The chief executive of Six Flags says the company will install seat belts on the Georgia roller coaster from which a rider fell to his death earlier this month. The company’s rides with similar restraints will also get the safety upgrade.
The theme park operator announced the extra safeguard less than two weeks after 42-year-old Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem of Atlanta died after being ejected from his seat on the Goliath coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia.
Canada’s Wonderland has 2 similar rides, the Behemoth and the Leviathan. When I last went in 2009 they did not have secondary restraints. I rode Behemoth multiple times and tried it both flexing leg muscles when locking it down to give myself some play then relaxing and with it very tight.
I liked it both ways, even relaxed there was no way I was coming loose but it did give me a bit more movement.
I’m not saying seatbelts are a bad thing, I’m more saying lax safety standards are making them needed because companies can’t be trusted to maintain to a high enough degree that lives wouldn’t be lost from maintenance issues.