Personal Safety at Theme Parks

[planenut]

We perhaps all have a habitual awareness of our personal items when on rides, and everybody is encouraged to secure loose items. Yesterday whilst on a ride, yes it was Stealth, a twelve year old girl was injured by being struck by a mobile phone. She was on the front row, the loser of the phone was in row eight. That phone, allegedly, was in a teenagers zipped pocket. As we on this site,  all understand that on the brake hill, the severe braking induces an opposite effect on gravity, with all loose items then being thrown forward. Sadly, the phone hit the girl on top of the head causing a cut, and I dare say, bruising, it took a while for the bleeding to stop. 

Being an old "f" I tried to help 'cos the staff were busy with the ride operation. The girl had two mates of the same age, not in a school group, and with no adults, and one of those went into a shocked state.

First aider arrived then took the girls off the Medical.

A very sad event for the girls, but a reminder for us all to secure everything.

 

 

 

[Mark9]

I would like to think that everyone on here secures their loose articles. I think with Hyperia opening and the amount of air time and whatever on that ride, that Thorpe should seriously think of a locker system similar to a lot of the RMC's in America. Having phones and whatever else flying around is unacceptable and whilst it is all about personal responsibility, Thorpe need to mitigate any potential danger going forward. 

 

[Matt 236]

Can see more rides having compulsory lockers and metal detectors before boarding the ride. Universal and Cedar Fair parks do this, as does Hyperion at Energylandia. 
 

Closing the baggage room wasn’t a great choice, as besides saving money on 1 minimum wage 19 year old, it reduces confidence of guests leaving personal items incase of theft.

[Martin Doyle]

If it were up to me, EVERY coaster that goes fast/high would make the riders go through metal detectors in the same way Velocicoaster/Hulk/Rocket at Universal do. Because you can NOT trust this modern generation to use common sense and not take their phones out trying to take selfies and POVs of coasters that have a million on YouTube already. I have personally had a phone smash me in the head on Untamed whilst riding in the back and had some close shaves on Toutatis back in May. How nobody on the ground has been injured yet at Pleasure Beach by a phone/wallet falling from Big One is beyond me too. So yes, given my way it would be metal detection across the board and NOTHING boarding the ride with you

[Benin]

Wonder how many of the "modern generation" are actually culpable given the top example had the victim as such. Plenty of people on those sites that should know better but act the idiot anyway for Internet clout.

 

I can only imagine the headaches to operations that installing metal detectors would cause to the parks. Cedar Fair over-react to everything and Universal is a result of the Duelling Dragons incident. I'm also not keen on having a "nothing in the queue" rule when there's over an hour wait for things.

 

Free lockers and the baggage store are the way forward from park perspective. The rest is instilling common sense into the guests, which hasn't been existent for a long time across the board, moreso in a post Covid world where people have seemingly become more self absorbed or ignorant of others.

[planenut]

Benin, I understand your comment and agree, post Covid, and in every arena, people have become more selfish and standards, especially on roads, have deteriorated. Many at the Parks have become more insular within their groups.

No matter what you are involved in, stay aware and stay safe.

[Marc]

21 minutes ago, Benin said:

Wonder how many of the "modern generation" are actually culpable given the top example had the victim as such. Plenty of people on those sites that should know better but act the idiot anyway for Internet clout.

 

I can only imagine the headaches to operations that installing metal detectors would cause to the parks. Cedar Fair over-react to everything and Universal is a result of the Duelling Dragons incident. I'm also not keen on having a "nothing in the queue" rule when there's over an hour wait for things.

 

Free lockers and the baggage store are the way forward from park perspective. The rest is instilling common sense into the guests, which hasn't been existent for a long time across the board, moreso in a post Covid world where people have seemingly become more self absorbed or ignorant of others.

Yeah I agree with this - I would hate to see things like metal detectors at ride entrances and I don’t think you can really expect people to be without phones etc in queues.

 

That said Thorpe have confirmed Hyperia will have the Mack rotating baggage stores which hopefully people will trust to leave phones etc in if they don’t have zip pockets to put them in.

[Mark9]

19 hours ago, Marc said:

Yeah I agree with this - I would hate to see things like metal detectors at ride entrances and I don’t think you can really expect people to be without phones etc in queues.

 

That said Thorpe have confirmed Hyperia will have the Mack rotating baggage stores which hopefully people will trust to leave phones etc in if they don’t have zip pockets to put them in.

 

It's why it needs to be designed like Twister Timbers or Wildcats Revenge where the lockers and metal detectors are just before the loading station. The rotating baggage stores aren't going to stop people taking their phones out on the ride.