Why don't all roller coasters have seat belts?
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- čas přidán 2. 08. 2024
- Some roller coasters have seat belts, little pieces of fabric that keep you strapped into the ride. Other roller coasters, ones that seemingly look very similar, don’t have seat belts. Why? What purpose do these belts actually serve and ultimately: why don't all roller coasters have seat belts?
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00:00 Introduction
00:34 What do seat belts look like?
01:08 Why do some roller coasters have seat belts?
04:18 Why don't all roller coasters have seat belts?
07:12 Conclusion
I was just washing the car this morning and thought to myself....."haven't heard from Coasterbot in a while". Few hours later, my thoughts become a reality. Great vid as per usual, so informative. 👍
Sure, you could have been pondering the lottery numbers and got those but you got coaster bot instead. At least you won't have family members coming out of nowhere to hassle you about the video like you would have your winning lottery.
The plan is you'll hear from me at least once a month with a video like this one! Thanks for the kind words :)
In the case of some water rides, it would be more dangerous to have restraints. In the event that the vehicle capsizes, it is best for guests to fall into the water, so they can swim to safety or be rescued. A restraint might result in guests being unable to escape while submerged in the water.
I believe that was a big concern when the Shoot the Rapids incident happened, which led to its removal.
A properly designed water ride shouldn't be capable of flipping. If you take a look at the sides of the tracks and the cars, there are usually wheels that stick out from the side of the raft and into a groove. They're wide enough that if a raft does start to flip, that the wheels will contact with the track and prevent any further slipping. There's enough gap that the ride is legitimately floating, but if for some reason the balance is off or something goes awry, the training wheels are there to prevent something like what happened on the raft where that kid was decapitated.
That being said, there are few exceptions. They're mostly things like lazy rivers where even if you were to capsize the thing, you wouldn't be seriously injured. I smacked my nose on the bottom of a raft ride last summer and it hurt, but I didn't break my nose doing it. But, the waterfalls were relatively short and if they weren't running the ride at far less water volume than they used to, it probably wouldn't have been possible. I had noted when getting on the ride that there seemed to be a lot less water than I remember from the past and far more life guards in the middle.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade You're right - and capsizes are very rare. I suspect that health and safety inspectors insist that no restraints are used, nonetheless, because it's still safer in the event of an accident.
Whilst working on Oblivion at Alton towers it does actually state in the training that the belt is for guest peace of mind and is not a safety feature on the ride, the belts to however show the ride hosts where the minimum locking position is for larger guests (if the belt doesnt do up it hasnt closed enough). Oblivion has 3 very small led lights on the backs of the seats that illuminate when locked.
That's really interesting to hear, thanks for sharing!
At Thorpe Park, Nemesis Inferno has a specific "big person" seat that has a long belt... I often have to use that seat to ride it. Swarm has a similar restraint but the belts are almost too short for me to go on it... Which is a shame because it's my favourite coaster!
That's not surprising. It is worth considering that the belts are also something that the riders can verify in a way that the other styles of restraint can't be rider verified. It's why some roller coasters require that the operator pull the bar down and others don't. Plus, you'll often see the rider operators touching every single restraint and pushing it to the locked down position, even if there isn't anybody in that seat, just to reduce the likelihood of missing a rider.
Yep. At my park, we always make a big deal about checking every restraint no matter whether a guest is in it or not, and checking in pairs to make sure you have a second set of eyes to verify that everything looks correct. We want to always be in the habit of checking everyone.
But on the phantoms revenge at kennywood is the lap bar fails the seatbelt will hold you in.
A seat belt serving as a visual indicator could have prevented the Orlando FreeFall incident. Even though it technically wasn't required, as it is redundant, it would have been instrumental in assisting ride operators in checking the security of the main restraint system.
That ride operator broke a long list of rules to allow that kid to fall to his death. Adding more seems like wishful thinking since none of the other rules saved his life as they were intended to do.
@@TheRadioAteMyTV That thought came to my mind as I was watching this video. If the ride operator for the Orlando Free Fall was reckless enough to modify the restraints outside the manufacturers instructions, so that fat riders would be able to fit in the seats, then the operator would be reckless enough in modifying the seat belt to the point of compromising its ability to remain latched and preventing a fat rider from sliding out of the seat.
The park had modified the minimum position for restraints 1 and 2. The ride used electronic sensors to check the position. Yeah a physical MPI could of helped but the park could of just modified the physical MPI as well.
Safety rules are worse than having no rules if they aren't followed properly. It's much more important to be aware of what you are doing then it is to be confident that you can do no wrong.
Actually at the Highlander in the Hansapark, which is the same model of tower, they just added seatbelts this year.
I keep thinking back to that teen who died on that drop tower in Orlando and I've seen many argue that if he had a seat belt, he would still be alive. But I don't think it would have changed anything sadly. The ride ops ignored so many policies and the restraints were modified beyond manufacturer specifications so that the restraints would accommodate guests of a bigger size. In many pictures you can see that his restraint barely came down far enough to realistically secure anyone of that size but it still gave a green light to start the ride due to the modifications. If the ride ops were willing to ignore all of the glaring red flags, I doubt that a seat belt not fastening would have been the trigger to pull him off the ride. They more than likely would have made a modification to the seat belt so that he could ride and in doing so, potentially compromised the seat belts ability work properly.
Too be honest they should design larger seat sections or have a separate cart even if nobody is on it ans have staff say this is for overweight guests imagine the lawsuits I think fat peaple need to accept there waist line needs to be less lil
Its like the dumbass "professionals" that were trying to argue that the smiler was unsafe, and ultimately ruined the experience. They are stupid and its almost ALWAYS human error.
A seatbelt would have given the rider a greater ability to check for himself if it was secured. But, clearly if the ride operator also tampered with that, then all bets are off. One of the good things about seatbelts is that most people have experience with what they should feel like and can see for themselves if it's going to be enough to hold them there. Other restraints are purely verifiable by the operator in many cases.
That being said, counterfactuals are very hard to get much insight out of as we flat out don't know what would have happened if there had also been a seatbelt involved. It might have prevented the rider from getting on and strapped in. It might also have been similarly tampered with by the ride operator.
Stop fucking blaming the ride ops, it was the park tampering with the restraints and it’s not their fault
@@WCfanboy Regardless of whether it was the ride ops or the park itself that tampered with the seats, the ride ops can still hold some sort of negligence. Every report from that day said that the kid was rejected from every ride he attempted to get on due to his size. This was the only ride that he got on. And in the pictures you can see clear as day the restraint barely comes down a quarter of the way on his body due to how large he was. Even if the system was giving a green light it’s quite obvious just by looking at him that he wasn’t secured properly.
The entire video felt like a high school essay you were trying extremely hard on to hit that word count requirement
This is so sad, I can't believe it, I definitely, 100%, did not at all, try to stretch, elongate or extend the length of the video for no real, tangible or logical reason whatsoever.
@@coasterbot hey m8 I can appreciate an honest feller at least.
You forgot that a seatbelt adds to the dispatch time as the station operators have to spend more time ensuring the harness + seatbelt is secured for a passenger.
Very true, seat belts often slow down operations
In my local amusement park, they check both harness and seatbelt at the same time. Doesn't really slow things down if you ask me
@@meemdoggoriginallongdrink slows it down when guests don't buckle the seat belt and ops has to do it
@@thegeniusman8757 Yes, but it probably does speed things up when the riders are able to do it themselves and the operators just have to pull on the loose end to make sure that it's actually fastened. They'd have to pull on the bars anyways, pulling on the tab isn't that much slower.
I can only talk of one coster with belts, the B&M black mamba at phantasialand, and the dispatch time is still like 40s 🤣
I can think of multiple cases where seat belts were added to a ride after an accident. In some cases, the seat belt would not have helped with the particular accident that happened, but was added as part of a general upgrade of safety systems to give a general impression of a renewed commitment to safety.
Security theater. works great on the weak of mind. It has no impact at all on reality though. Now wear your c o v i d mask.
Cough cough NTG cough
The "safety" industry suffers the most from virtue signalling and corporate facades. It's an industry filled with so many lies that I don't know how anyone can take it seriously. The fact that it even is an "industry" is part of the problem.
It's a combination of excessively restrictive and stupid practices that don't help keep anyone safe and only serve to inhibit, mixed with a bunch of practices that anyone with half a brain can tell are unsafe. It's all wrapped up in corporate double speak because no one will ever admit what's really going on. All companies know is that customers purport to want safety above all else, while anyone with half a brain can work out that there is no such thing as safety above all else.
@@diamondjplayer5599 A seat belt might have actually helped there just as a measuring device--if you can't put it on, you can't ride.
(The case that came to mind was the Yankee Cannonball at Canobie Lake Park, where two trains collided between the station and the lift hill because of operator error, mildly injuring some riders. The real fix for that was just to go to one-train operation, but seat belts were also added to the cars. I suppose they might have helped in the collision but since they weren't three-point shoulder harnesses, I think the benefit would have been limited.)
That's rare, at least as long as the actual car remains on the track. Any time a rider is ejected from a ride a seatbelt would likely have prevented it. That's what seatbelts are for, they're there to keep people from being ejected from the seat or from otherwise being separated from it. When I fly, I will loosen my seat belt enough to be comfortable when the fasten seatbelt sign is turned off, but it's still on enough that I wouldn't slip through or hit my head on the ceiling in case of extreme turbulence.
If the car does come separated from the track or there's a brake failure, then obviously, a seatbelt is just about projecting that the ride operators are more concerned with safety and preventing it from happening as many of the safety features will be invisible to the riders. It's also why seatbelts should be more widely used as that's something that the rider can verify without any training and can ask questions about if it doesn't feel right. Other restraints can vary due to the various needs of a ride.
I know they aren't needed but I always really like to know they are there.
It depends on the ride. If you design a ride where you're not going up or down too sharply and aren't turning too sharply either, then you wouldn't need anything at all, so long as riders just sat there like sacks of potatoes. Rides like that will often have some form of restraint, just because there's going to be that guy that thinks that they can stand up at the wrong time, or who is slightly too tall to be held in by the sides of the ride.
You left out another reason: The Fear Factor. It works both ways in setting up the psychology of the ride. Add a bunch of restraints to show riders how dangerous the ride is and how much you will need all these restraints to stop from being harmed, and conversely, no restraints to show how dangerous the ride is because now you might fly out like in the old days.
It's a win win for the psychology of fear for coasters and riders alike. After all, if the ride isn't scary, why wait hours to get on a 90 second event that shakes you, spins you and bangs you?
Well, that goes hand in hand with some guests feeling more safe.
I'd rather feel safe and have fun than nervous the whole time like these no seatbelt rides can make you feel. There's no reason not to have a seat belt on there.
Can we take a second to appreciate that Smiler to Shockwave Transition?
Thank you 😌
Oh, this is so clarifying!! I rode a water roller coaster a few weeks ago and the seat belt was completely loose because I'm too skinny. The operator told me: "No problem, you don't really need it. Just hold on tight". I was unsure, the fall is really steep. But now I understand, haha.
"Seat belts everyone" - Mrs. Frizzle
Great insight and I always thought seatbelts where added to lower liability insurance premiums even if not needed.
Thanks for the kind words :)
Thank you for taking the time put together another informative video about roller coaster restraints!
It’s great to get a better understanding about them.
I wish more roller coasters didn’t have seat belts because seat belts don’t help ride operators with roller coaster dispatch times it only increases how long the train will sit in the station and that only makes long wait times even longer!!! Great video always hit with new knowledge while watching these videos!!!
This was such an informative video! Very well made as always, and I'm coming away from it feeling more clever (as always)!
Thanks for the kind words!
One Of the Best Yt Channel For Roller coaster Learners.. Thanks.
the early cedar fair hypers and gigas like diamond back, behemoth, leviathan. but then when iroc came to cedar fair that’s when they added it to all the coasters that needed seatbelts but didn’t have them before
Many have mentioned Velocicoaster here. Taron has three hydraulic cylinders plus electronic control of the bar position. I would guess that also applies to Velocicoaster.
Super interesting! I was actually wondering this the other day and assumed it was just law compliance but clearly there's more!
5:18 omg that’s my local park. 😮 it’s so tiny I never expected to see it in a video.
I love your videos and your explanation. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words :)
I just went on a coaster trip to Magic Mountain, and I heard some people talking about this.
I wish Tatsu had them. It would allow me to enjoy the ride more.
@@jaymarcase9737 Tatsu won't fall for such Jedi Mind Tricks.
This was super interesting! Thanks!!
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching :)
Hi! Great video! Will the podcast ever return? I really loved hearing your and Zoes in-depth thoughts about parks and coasters. (Also Gus is really cute!☺️)
This was quite the interesting video. I knew both seatbelts and no seatbelts were both safe but I always wondered about it. I really started thinking about it when I first rode Pantheon at BGW and saw they didn't have seatbelts since it was such an intense ride. Considering my first coasters were from my home park Carowinds which all have seatbelts it was quite the treat to learn about this. I'm for sure adding this to my list of videos I send to people who are scared of coasters.
I'm glad you found it interesting, thanks for watching! :)
@@coasterbot no worries! Like I said I love your work it helped me get over my fear of coasters and I constantly link to all your videos when anyone talks about being scared of them too.
I remember being on The Riddler at Six Flags Magic Mountain it was a stand up roller coaster with a over the shoulder harness that was locked in, and the a safety belt that locked into it. The ride had started before I got the safety belt in. I barely got it attached before the first drop. I doubt anything major would have happened to me, but it was still unnerving.
Good video!
Very informative video, COASTER BOT. Although I feel safe inside the main restraint, I do feel more secure with an additional seatbelt in case something were to happen, especially after the incident in Orlando this past March.
remember the operator modified the original safety mechanisms. They could've just modified the seatbelt as well. The original safety mechanisms are already super safe.
Also your main restraint is already super redundant. Not only are the two main ways a restraint work (either hydraulic or a ratcheting system) already way more than you would need, but they both have 2 systems in place incase one fails.
Thank you so much for that image of Flat Stan lee riding the Hulk Coaster. it was a lovely surprise.
Also thank you for a very relevant video.
They put Stan Lee in the fat seat
When I visited Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure for the first time earlier this year, I was shocked to see Velocicoaster and Hagrid's lacking seatbelts. Velocicoaster is one of the more aggressive coasters I've been on in recent years and wouldn't have blinked an eye to buckling up. But the lack of a seatbelt in a park that is open all year long (more chances of an incident) made seatbelts on coasters in my home park (Cedar Point) feel kind of silly. Velocicoaster threw me around far more than Millennium Force, Maverick, Magnum, and the list goes on and on. I wish they would do away with seatbelts if the redundancy is already built in. Dispatch times would be greatly improved.
Any ride older than 2007 needs seatbelts because they don't have modern seat sensors to tell the computer that a restraint is in the correct position. Velocicoaster was built in 2020, it has those seat sensors thus doesn't need seat beltd
ye seatbelts are kinda useless, but i have heard that on magnum, if you keep your lap bar a little loose, and let the seatbelt hold you in, your thighs won't hurt as bad lol.
I knew most of the things in the vid but I just love watching clips of rollercoasters
Nailed it on the redundancy. Always good to have a backup.
There was an incident when I was a kid in the 90s when a mentally impaired 12yo boy fell out of the Drop Zone Tower at California's Great America. We were there the day before. Somehow he got the restraints to open and fell to his death.
After that, every ride at the park got seat belts. None of them had them before (aside for some flat rides)
That happened just a couplr of days after the fatal accident on KD's now defunct shockwave.
As you probably know already but some others may not, the seats with the double seat belts are often modified to accommodate larger guests. The restraint in this case doesn’t have to come as far down in order to fasten the seat belts but they provide two belts for redundancy. Not all coasters have these but if you happen to see these on a coaster train they still are safe for all guests.
The obesity jump in the past 2 years has been equal to the waist lines, that is to say a lot of people, and I mean a lot, got super fat in the past two years and only the recessions will thin them back down to be able to afford and the fit on theme park rides going forward. Or else, like It's a Small World, the whole ride will have to be reworked because the tubbies will simply not allow the ride to function normally anymore.
@@TheRadioAteMyTV I’ve been a ride op for 5 years now and there are all kinds of larger guests, not just fat. We’ve had to turn away people with large muscles and broad shoulders because their arms go squished between the restraint and the side of the vehicle. Also sometimes guests with thick thigh muscles aren’t able to fit into the divided seat on a train but the restraint is fine. This is why it’s important to have a test seat out front of these coasters WITH an employee staffed to monitor and direct guests with these concerns. Better to know up front of someone won’t be able to fit into a restraint before they wait 2 or more hours in line.
@@Shag471 AMEN!
The Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park definitely has two belts as well... I was debating whether this was a locking issue but I think more likely the two belts are to cater for the greater weight if the other two interlocks fail.
@@soentrueman7944 Did all of the seats have 2 seat belts or just a few? For instance I work at The Incredible Hulk roller coaster at Universal’s IOA and we have 4 modified seats on each train. So only those 4 seats out of the 32 on each train have 2 belts for the restraints instead of just one. If all of the seats use 2 belts it sounds like redundancy.
I don’t see parks making every seat a modified seat on a coaster train unless they get a lot of oversized guests. Our grouper will try to assign such guests to a row that has a modified seat.
They modified all the seats on Forbidden Journey (dark ride) a few years ago when I worked there because trying to get guests to switch seats quickly was causing a lot of ride stops due to the continuous loading system.
Tidel wave at thorpe park has a lap bar. It maybe a water ride, but I'm guessing they feel the need to produce extra safety measures. Wasn't expecting one at all and it made the ride feel like it was going to be intense. I guess that's another reason as well.
6:20 this is a feature on all gerstlauer eurofighters so saw the ride at thorpe park has it as well.
Exactly right!
I’m curious Why does oblivion at Alton Towers have 2 seatbelts on the middle seat front row?
B&M's over the shoulder restraints (OTSR), and specifically the B&M Dive Coaster (the coaster model of Oblivion), have what are informally known as "Big Boy" seats. The two seatbelts indicate the seat can fit a guest of a larger size than what the other seats in the train can handle. These seats are usually near the middle center of the train.
Newer B&M OTSRs that use vest restraints instead have a single buckle, and the strap is red to indicate that it can support larger guests.
@@the_synack thank you that’s exactly the information I was looking for
@@the_synack Cool. Thanks
What's interesting is that both Nemisis and Rita (Alton Towers) have seat belts as safety mechanisms yet Rita ride hosts have to lock every single seat belt before launch whereas Nemisis just shut the harness and leave the seatbelt dangling.
I know its because Rita is a launch and Nemesis isnt but it's still funny to me.
I know quite a few coasters that have seatbelts. Viper at SFMM is one of them. Plus Ninja as well. I also believe Matterhorn has them too.
Fantastic content, thank you…
Thanks for the kind words :)
Interesting
I only recall riding two rides with seatbelts
Nice vid, and nice to know ^^
What rides are those? Thanks for watching :)
@@coasterbot One was "Oblivion - The Black Hole" at Gardaland, which in fact was my first thrill ride.
And the other one was a travelling fair ride. Just a huge swing (That inverts and spins the cabin itself).
What a beautiful cut at 0:36
Above all else, being the small safety they add, having a seatbelt just makes me feel way safer when going on the larger rides. Definitely helps with the psychotic, eternal screaming when on those big ones.
As a motorcyclist, I can confirm that. When I first started riding, it felt a lot less safe, not just because I was closer to the ground without a steel cage surrounding me, but because I felt a weird lack of pressure on my chest as I was riding. More than anything else, that's what made it feel less safe than any of the other stuff.
I did not know that DimondBack and Kings Island had seat belts added to it. I had to go looking to see when they were added as I was like I don't remember having to buckel a seat belt when riding it before.
Yknow I have no intention of doing anything to do with rollercoasters nor need to know anything about them but these videos are very interesting for no reason
I'm glad you find them interesting! Maybe you'll have to try a roller coaster soon ☺️
It is crazy that The Hulk and Velocicoaster are equally safe. You literally feel like you're going to fall out of your seat every time on the Velocicoaster.
I loved the velociccoaster lap bars
Interestingly, Diamondback didn't have seatbelts for years. They were a relatively recent retrofit.
Someone working at their insurance company needed to justify their job; pointless safety theater ensues
I remember asking an employee or whatever and they mentioned something about a new Ohio law about seatbelts
Great news! Next year i will visit Hansa park to ride karnan!
That's awesome, Hansa Park is one of my favourite theme parks, I hope you have a great time :)
@@coasterbot yes I will!
Nice one Harry .Today we have been on Avengers Assemble Flight Force at DLP ( brilliantly re themed Aerosmith rock n roller coaster ) but with old trains and torturous over the shoulder torture devices … no belts 😬😵💫🥴🧱👍🏽
That's awesome, I hope you enjoyed the new area!
@@coasterbot Very cool 😎 🧱👍🏽
That was always a big question that bothered me so thanks for clearing that up. However, I always laugh at the idea of having a seatbelt when my thighs get crushed by a lap bar
heey i just went to fantasialand and you show taron (:
Will Go to Liseberg on wednesday! My 13th time being there
That's awesome, have a great time!
@Sandhjul What changed?
Well, this video got one thing clear: rollercoster safety restrains failing is an *extremely unlikely* event
Anyone else hate the “comfort collars” on Tempesto at Busch Gardens Williamsburg ? They come undone so easily and they literally do nothing safety wise.
I was riding last row of Loch Ness Monster in 1992 when the shoulder restraint unlocked mid-ride. As the ride doesn’t have too many spots for negative-G, it didn’t prove to be too problematic.
To emphasize the failure, though, I stood up after the final brake run as we slowed into the station. The operators were more focused on me standing rather than my ability TO BE ABLE to stand. They missed the point I was making.
They took about 30 seconds to spot check it and simply reloaded the train after they couldn’t get it to fail again at the platform. I never heard bad news afterwards, so I guess it never happened again.
Jesus that's terrifying. Did you just hold on really tight?
@@DanielGomez-xf5ke Yep. Like I said, not too much airtime on that ride. The first two drops are the worst. I think it was on the second one it let go.
Well this is extreme cap
Helix at Liseberg, Sweden. I have seen pepole freakout when they didnt have seatbelts and the straff opened the bar for them. Its fun to watch cause many coasters play with peoples minds.
As he mentioned seat belts are, 1 a back up, 2 provides comfort to the guest (seeing a locked seat belt and also hearing that click) and 3 a visual indicator to the operators if the seat is locked or not.
diamondback at kings island didn't have seatbelts until 2012 then added because cedar fair wants to save money on insurance
I 100% view seatbelts on coasters with class 5 restraints as nothing but placebo. Not once have I buckled into lightning rod or wild eagle and thought “gee I’m glad this belt is here just in case” it’s more of a “at the very least this will be traumatically uncomfortable if I need this damn belt”
Shout out to the silver star in europa park. I'm pretty sure it's 100% save, but its missing redundancy and non visible locking mechanism are slightly unnerving. A retrofitted seatbelt would grant piece of mind. But I admit would be kinda lame and slow down the boarding.
Silver Star would feature other redundancies in the absence of a seat belt. This includes multiple restraint mechanisms that ensures the lap bar remains in place all of the time.
Great video, only note is that a ride having duplicate paralleled restraint systems doesn’t mean that it’s fail-safe, it just means that there are two restraint systems that make it qualify. While it could be argued that the likelihood of two restraint systems on the same seat failing on the same cycle through the course is so minuscule that it has the same safety profile of something that is fail-safe, the fact that there’s any failure mode that endangers a rider is enough to make it not fail-safe. Idk any examples of fail-safe safety restraints, but an example of a fail-safe system on a roller coaster would be the brakes. The default state of the brakes is to be closed and power has to be applied to put the brakes in a position that has the potential to be dangerous. If there’s some sort of power outage or mechanical failure that affects the brake’s function, then it will still safely bring the train to a stop.
Fantastic clarification! As you mentioned, I wonder if there's a certain threshold of safety that would quality things that aren't technically fail-safe to be 'fail-safe' :)
Roller coaster seat belts is what I call "Security Theater".
Thank you for this very interesting video.
I'm mostly a little bit annoyed by seatbelts, because they add up to the dispatch time.
On Expedition GeForce in Holiday Park the ride operators always tell guests to fasten the seatbelts. Then they walk up the train checking each one. Then guests are advised to close the restraints and the operators have to walk along the train again.
And when the train arrives at the station, there always are a couple of guests who can't open the seatbelts by themselves, because they're not especially user friendly.
Similar thing with Hals über Kopf in Tripsdrill. They have belts connecting to the restraint you have to close yourself. Many guests forget it, so the Ride ops do it for them. After the ride, the belt has to be removed before the restraints are unlocked. Many guests forget that, so the restraint cannot open completely. Sometimes, when guests accidentally pull it down while trying to remove the belt, the restraint locks again and has to be manually opened by the operators.
I think, there have to be more coasters without seatbelts, ore at least there have to be seatbelts that are easy to use.
Fax
bro fr. Iron gwazi dispatches are abysmal because they check seatbelts and lap bars individually.
Intamin needs to get real about its seat belt buckle design and go back to the drawing board or use a more orthodox system. Theirs straight up sucks. Yes, it does the job but it's a lot less intuitive than airplane-style seatbelts to fasten and remove.
Hello There, a great informative video, this is much appreciated. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Cheers Peter :) p.s. where's the B&M Winged Rollercoaster with the castle theming in the background located?
His name is Harry lol. That's Flug der Dämonen at Heide Park in Germany.
@@triple7marc Hello Marc, thank you for letting me know. Cheers Peter
@@petermc7098 You know, I totally misunderstood your comment. I interpreted you saying “Cheers Peter” as you saying cheers to the guy who made this video, who I assumed you thought was named Peter. If you had included a comma between Cheers and Peter, it would have been more clear that you were signing your name.
@@triple7marc Hello Marc, thank you for your response and that makes total sense. Kind regards Peter
I wonder, how many incidents or accidents has been avoided due to seatbelts as a backup system? Also, from what I've understood, sometimes the seatbelt didn't do anything for the outcome for some accidents, they just weren't capable to cope with the forces, too much wear, not properly mounted, and such. Correct me if I'm wrong.
With that said, to be in a (fatal) theme park ride accident is highly unlikely.
A seat belt would have definitely prevented what happened on the Orlando FreeFall just this past February.
@@Scxrpionz that's a speculation. It might have prevented it, if they can take the forces and are properly serviced. We wouldn't know before it has been properly tested.
@@Scxrpionz Um no because the accident was caused by negligence from the park not a design flaw. They modified the seat sensors to accommodate larger riders what makes you think they wouldn't modify the seat belts as well?
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv Good point there.
It's basically a question of how safe can you get. Technically a redundant main harness and a seatbelt is the safest, but the reality is it's probably only 1 to 2% safer than the redundant main harness. If a restraint locking system fails every 100 years, then having double redundancy means you won't have an accident for an estimated 1 million years, because you would only have an accident if both fail. However having three systems isn't that much better since the sort of event that is likely to take out both standard mechanisms is more than likely to take out the third mechanism as well. Also a 1 in a million year event is already significantly safer than it needs to be (there are many other things associated with roller coasters that are much more likely to kill you) so it's kind of overkill.
yeah I'm glad they have external indicators that the harness is secure. That's what kept Tyree Sampson safe... oh wait..
👍
At past IAAPA trade shows I make a habit of speaking with roller coaster engineers regarding ride specifics I'm interested in. Twice in the last few years seatbelts came up in the conversation. Both stated they're not necessary and only serve to increase dispatch times, thus wait times for the paying guests. One said that a seatbelt has _never once_ saved a person from injury or death in an accident where seatbelts were present. It is all but impossible for a modern coaster restraint to open during a ride, and a train will not dispatch with a restraint open, unlocked or beyond a minimum travel distance toward the rider.
I for one prefer to have seatbelts, myself; didn't know they added them on to helix later though 😂😂😂
Can you please do another theme park news update.
There is another good reason for seat belts. Once, a girl sat right next to me in a free fall tower. During the ride she passed out. Back in the station she would have fallen out without the seat belt holding the main restraint closed. Due to the seat belt, nothing serious happened.
For somereason lapbars just scare me, I only like rides with over shoulders. Anybody got any ideas on how to deal with it?
Practise, the more rides with lap bars you ride, the less they'll scare you. Start with he smaller rides and work your way up!
Me seeing the title: Wait that’s illegal
Any Gersaulter rollercoaster I’ve been on has never had a seatbelt
I Love When Roller Coaster Have Seatbelts Because They Make Me Feel Safe.
What happened to Dispatch? So much theme park news in the last 2 months yet no updates atall. Please continue with dispatch, loved the weekly news update....
in the end, seatbelts are life saving incase the restraint comes loose
Wrong question. It should be: "Why do some roller coasters have seat belts?"
Damm, three oakwood themepark clips.
Ikr
Honestly wish B&M flyers had seat belts. Something quite unnerving to be facing the ground with no idea of a “back up” even though I know they are perfectly safe!
B&M flyers have a stupid amount of back-up restraint systems! As far as I'm aware, they have three separate restraint mechanisms for the vests, as opposed to just two. The vest also has a pin that moves out upon tilting, preventing the restraint from fully opening. In reality they're probably some of the safest restraints ever created!
wish they all wouldn't have seat belts. Dispatching times would be so much higher if they didn't have to check seat belts. And if you think I'm nuts tell the folks at Knoebels. They run their coasters without em.
No, the seatbelts between the restraint centre and seat would not be able to hold a rider in place if the main restraint were to fail, that's not what they're there for.
As mentioned in the video, these seat belts are purely a "visual safety indicator". to ensure a guest is properly secured. Ride hosts first push down on the restraint, making sure it is snug against the rider's lap, and then pull on the seat belt to ensure that it is inserted all the way into the buckle, which confirms that the guests body type can be safely accommodated by the main restraint. This was a tremendously important safety feature in the early days of restrains. Then in the mid 90's computerised sensor systems which detect the status of locking pins in the restraints were starting to be implemented, this safety feature informs operators of which restraints are locked and will not let the train dispatch unless all are in the green. When this tech was first introduced, the seat belts were still fitted as a completely physical backup to a computerised, electronic system, both for safety and just plain ease of operations for ride hosts as it makes it very easy to identify which restrains might need attention. As the sensor systems were further developed and their own indicators were added, (L.E.D lights on the back of restraints) it seems at some point some manufacturers (*cough* Gerstlaurer) didn't see the need for seat belts any more and instead thought of them as more of a hinderance rather than a help to operations. unfortunately the industry now knows how valuable the *physical* indicator of a seat belt is, in 2013 a rider was ejected out of her seat and killed on New Texas Giant, her body type exceeded the range of safety of the restraint. There was an obvious defect with the electronic restraint safety system. More recently earlier this year a 14 year old boy tragically fell to his death from a drop tower attraction, why?. because the electronic restraint safety system (particularly the sensor positioning) had been tampered with by the park operator. This is why seatbelts are making a renaissance, there needs to be an actual physical safety backup to electronic safety systems.
Speaking of Gerstlaurer, it just popped into my head that while their coasters don't have seatbelts, a lot of their flat rides do (think Sky force) which I presume is simply due to the fact that flat rides operate out in the open with the sun beaming down on the seats, so an L.E.D indicator light would not be a very effective visual safety indicator like it is in a dim, artificially lit roller coaster station building.
generally prefer Cedar Fair to Six Flags but Six Flags doesn't have seatbelts on rides Cedar Fair has, at least this is true with B&M hyper coasters. Canada Wonderland makes guests ride with seatbelts on Behemoth and Leviathan in addition t the clamshell restraints but Six Flags Great Adventure didn't have seatbelts on Nitro and Six Flags Great America didn't have seatbelts on Raging Bull. A ride op for Raging Bull who's visited King's Island confirmed it was the policy of Cedar Fair to have seatbelts on B&M hypers. This explains why Diamondback has no seatbelts.
Diamondback has seatbelts as a retrofit, but for years it did not have any.
I'd prefer a seatbelt or locking strap in addition to the normal restraint, i.e. a belt over the lap, or a belt / clip locking the lapbar / shoulder restraints. Why? Because it's a backup safety - if the mechanical restraints come loose then there is a secondary system to stop you falling out.
With regards to seatbelts on tame rides, I've seen some videos showing rides that use seatbelts or lapbars to stop asshole guests getting off midway through. So not to do with safety but to maximize uptime and minimize disruption.
1. On older rides without computers they are there to check and make sure riders can safely ride. Can't buckle the belt = no ride for you
2. On rides with modern computers they are there for two reasons:
A. Insurance mandating it (Cedar Fair)
B. State regulations (New Jersey, New York, and California all have ridiculous rules as usual)
to me, a seat belt is somewhere to strap my hat 😆
Because they are safe enough as they are
What's funny about the seat belts is that they could be unlocked by a rider during the ride. The rider would have to be stupid to do so, but it's a possibility
thats why they dont do anything, if seatbelts actually were the thing that held you in, it would be incredibly dangerous, due to how easy they come undone.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to ride Shambala because of the ride restraint clamps on your thighs... I have 32" thighs from my days as a semi professional cyclist and the restraint wouldn't lock. Me and another particularly tall fella had the same problem. It kind of sucks that rollercoaster designers aren't more liberal in their restraint sizing in Europe.
if they were, smaller guests would fit too loose, there isnt really a way to make a restraint that will fit every sized individual.
Final Destination 3 comes to mind…🤔
heck Raging bull has no seat belts at all and people never complain about needing them and still thrill rider without a seatbelts
it’s just a option, it’s for your mind
New Texas giant didn't have seat belts for redundancy because six flags didn't want them. Then someone died because their restraint came undone (rider too big for the ride) and they added them after since the seatbelt could have saved the passenger. Now it has seat belts for redundancy
Never understood seatbelts as a safety restraint. If so important to safety, surely it’s a design oversight that the rider can undo it mid ride. Never made sense to me.
In the UK at least there must be three locking mechanisms to secure the rider. Typically there's two in the over the shoulder restraint plus a belt that clips onto the shoulder restraint.
Those that clip into the shoulder restraint cannot be unclipped mid-ride as they are locked and sensors pick up issues with them before the ride will dispatch.
Went to Universal Studios in Orlando last month and completely refused to ride the new VelociCoster because it only has lap restraint I was terrified thinking I am going to fly out of this thing. 😅 looks like an amazing ride though.
I was there last month too and same apprantly you can feel your ass out of the seat multiple times but that’s why some people love it I guess
trust me you are not going to fly out of velocicoaster, those lap bars are huge, also he didnt mention it fully, but seatbelts dont do anything in terms of holding you in, they only measure you and act as a backup. a backup that never does anything, cuz there is no way a restraint would break. So yeah, if it makes you "feel" safer than sure, i guess you might not like that it doesnt have seatbelts, and thats ok. But under no circumstances are you going to fall out. Even further velocicoaster hasnt had any injuries. If you go back seriously go on it, it is incredible. Also yes, you will feel negative g's, but if you have your restraint tight enough you wont come up at all. Lap bars are equally safe as over the shoulder restraints.
It sounds sketchy on paper but once you lock that thing down you aren't going anywhere. The first time I went on it I slammed that lap bar down as far as that thing would go. People probably thought I was a lunatic since I was pushing it down and trying my hardest to pull it back up lol. It was my first coaster so I was not taking any chances.
TÜV = ❤
I hate seatbelts as its a waste of time in my opinion however I get its for people's peace of mind while riding
You have some redundancy too in your voiceover
Ooof