Thursday, June 17, 2004
CoasterCon
It is about to begin. Sunday afternoon I will be heading to Cedar Point to begin the week of the coasters. Sunday through Wednesday is at Cedar Point and Thursday through Saturday is at Geauga Lake. If you are interested, a flyer with all the events is available.
From what I have been told there will be about 800-900 ACE members in attendance. That is a lot less then the 2000 some who come to CoasterMania (Cedar Point's annual event). It remains to be seen if there will be trouble because of the new restrictions on some of their major rides.
Speaking of those restrictions... I got an e-mail from Carole Sanderson (President of ACE) about a newspaper article where she was quoted as being for the restrictions and that "There's a billion other things to do in that park. A billion":
Thanks for writing to me about the recent article that appeared in the Plain
Dealer. As it often happens (and I'm learning), what was quoted in the
article was not what I said to the reporter. She caught me on my cell phone
while I was on a busy convention floor!
Her one question to me was did I think that the restraint change on Top
Thrill (which I found out later was really millennium Force) would stop
"people" (not coaster enthusiasts) from attending Cedar Point. My response
was that there WERE a billion other things to do, and there shouldn't be a
significant drop in attendance.
As I'm not an engineer and don't work for the ride manufacturer, I do not
know how they figure their calculations for who can ride and who can't. I
do know (after checking with the Amusement Industry Manufacturers Safety
Council - AIMS) that the manufacturer of millennium Force has had five
similar accidents worldwide of people being "popped" out of the seat while
riding. Four of the people were large. Cedar Point and all parks, I
believe, don't have a choice when the manufacturer mandates restraints or a
change in restraints. I'm sure they're not happy that many of their guests
can't ride. I can assure you that no park wants an accident or death of a
guest.
We don't want accidents. That's true. Some large people have had problems. That is true. But once again, having an inch or so of slack on the safety belt (a SECONDARY SAFETY DEVICE) will not make anyone safer. If anything, the slack allows the belt to become more loose during the ride and allow someone to slip out. A belt with no slack would not loosen and would keep the rider secure.
We will see what happens.
