No one from the state showed up and said "you can't let people ride that" ?
Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
101–110 of 145 posts
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
My dad rode a cliffhanger type of slide at Action Park in the mid 80s. It had a plastic covering about 1/2 way down so you couldn't "fall off" the slide. I'm still amazed to this day he did it because he's afraid of heights. It was easily 50' high. Fortunately, the only downside was it was like getting an enormous enema. Those sled things that went down the concrete track, everyone has scars from those. Great memorie…
Fond memories of childhood visits to a local "flume" ride, essentially a long concrete-lined ditch dug in a switchback pattern down a big hillside. Painted to make it slick, and they pumped a continuous stream of water all along it. You rode it by sitting or lying on foam mats, about 3x4 feet in size. A ton of fun, you could get going pretty fast and you definitely wanted to have your legs crossed when you hit the po…
Hmm… The indictment mentions that normal engineering practice would include an “upstop”, which is apparently a wheel or other part of the vehicle that rides under the track [1] to prevent it from going airborne. In addition, it says the restraint should have been a “Class 5 restraint consisting of rigid overhead shoulder bars with a locking lap restraint”, which would effectively prevent the rider from going airborne. So it seems like if both of those things had been present, designed properly, and of course tested and maintained, that would provide a high degree of safety without needing to fully enclose the track.
[1] https://www.quora.com/How-do-roller-coasters-stay-on-the-tra...
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#103Does anybody know if there were any safety inspections of the park by the city, state or federal bodies? If so, how did it pass the inspections?
Usually city inspectors don't know enough to evaluate those kinds of things.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
My dad rode a cliffhanger type of slide at Action Park in the mid 80s. It had a plastic covering about 1/2 way down so you couldn't "fall off" the slide. I'm still amazed to this day he did it because he's afraid of heights. It was easily 50' high. Fortunately, the only downside was it was like getting an enormous enema. Those sled things that went down the concrete track, everyone has scars from those. Great memorie…
Fond memories of childhood visits to a local "flume" ride, essentially a long concrete-lined ditch dug in a switchback pattern down a big hillside. Painted to make it slick, and they pumped a continuous stream of water all along it. You rode it by sitting or lying on foam mats, about 3x4 feet in size. A ton of fun, you could get going pretty fast and you definitely wanted to have your legs crossed when you hit the po…
> you definitely wanted to have your legs crossed when you hit the pool at the bottom.
Why? This is a serious question, since I am not that experienced in crazy water slides.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
so basically, they were doing water slide _research_ instead of water slide _engineering_
Water slide experimentation might be more apt. Don't test in production. Or with human lives.
> Don't test in production. Or with human lives.
They surely tested it with their own life before. It worked. ;-)
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Running it with a broken safety feature isn't recklessness? I think it is. Also gross negligence. (IANAL, though. Legal definitions of those words may not match my intuitive understanding of them...)
Disclaimer: This isn't legal advice. The legal definition of recklessness requires that the person know (or should know) that the ride is dangerous. Legally, it is more difficult to prove when that person took actions that suggest they did not think it was dangerous. To your point about broken safety features: One could potentially even argue that the brake isn't a safety feature. It could be there to help riders tha…
AFAICT, the “brake” was a rough pad attached to the surface of the slide, designed to slow the raft as it crested a hill. It wasn’t a user-operable brake. See page 4 of the indictment.
[0] https://www.wycocourtks.org/uploads/4/4/1/2/4412070/2018-03-...
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, what?
They ran a YouTube channel. He convinced his girlfriend to shoot him with a pistol while he held a thick book in front of himself, expecting the book to stop the bullet. The book did not stop the bullet, and he died from the gunshot wound. She pled guilty to manslaughter. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/us/youtube-shooting-minne...
WTF.
This is strikingly familiar to something that happened to me as a kid, albeit maybe an order of magnitude or two less serious.
My step mom wanted to feel the impact of my high powered paintball gun. So she held up a cardboard pizza pox and asked me to shoot her.
I shot a few rounds which shred through the box and ended up cutting her stomach.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#108Given that it killed someone in such a violent and (at least in retrospect) predictable way, I would certainly hope that it failed to conform to "basic design standards". That said, this definitely falls into that insidious category of failures, those that hurt people consistently, but not enough to raise any unlowerable eyebrows. That is, until something like this happens, and someone dies.
> Given that it killed someone in such a violent and (at least in retrospect) predictable way, I would certainly hope that it failed to conform to "basic design standards".
Why, some of them are built so the front kid doesn't fall off at all!
The front fell off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM
well what sort of standards are these oil tankers built to?
oh, very rigorous maritime engineering standards
what sort of things?
well the front's not supposed to fall off for a start
what other things?
well there are regulations governing the materials that they can be made of
what materials?
well cardboard's out
and?
no cardboard derivatives
like paper?
no paper, no string, no cello tape
rubber?
no, rubber's out, umm, they have to have a steering wheel, theres a minimum crew requirement
whats the minimum crew?
oh, 1 i supposeRe: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fond memories of childhood visits to a local "flume" ride, essentially a long concrete-lined ditch dug in a switchback pattern down a big hillside. Painted to make it slick, and they pumped a continuous stream of water all along it. You rode it by sitting or lying on foam mats, about 3x4 feet in size. A ton of fun, you could get going pretty fast and you definitely wanted to have your legs crossed when you hit the po…
> you definitely wanted to have your legs crossed when you hit the pool at the bottom. Why? This is a serious question, since I am not that experienced in crazy water slides.
Because otherwise the water slams into your crotch. Crossing your feet or keeping them pressed together directs the water away.
Re: Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design Standards
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fond memories of childhood visits to a local "flume" ride, essentially a long concrete-lined ditch dug in a switchback pattern down a big hillside. Painted to make it slick, and they pumped a continuous stream of water all along it. You rode it by sitting or lying on foam mats, about 3x4 feet in size. A ton of fun, you could get going pretty fast and you definitely wanted to have your legs crossed when you hit the po…
> you definitely wanted to have your legs crossed when you hit the pool at the bottom. Why? This is a serious question, since I am not that experienced in crazy water slides.
Because otherwise you strike water at high speed with your unprotected crotch area.