I spent a year as a ride operator at Knott’s Berry Farm Theme Park in Buena Park. Most of us ride operators took our jobs very seriously. It is no exageration that if you went on one of my rides, your life was in my hands.
My question involves the restraint system used on inverted (upside) roller coasters. They are known as OTSR (over the shoulder restraints) and in most cases they are the only thing between you and a bloody messy end. In the course of my job I learned that accidents happen at theme parks. And I’m well read on most of them. However, after hearing literally hundreds of different incidents, I cannot find any incidents where the OTSR’s unlocked on a rider in mid-cycle. Obviously this is a ride operators and riders worst nightmare. I hesitate to ask, but are there any recorded incidents where modern day OTSRs have opened during a ride cycle?
No direct evidence on my part about over-the-shoulder restraints failing, but since there’s not much being said on the subject at all I’ll add a thought or two. I worked at Six Flags Over Texas in the late 70’s and early 80’s, at a time when all the fast rides were equipped exclusively with lap bars. The only accident I recall from that time was an occasion when a member of the crew of the Shock Wave fell from the train while riding after hours. As it turned out, she was riding sitting on her knees and facing backwards at the time, and it didn’t seem to be an event that would cause serious questions to be asked about the efficiency of the restraint system when it was being used properly.
I’ve always felt quite secure in a lap bar equipped ride, but I’ve come to the point where I won’t ride in an over-the-shoulder restraint any more. For me, it’s a question of comfort. I’m 6’5", and the distance between the bottom of my rear end and the top of my shoulders seems longer than the restraints were meant to accomodate. That means that even before the ride begins my spine is compressed into a shape that it doesn’t naturally assume, and my recollections of the remainder of most such rides is a continuing effort to reduce the pain on top of my collarbone.
The example of the ride operator ejected from the Shock Wave shows that there are obviously places where an improperly secured rider would be in real danger of falling, but it seems to me that the trend toward OTS is at least in some instances a styling choice rather than a necessity.
Although OTS restraints do look absolutely wicked and make you feel more like a fighter-jet pilot - in which case it probably is more a style thing - IMHO, the more hardcore rides these days wouldn’t have been possible without them. To obtain greater G-forces and the like, the tracks need to turn at sharper angles, and to do this they put the track above your head - having just a lap-bar in this set-up would be positively dangerous!
But back to the OP, most OTS restraints have a strap of seat-belt (in the case of seats for the person of slightly greater atmospheric displacement, two straps!) as a fail-safe device, so even if the restraint comes off its latch, the belt is still there to catch it.
Finally, I think that theme parks are very much aware of today’s litigous society and any cost-benefit analysis would report that it’s much better to have the more expensive, high-quality safety systems than risk a law-suit!
First, on most rides, a restraint failure would not result in the person falling out. On a standard roller coaster, even when it’s inverted, the centrifugal force is enough to keep the riders in their seats. In such cases, the restraint is more intended to keep the rider from doing something stupid.
There are exceptions. King’s Island in Cincinnatti used to have a ride called Flight Commander, which allowed the riders, via a joystick, limited control of the orientation of their car. It was possible to orient the car in such a way that gravity and centrifugal force were working together, in which case the restraints (OTSR and lap belts) were the only things keeping a person in the car. This much, I know to be true, from my own experience riding the thing.
Onto less certain territory, when the ride was eventually shut down, “everyone knew” that it was because it had killed two people, when the restraints failed and inverted riders fell out of their seats. I’m beginning to suspect, though, that this was just a local urban legend, since Google searches are bringing up surprisingly scant information about it (less even than one would expect of an urban legend). On the other hand, of the mentions I am finding, none seem to be debunking the story.
Before I broke my back ( which effectively ended my lifelong love of rollercoasters forever ), I used to ride any I could get my hands on.
More than once- I remember a ride in Kennywood in Pittsburgh- one would be riding and would go through an inside loop and the ride wouldn’t accelerate very much, so that as one were at the apogee of the ride, one would start to fall down- upside down. This meant that you were dropping against your OTS restraint. You’re still moving forward and you didn’t drop hard against it, but I finished more than a few rollercoasters with sore collarbones and shoulders from having been inverted slowly enough to drop down against them.
I agree with a previous poster. At 6’4" the over the shoulder restraints can be pretty uncomfortable. But. With the physical, mechanical restraint of a seat belt clipping into them. Plus however they lock automatically, they seem pretty darn safe.
I gotto go in either case, my Wife loves them. Now, I do too.
There was a coaster in Kennywood that made people take off there earrings. The Steel Phantom I believe. Wow. I could have ridden that a lot more if I had a helmet on.
I worked Calico Railroad and Log Ride. Maybe you remember Jim Mayfield. We were all a tight knit group, us ride operators, and while I never worked on a rollercoaster, I was well versed in their operation and all of the details the general public never gets to hear.
From what I’ve been told, lap belts are there to make you feel better and provide minimal restraint in an emergency. Its in serious doubt that it would work. One one particular ride, Knott’s Xcellerator (protype for Top Thrill Dragster @ Cedar Point) the lap belt would do next to no good.
Still, its great that it seems OTSRs have an impecable safety record. I too have searched online quite a bit for evidence otherwise.