From: geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen)
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 21:18:31 GMT
Organization: Roller Coaster fanatic with no hope for a cure
Subject: Re: Colossus (was Re: Flight Commander elaboration request)
Summary: 
Followup-To: 
Organization: Roller Coaster fanatic with no hope for a cure
Keywords: 

buck@cavlry.enet.dec.com () writes:
>James Hsieh writes:
>
>>Or in some cases, equipment is changed, like I believe the trains on 
>>Colossus at SFMM were after the woman fell out in the late 70's (the
>>ride has had 3 different sets of trains in its history, I can't remember
>>who made the first set, but the second set were PTC trains which were
>>installed at about the same as the incident, 

What's on there now?

>If my memory serves me correctly, Colossus' first set of trains were
>a set of traditional IAD rolling stock, just like the ones (still)
>running the rails on La Montana Rusa at Chapultapec Park in Mexico 
>City (Colossus was modeled after La Montana Rusa ... it's not a copy,
>but it was inspiried by it).

Well, my memory is probably not that good here, but...

I was but a young high-school student living about 45 minutes away from
Magic Mountain when Colossus opened.  Riding it was the most terrifying
experience of my life!  Those drops!  And all that airtime!  Yikes!  
(If I could go back and ride the untamed Colossus again, it probably
wouldn't be nearly as terrifying to me now, but ahh, the memories.)

Now, being a young neophyte completely ignorant in the ways of the
coaster enthusiast, I paid absolutely no attention to the trains, but my
memory is of trains that must have been PTCs.  I remember nothing like
traditional IADs (though that would have made sense, since IAD designed
the coaster).  I rode the coaster before the death, so the PTCs were not
installed in response to that.  Perhaps they were added due to concerns
over the rather intense airtime.  Dunno.

BTW, these trains had ratcheting lap bars that were like those on a
Schwarzkopf train.  In my youthful ignorance, I pushed the bar all the
way down to my lap, and it *hurt* on the airtime.  That hard rubber (or
foam or whatever it is) pad digging into my thigh was no fun.  At least
the hated orange bars are *soft*!

They had a problem with the lap bars coming up when the train was
released from the station (it happened to me once -- took me until about
2/3 of the way up the lift hill and *lots* of effort before I could get
it down again -- talk about scared).  Magic Mountain added little cable
clips to the sides of the lap bars so they wouldn't go all the way up if
they released.  It was a kludge of major proportions. 

One of the local news channels had an interview with a woman who was
built like the one who died in the accident (short and rather heavy). 
She said that she rode Colossus and the operator couldn't get the safety
cable clipped, but told her it wouldn't be any big deal.  Her bar went
up and she was unable to get it back down.  She said she had to hang on
*hard* for the entire ride in order to stay in.  The speculation was
that this may have been what happened in the death.  (I don't know if
the airtime was *that* severe.  Do any coasters out there have severe
enough airtime to actually throw you from the car? As I recall, the
woman fell out of the train at a fairly low point in the circuit, like
one of the many small bumps featured on the ride, which may well
implicate the airtime as at least a contributing factor.)

After the accident, as I recall, seat belts were added.

I don't know what the lawsuit revealed, other than that Magic Mountain
lost, went bankrupt, and was bought out by Six Flags.  And the Colossus
was tamed to a pale shadow of its former self.

Anybody wanna go check the court records? :^)

Back to the original question of ``is it weird to ride a killer
coaster?'' -- I've (knowingly) ridden two killer coasters other than
Colossus, both at Lagoon, in Farmington, Utah.  There was a 13-ish year
old boy killed on Lagoon's Roller Coaster (1921-vintage woodie) a few
years ago.  He was in the last seat, and was probably horsing around. 
There was no lawsuit, and Lagoon admitted no wrongdoing, as far as I
know.  (They did admit that the other death, a small child killed on the
kiddie coaster within a week or so of this death, was their fault.) The
infamous orange ratcheting lap bars replaced the fixed lapbars on Roller
Coaster's PTC trains after the accident. 

But riding a roller coaster is no doubt much safer than the drive on the
freeway to get to the park!  Those accidents just don't make the local
newspaper and TV news.

Geoff

-- 
Geoff Allen          \  Macintosh Old-Fart Memory #212
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