FWIW, I rode the Texas Giant at Six Flags five straight times a few years ago, and ended up with a mild whiplash. Didn't complain to anyone, but my daughter and I stopped riding it after that.
Posted on 07/09/2006 7:32:17 PM PDT by RushingWater
A malfunction on an amusement park ride Sunday sent at least 20 people to hospitals, most with minor chest and neck injuries, a sheriff's office dispatcher said.
The accident happened on the Son of Beast roller coaster at Paramount's Kings Island just northeast of Cincinnati.
WCPO-TV reported that witnesses saw the roller coaster come to an abrupt stop.
Riders complained of discomfort after the coaster completed a circuit and pulled back into the boarding area, said Maureen Kaiser, a spokeswoman for the park. The park's emergency staff tended to the riders and notified authorities, Kaiser said.
Park officials shut down the ride and were examining it, Kaiser said.
The park's Web site describes the roller coaster as "the tallest, fastest and only looping wooden coaster on the planet" that hurtles down a 214-foot hill at more than 78 mph. The coaster, more than 7,000 feet long, features a 118-foot tall loop.
"The Beast" is awesome.
Son of a beast!
A lot of fond memories of "The Beast" at Kings Island, but never rode the "son of".
I remember riding "The Bat" at Kings Island when I was in high school, first generation hanging roller coaster, and that thing jerked you around corners very hard. The day after I rode it, 2 people died when it threw one of the cars off on one of those corners.
Saw a segment about this coaster on a show on the History Channel the other day -- "Superstructures", I think it was called. Impressive beast.
Eventually we are going to have roller coasters that are 2,000 feet high, travel over 40 miles of track and reach speeds of 400mph. If you think I'm nuts, just wait about 20 years. You'll see.
ouch! After reading the title, I wondered if it was my favorite park - Cedar Point in Ohio.
I wonder if anyone happened to get it on video tape.
I've ridden this coaster. It wasn't as rough as the Beast is. Seems like Son of Beast you are not harnessed in like a lot of the looping coasters?
I just look at all the little wheels and wonder what happens if just one gets hung up.
Cedar Point is buying Kings Island I heard.
FWIW, I rode the Texas Giant at Six Flags five straight times a few years ago, and ended up with a mild whiplash. Didn't complain to anyone, but my daughter and I stopped riding it after that.
No one could pay me enough to get on one of those things.........let alone me pay to get on one of them.
Its nice to have some one watch out for you even if my sister is 15 years younger than myself.
Rides like this do put some stress on the body even when functioning normally
I think this is the stupidest thing... building bigger and faster does not remotely mean better....
I'll take the last seat on the Jack Rabbit at Kennywood Park, over any huge gigantic steel coaster any day of the week. Not a damned one of those huge gawdy contraptions can give you the thrill of that ride, and it was built in I believe the 1920s.
Going "bigger and faster" is just a cop out.. I've been on short little <1000' wooden out and backs that are far more thrilling and fun than the "super coasters"
I believe it. They just scare the dickens out of me just looking at them - there ain't no way, no how anyone is gonna get me on one.
I used to love amusement part rides. Then something happened: I figured out I was mortal. The illusion of risk suddenly lost its entertainment value.
Who?
When I was but a wee young’n back in 1969, my family went on vacation to Myrtle Beach SC. I begged to get on the roller coaster – a rather tame wooden structure with no upside down loops or crazy G’s that, as of the last time I was down there to play golf, is still there in the old part of town.
It was supposed to make two circuits but stopped after the first, when the operator strongly suggested to my mother, who was riding with me that she take me off.
Apparently I wasn’t screaming but was staring straight-ahead, unblinking, white knuckled and as pale as a ghost and he was afraid I’d pass out and fall out.
Needless to say that was my first and last rollercoaster ride. Just seeing a picture of one makes my knees quiver and my heart beat way too fast to be healthy.
You all have fun. I’ll be safely on the ground eating some cotton candy and will great you when you get off. Everyday life is thrilling enough for me – Heck the Baltimore or Capital Beltway is thrilling enough - LOL!
Kennywood, WOW that takes me back. Haven't been there since 1988.
I saw that one, too. All wood.
UHMMMM....you've now given me pause......I would probably get on a roller coaster before I drove either of those. Been a passenger far too many times - would not be able to handle either as a driver...........heck, I've got enough trouble just dealing with Route 13 through Delaware and the Maryland and Virginia Eastern Shore.
You are evidently a lot younger than me (I’m now 45) but I love Alice in Chains.
Man in the Box, The Rooster - great band with great lyrics and haunting vocal harmonies. I always thought they were way above their Seattle grunge counter parts in that respect – Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
But then the last time I got whiplash rocking out on an amusement park ride, it was the Himalaya (defiantly not a roller coaster!) in 1976 in OC, MD and they were playing Slow Ride by Foghat. And I will not tell you about my back stage experience at a Styx concert in 79. Man I’m getting old – but I’m fighting all the way - :). I did see DMB last summer and I'm trying get tickets to see Counting Crows in Aug. I never want to be too old to bang my head a bit.
Route 13 on the Eastern Shore is a cake walk in comparison. The only bad part is going through Dover.
I'm not even intimidated on the NJ turnpike until I reach the Tapenzee.
The Baltimore Beltway is a challenge but the Capital Beltway? I don't venture there unless I have to and I know my life insurance is up to date and I'm righ with my maker if you know what I mean....a rush hour that starts at 6 AM does't end until 7 or 8 PM, bumper to bumper at 70+ mph plus random, unexplained, high speed lane changes combined with construction zones and lane closures every 5 miles....wait, maybe I should't be so afraid of roller coasters after all!
See what I'm saying..........LOL!!!!
I grew up in NYC, I know about driving that way..............and Dover..............Down here on the lower eastern shore is a cakewalk compared to that nightmare, and I dealt with that for more than 20 years.
Just thinking about it makes me cringe - and I have to get out on 13 first thing in the monring.......so I'm calling it a night.
Night!!!!
It hasn't changed all that much... some new rides.. like all parks.. but its still got all the classics....
Classics stand the test of time.... something most steel coasters don't do... torn down to make room for the next giant supercoaster.
Back seat of the Jack Rabbit.. best ride and air around.. but if you have back problems... probably not something you should do.
Good for your sister! At least she is one of the few who are paying attention to the warning posted at the entrance to most modern coasters. Heck if it's one of the big parks their playing the warning in between the music videos you watch at you stand in line.
King's Dominion (north of Richmond, VA) just reopened "The Volcano" after a mishap a couple of weeks ago. A bolt was loose. Two were injured and 15 people were stranded (I forget how long).
I think these incidents are rare, and parks usually do a good job of maintenance.
Still, I've not been diagnosed with heart trouble, but I'm sure I'd never live through a ride on one of those.
The third and newest, the Voyage, has the most "airtime" (negative gees) of any coaster in the world. its first drop is 176 feet high and drops at a 67-degree angle.
If a particular rollercoaster derails, say, once every month or so, seriously injuring most and killing some, it would be the ultimate adult "thrill ride".
I probably wouldn't ride it though.
Actually, the limit is how much the human body can handle. One of the first roller coasters was more intense than any of the coasters today, the problem is it snapped the necks of some of the passengers.
why would anyone go anywhere BUT cedar point?
These things are getting too big, too high, and too dangerous!
I'll stick with The Cyclone in Coney Island and The Comet in Hersheypark.
Isn't this how the scream got recorded on the Ohio Players "Love Rollercoaster?"
This is the last time the words "Ohio" and "Rollercoaster" were together.
So I don't suppose you will be heading down to Busch Gardens for Apollo's Chariot anytime soon, eh (210' drop 73 mph)? I stood in line for hours to ride the Loch Ness Monster when it was new in '78, I think. Now it is the tamest of their coasters, and I love 'em all.
I think the last coaster I ever rode at King's Island was the Cobra. It's the one with the tracks overhead and you are strapped in while standing. That thing took off and I slipped down in their restraints to just below my nose...not even a seat to pee in! Never again, if I want to live dangerously, I'll make cartoons.
I'll just have to read reviews...I ain't ever going back!!!
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