed to feel? You don’t go on rides like this with the expectation they will feel bland and boring–the feeling of being unsafe is part of the thrill.
There’s a distinct difference between the exciting/scary feeling of a ride and feeling something is unsafe. Riding the Mantis with a locked harness feels exciting. Riding the Mantis without one feels unsafe.
Because it’s the Dope: the body was decapitated; the head was disembodied.
Wait a minute, was he really decapitated? Or was it a neck fracture brought on by excessive g forces? Watching the video doesn’t look like that extreme a ride. Way too quick to justify a long wait in line, in my opinion.
Misogyny? I read this
“the other two riders with him were women and had injuries to their faces. :(”
and compared with decapitation, “injuries to their faces” seemed minor. Oh, ifIwereamisogynist, women’s physical appearances are so important to them, they’d rather be dead. Hence the rolleyes.
I think the netting’s mostly there to protect people on the ground. If you fly out of the raft you’ll die, but your body will be contained in the netting. No danger of people on the ground nearby being hit by people that fell out of the ride.
You don’t need a low net directly over the ride for that purpose.
AIUI, he was lofted out of the raft as it crested the top of the small hill after pulling out of the initial descent; while traveling ballistically through the air with considerable forward speed, he collided with the overhead netting and became entangled, resulting in violent deceleration of one or more portions of his body.
Not clear why this raft became airborne on this particular occasion - or if the raft did not become airborne, why he alone became airborne. It may be that the raft crests the hill on a near-zero-g trajectory such that a passenger pushing off of his seat, even gently, will become airborne.
Not clear how the two women in the raft with him were injured (broken jaw and cheek bones, from what I’ve read) despite reportedly staying in the raft. Maybe the kid’s airborne body slammed into them after being decelerated by the net?
There are conflicting stories as to whether he suffered a fatal internal neck injury, or true head-separated-from-body decapitation. Aerial video of the slide after the accident seems to show some dark stains on some areas of the slide. It’s not clear to me whether this is blood from the accident or just mineral/iron deposits from the water, but eyewitnesses did report blood on the slide afterwards.
At first I thought they meant “internal decapitation” but the media is still saying decapitation. I think at least one witness has said the body was missing the head.
Yeah, the early official reports were “neck injury” with most mainstream sources sticking to it. Less reputable outlets (probably going off of unconfirmed eye witness reports) were saying decapitation from the beginning. Since the first day or so I’ve seen more mainstream sources confirm decapitation, which makes me suspect that is, in fact, what happened. The initial “severe neck injury” report by police was probably being intentionally vague for reasons of familial privacy and etc.
I’ve read multiple reports of this ride being safe. Both people who say they’ve ridden it and had the raft go airborne–and this scared park staff enough they went up to the riders after seeing it and asked if they were okay (they were) and lots of reports of the velcro straps coming undone (which staff seemed to not care about.)
Apparently this ride had serious problems with the raft going airborne in testing, which delayed its opening and required a redesign. So it looks like this ride has at least two serious points of failure (raft can go airborne–probably if the weight is too low, and the safety straps can come undone, likely exposing the riders to a potential ejection), and I seriously doubt this thing would be considered safe by the sort of engineers who do safety inspections of roller coasters (in fact one was interviewed in the Kansas City Star and seemed skeptical of several of the concepts used in this ride.)
I’m not sure why they specified women in the story, unless they were pointing up the weight thing needed to keep the raft from going airborne.
Okay, no misogyny, but the rolleyes didn’t make that too clear. Facial injuries can be horrific in themselves by the way, but the story doesn’t elaborate.
I don’t know how you got “they’d rather be dead” from anything JackieLikesVariety said. All she said was that there were two other people also injured, and they had injuries to their faces. Facial injuries are not a good thing, hence the sad smilie. You’re really reaching to be offended by her post.
Several articles report that his body was found “face down at the bottom of the hill.” It’s difficult for a body to be “face down” when there’s no longer a face attached.
Off topic: That rolleyes emoticon really needs to be fixed. It looks way too much like a regular smiley face.
I thought it was an internal decapitation