ngl i think you saying that this is not the operators fault is a bit dumb. it don't take a rocket scientist to see that the seat belt is not on properly
While of course they should have been more thorough, you can't really grab a lap seatbelt to test it and having the tail of the seatbelt on her lap likely made them just think she did the right thing. They just made assumptions that she was doing what 99.9% of the other guests did and put the belt on correctly. Sadly all it takes is a mistake with 0.1% who don't put it on right
I'm guessing they figured whatever adult/s she was with had made sure she had actually buckled in- you know, like they apparently did to themselves- instead of just allowing their young child to sit on top and drape it across them. I think that even as a fellow rider who didn't know that girl, if I'd been seated next to her I'd have likely checked myself, especially after the operators had to keep coming back to check. I'm more surprised that her parent or whoever was with her and the other people on the ride didn't see this.
@@mommy2libras that was my first thought when I heard the age of the victim. I was sitting here like why did they not put on their seatbelt. And then I was like where was their parent??
@@mommy2libras As someone who works in an amusement park I'm also pretty surprised by this. The amount of times I have to dodge the aggressive checking of their kids seatbelts and their own concern over their own seatbelts, to the point where it interrupts our seat checking process sometimes, is insane. Add on top of that the amount of concerned looks and question we get when we have to unlock and reset the seatbelts when an error occurs, I'm also a bit surprised this wasn't noticed by whoever was with her or another rider in general.
one of the reasons i love this channel: not laying the blame solely on the likely underpaid, overworked, and traumatized attendants, but on the bigger picture and those in charge. thank you.
@Lucas Lucas because management was too lazy to provide them with a legitimate ride manual and train them properly. And what kind of parent doesn't sit next to and make sure their six year old is safe on a ride that is probably way too intense for them???
@@Asshat237 if they checked it multiple times then its not their fault. They can't touch the rider so its not like they can lift every kid and see if that is the problem. Blame is definitely on the guardian of that little girl here.
I think the park is to blame, I think the parents are to blame, but I also think the ride ops certainly have some culpability here. The manual sucked, yes, and their training was inadequate, yes. HOWEVER, they had to physically disengage and re-engage her restraints WHILE SHE WAS SITTING ON BOTH OF THE SEAT BELTS. I am very familiar with this ride and would have been exceedingly obvious that she was sitting on the belts if they were paying any attention whatsoever. They would need to have been very, very negligent in their checking of the restraints to allow this to occur. Like I said, not all of the blame is on them, but their failure to just use simple common sense and pay simple attention was a big contributing factor to why this occurred.
I'm kind of surprised that the parents didn't buckle her in themselves / made sure she wasn't _sitting on top of the only thing that would hold her in place._ I remember my folks practically zip-tying my brother and I into rides such that the operators were impressed. And they look like seat belt style restraints. Shouldn't have been that difficult for parents to comprehend.
Same. I'm not even a parent but I've been in charge of my minor neice and cousins. Even at 16 I couldn't fathom not buckling especially a 6year old into anything before myself. As 6 years olds a stupid/don't understand the gravity of not doing something will cost. Because they're 6. I still watch my 10 year old niece buckle before I start to sit down as she may need help. Maybe it's just the fact I follow the belief Never trust yours and your families safety to others. They are the backup you are the primary.
I was thinking the same, there's no way this poor girl knew what she was doing, if I were the operators I would have told everyone to unbuckle, get up, and buckle yourself in one at a time to ensure everyone is on right 😞
It sounds like the parents weren’t riding with her. Its possible she was there with an older sibling, or her parents stayed at the gates because they didnt want to ride. Not something I’d personally do, and my dad always rode with me (even on some kids rides because he’s only 5’5 so he could safely do that), but a lot of parents have a perceived safety in park rides. My oldest niece will be six in a month and I would personally never do something like this, I probably wouldn’t even let her ride a drop tower, but I really don’t think blaming the parents is a good way to go about something that came from training error/lack of detailed training. It’s clear training was lackluster when the ride operators didn’t even know what the error on the screen meant, and thus cancelled the error without actually resolving it.
@@kittikat4124 I don't think they where out right blaming the parents. More so like myself. We are just heavy heartedly perplexed/flabbergasted. Why didn't they buckle her in? She was so young? (Even if it was an older sibling, as I don't know many parents who'd let their 6year old ride a ride like this alone. So assuming parents where on the ride too is not a leap.) Just strange how some parents/guardians of children drastically different in the safety precautions we take over those under our care. Like I don't blame the parents or the ride operators. This event just happened to be the time when both those whom should have caught this 6year old child's stupidity/naivety to safety systems. Both failed her. Not maliciously or intentionally negligent.
According to the report, a passenger sent the park an email on August 15 complaining bout a very similar incident on August 14 where the passenger sat on top of the seat belt, and had to argue with the operator to convince the operator that the belt was not deployed correctly. That email should have been a huge red flag that the operators needed more training.
Shouldn’t need training to know a seatbelt goes over the legs. If you need to be trained that you shouldn’t be in any situation where you are in charge of safety. You have to be one dumb mother fucker to not know that💀
I went on it a couple days before that email and one of the people I was with had an issue with his seatbelt too😬 I forgot the day I went but it was like the second week on August
How tf does that even work? "Hello, yes, I'm a rider on this ride and I'm sitting on top of the seat belt. Therefore it is not latched correctly. What are you going to do about it?!" Like, if you KNOW that you're sitting wrong then don't argue about it, just... get up? (The child that died in the incident described in the video is not who I'm talking about.)
As a ride op, this was truly shocking to me that something like this could happen. Even working at a six flags park, this was so lackluster compared to what my park does. The manual being only 3 pages was crazy I’d never feel comfortable operating a ride with that
Yeah but like even the three page guide states that the operators need to strap every passenger in themselves. I don't know what else to say other than those two couldn't even follow up to Step 4 of Operating Procedures. Imagine trying to give them even more to learn :/
This is a very unfortunate event. The official release of “operator error” is arguably a little slap in the face for the operators involved. I’ve had kids climb into locked seats for my ride by themselves instead of waiting for a ring attendant to open them. One thing that we do to make sure the restraint is on properly is we either lock them ourselves or we have guests raise their arms so we can visually see it around them while tugging to make sure the waist belt is secure. This prevents anyone from riding incorrectly. The vague and pitiful “operator manual” that is no longer than a C- college English paper is the cause here. Ride attendants will only be as consistently good as the manual and training at their disposal.
Some people. I hear ya. Fit a stereotype like line jumpers. Watched two random youtubes this week with dorks "standing" on rapids rides. Ya'all deal with a lot.
@@rockingtr1 it’s honestly baffling at some people’s lack of understanding how powerful these machines are. When riding properly and following rules in place, rides are surprisingly safe. However lackadaisical attitudes of ride operators or guests acting on their ignorance of the rides can cause an infinite possibility of negative outcomes. And even if both parties have good intentions, if the training and manual for the ride and its operators are not adequate, an unfortunate incident like this could eventually happen.
@@floridalife2419 or their lack of compassion in a tragedy, acting like someone intentionally won by committing murder. It’s all victims in situations like this, a park employee would have likely wished to have died and taken the child’s place in a heartbeat. People act like they wanted the child dead.
@Lucas Lucas what are you even talking about? They didn’t want anybody to die. They didn’t intentionally cause a death. Fault lies in numerous hands but the core of the issue that stemmed to this tragedy is the operator training and operator manual. They didn’t rig the ride to explode or to make everyone’s seatbelts come undone during the drop. If that was the case then yes I would agree with your pure evil narrative. However that is clearly not what occurred.
I feel bad for the family, the people on the ride with the girl, and the operators. Grief, trauma, and guilt impact all of those above. No one here intentionally contributed to the loss of life.
@@KJfromTheFort that's what the investigators have to find out. Ride operators often rely to much on the safety devices telling them on a screen everyone is safely strapped in that they forget the basics.
As a parent who rides thrill rides with her daughter: I do not get in my seat until I see she is properly secured. Period. I was the same with my sister. My husband and I double check each other's restraints as well.
Definitely. I ride everything with my little sister. I check her restraints, check my own, and then check hers again. I watch the park staff when they check her restraints as well. I would never let her on a ride that I wasn’t checking
If I'm with a younger sibling, or cousins. Same here don't have kids my niece and nephews are still too young for it. But you already know same goes for them gotta make sure their in seat properly before even I get inm
I'm glad you covered this tragic incident. People need to understand what happened and why. I would like to see major safety and/or management changes take place before I even consider visiting this place. I was harassed online for saying the park was at fault, calling for a boycott and "trying to cancel a small business" . But what happened to that poor girl is infinitely more important. The park must be held accountable and make actual changes to prevent something like this from happening. People blaming the parents and operators alone likely don't want to blame the park because they want to visit it. I wanted to visit it too, but some things are more important.
I live in this town, have had friends who have worked here, and have ridden on this very ride and plenty of the others countless times. The middle management there is abysmal. I think that is largely because it is hard to find good middle management in such a small town. A friend of mine worked there and about half of the managers were incredibly toxic and would rush you through training on a ride, the other half were solid.
Dawg it’s a seatbelt, if they can’t tell if it’s in properly then they are deadbeat fools. The parents and the operators. Pull your head out of your ass. You say some people don’t want to blame the park but look how hard you are trying to not blame the operators. The ones who don’t know a seat belt goes OVER the person? Absolute fool mentality
I agree. Its easy to blame the parents but its up to the ride operators to ensure that people are ready and secured for the ride. They should of checked that she was actually secured rather than just checking the lock and not the location of the whole belt.
The manual is the biggest cause of that accident. I was a trainer at one ride at Disney and Universal. The one ride I was a trainer at Disney the operator manual was close to 400 pages; at Universal the shortest manuals were about 150 pages. The manuals for the haunted houses for Halloween Horror Nights are close to 50 pages. When I was a trainer I went through every word on those manuals with every single trainee I had. Sure it’s officially operator error, but it’s much deeper than that. The root cause was both poor design of the restraint system and lack of training for the operators. The double seatbelt design is not an idiot proof design as a 6 year old wouldn’t necessarily know they had to unbuckle the belt when they got into the seat.
No lack of common sense was the killer. If you need training on if a seat belt goes above or below your legs you should not be in charge of safety for anything or anyone. Fucking victim mentality
Doesn't 400 to 500 pages seem as equally as crazy as 3 pages? I don't know much about the topic, just interested but 500 pages? Are certain people responsible for small portions or are you responsible as an operator for knowing all 500 pages? Seems like it's overkill in the opposite direction.
@@TomSmith-kc8mz each position has about 10 pages and with full diagrams of each console those positions will be responsible for. For greeter it has diagrams of the full queue completely closed and opened. You also have opening, closing, and evac procedures for each position. Along with that full diagrams of the the ride vehicles and each block zone, and full track layout with separate diagrams of each element of the ride including minimum and maximum speeds through each element. Space Mountain alone has 38 block zones, and instructions on how to reset a reset a ride cascade stop which is the most common ride stoppage.
@@TomSmith-kc8mz a manual exists as a reference. No one expects you to memorize it. But it needs to be there for reference. Your average car manual is several hundred pages long. In it are some of the most important and basic things you probably have memorized (check engine light, low air light, hazard lights location, adding fuel, what type of fuel, ect.) And many many things even mechanics won't memorize but may need to know in specific scenarios. So the manual is there, usually in the glove box, in case it's needed. The day to day stuff is there to be memorized but the weird stuff you may never need to know makes up the hundreds of other pages. In case you do need it. So no multiple hundreds of pages is not weird. Most complicated pieces of machinery has one. The phone or computer you watched the video on has one. And it's probably also hundreds of pages.
Jesus man. As much as a lot of people hate those over the shoulder restrains or big lap bars, you can see them clearly. I find rides with only seatbelts quite unnerving. I'm so sorry for that girl, her family and everyone involved. It's pretty much always human error, isn't it? Never the automatic system. I really hope everytime that all parks will treat safety seriously after an accident, but the only park that starts to care is the one where the accident took place.
Whoa, whoa… wait. It was ONLY seatbelts?! If it was only seatbelts and nothing else covering what could have been the girl’s lap, how’d the belt get missed?! How is a seatbelt sufficient?!
@@rebekahwolkiewicz449 The seat belt is perfectly fine since there is no tilting. The only design flaw with the ride itself seems to me that the system ist unable to detect this specific situation the seat belt is locked but doesn't secure the person in the seat. This could potentially be solved by measuring how far the belt has been pulled out. The belt needs to be longer to reach the locking mechanism over the lap of a person rather than an empty seat. (Not sure how reliable this would be since sitting on it would also lengthen the belt.) The belt should also be automatically ejected from the locking mechanism so it is open when the ride is loaded. Using a proper restraint that physically blocks the seat when closed seems to be the most efficient and safe way as it prevents the whole problem from occurring. That makes me wonder how the belt system on TOT is designed. The belts are closed and checked by the riders themselves with ride OP supervision on that ride. Seems kinda questionable now that I think about it.
This has major Smiler vibes to it, in the sense that someone trusted their own perception more than that of a computers and conducted a bypass. I’m sure many false errors happen too, these situations are so complicated.
Thing is they didn't *really* do a bypass. They did in fact unlock all the seat belts and relock them, so the system was happy. It just wasn't designed to detect whether someone was, you know, under the seat belt.
@@Sleepyhead080808 True, though I was using the word bypass in a non-literal sense. Un-locking and re-locking the seatbelts isn’t that much different from pressing a button obnoxiously labelled “bypass”; the end result is that you skipped the regular procedure of unbuckling the seatbelt because it was preventing a customer from leaving the vehicle.
@@awesometwitchy I disagree. The system was erroring out that a seat wasn't buckled properly. The operators weren't trained on what the error actually meant, so they did the best thing they could given their (lack of) training: Undid all the seat belts and made sure they were securely buckled. It's hard to imagine how they didn't notice the misplaced seat belt during this double-check, but I wasn't there and don't know how easy it would be to miss. Perhaps based on the girls clothing or something.
One thing that floors me about this, is what park allows a 6 year old to ride alone on a thrill ride?! Where were the parents? And, how in the hell did the ride op NOT have the child get out of the seat after the second failure to clear the seatbelt sensor? As an old attractions host, the idea of a double fault like that would have told me that something may be wrong with the sensor itself, and to clear and tag the seat for maintenance to check. It seems like poor training, poor operations/operators and poor parenting all led to this tragic and highly upsetting event.
ive never operated a ride before and even i would have had her go back in line and have her sit in a different seat on the next round if i could figure out wtf was going on just to be extra safe about it
There were two young kids that went on Iron Gwazi by themselves. Me being an aunt and my friends also worried about them, we kept an eye on them and if we noticed anything wrong on their restraints we would let an operator know to double check since they were by themselves. Luckily when the lap bar wasn't going down the little girl spoke up and so did her brother and if the operator didn't listen my friends and I would step in. We wouldn't feel good if something would've happened to them. Honestly parents need to keep an eye on their kids just go along and make sure their secure before exiting the ride and waiting for them. It isn't that difficult to prioritize safety. :/
@Billie Boheme Exactly. It's been a few decades since I worked at Disneyland and Knott's berry Farm, but I highly doubt that they changed the rule where a child under a certain age MUST be accompanied by an adult or guardian over the age of 15, no matter their height.
I don’t think there was a double fault. They didn’t have to override anything to clear the error, just unlock and re buckle the seatbelt. The fact that the operator didn’t know what the error meant means their training was inadequate, and their debugging procedure was reasonable if not flawed because they failed to check that the belt was secure over and not under the rider’s waist. The problem is that they didn’t have to override anything to make the ride start, and they were able to clear the error without fixing the problem
3:26 "Operating procedures" step 7 clearly says "Visually check to confirm that each passanger has seatbelt over their lap". *This whole step was clearly skipped.* The biggest design failure of this raid was that there was not redudant restraint system. Simply failing to use the belt incorrectly (one restraint) should not be enough to make accident possible.
I'm just not sure this park has strong operating values. I visited this park in 2019 for my first and only visit, and rode this ride countless times. After some rides the operator literally locked us in, then told us he needed to use the restroom and straight up left the ride. Then, after a couple of more rides, the operator offered to loosen our seat belts for a more "thrilling ride." Now at the time I of course said yes and thought that was such a fun time, but in hindsight, this was extremely poor operating procedures. This is something I've just now felt the need to share after hearing about this accident.
Thank you for sharing your experience. This is even more eye opening that the operator was able to get away with leaving you all locked into a ride and then willing to tamper with the safety belts by loosing it. And the park took no actions on it. If I was in your shoes I probably would have done the same thing, though I hope I wouldn’t have.
I can't imagine how much guilt & self loathing the operators live with everyday, just thinking how I'd feel in their place. That poor child & family... So much grief over a situation that could of been prevented.
Tragic and avoidable. I'm not going to do the blame game that a lot here are doing, as there's blame all over the place. I will say that, as a parent, I always verify what my child is doing when safety is involved. Ever since hearing about this event, I've been waiting for the sequence of events that went wrong, because, as a theme park enthusiast and someone who's worked at a theme park, I know the levels of safety and checks in place. It's unfortunate that most of the best ways to make things safer generally involves tragedy.
Totally not blaming here, but it’s not clear to me if she was riding with an adult or not. Do you happen to know? Wondering if it would’ve turned out differently if people under a certain age/height had to ride with an adult
I sorta feel that. I'm an older sibling and even riding kiddie rides with my younger brother can be anxiety inducing for me "You put your seat belt on, right? Let me make sure you did it correctly"
What I want to know is why the girl's parents didn't notice her not wearing the seatbelts properly! I watch my siblings like a hawk when we get on rides to make sure they correctly apply their restraints, even though they're now 16 and old enough to know how to do it correctly. This girl was 6 and had absolutely no business being allowed to get in that seat without careful supervision. Her parents would've been right next to her. They should've seen her sit on the belts and not apply them correctly. Everyone who's ever dealt with a 6 year old knows they're lying little dorks and MUST be carefully supervised and have their claims verified. While it's sad their little girl was killed, there's definitely some fault on the parents.
@@Clay3613 Bc I highly doubt that every 6 year old fully understands the concept of the safety belt. Also a note to the parents thing: Who knows if they were even with her on the ride? It it quite a scary ride for some people. As a kid my parents weren't going to set a foot in these things, so alone in there I went.
@@Fox_on_a_Rollercoaster But who let's a 6 year old not just go on this ride alone, but into the very dark building alone. Plus, most rides have restrictions of children under a certain age can't ride alone. 🤨
@@Fox_on_a_Rollercoaster I knew how to change a tire on a car at the age of six. I damn sure knew what a seatbelt was for. This is just a darwin award. Open the ride back up.
@@Fox_on_a_Rollercoaster I feel like most 6 year olds are at least familiar with riding in cars and the presence of seatbelts in them. Unless, due to poor parenting, they aren't taught to wear seatbelts in the car either.
I feel that if I were in that situation as the ride operator and then this incident happened, it would continue to torment me, having me wonder if only I had noticed. It's truly sad case from all aspects. Thank you for sharing details on this. I always hope that ride operators as well as people who work on generic training, watch these videos and learn from them. Having clear repeatable instructions for any system, is always very valuable.
The fact that they even went and re-checked all of the restraints and still missed the child... So so so sad and messed up for everyone involved. This is so tragic. But I have to ask---- WHY is a drop tower only secured by a seatbelt?!?! Most modern rides have over-the-shoulder restraints. This is so so upsetting!!!
the seatbelts are fine the Tower of Terror at all disney parks have only seatbelts and they are fine but its just cause the ride ops didnt throughly check this restraint
Isle so, it Knott mini seats two check. You should ant make a Ms. Steak own a large come pass sit tea coaster,but it makes a little Moore cents two Ms. Some thing. Diss tower has like five seats indie Alarm went off.
@@brandonjc13 Took me a little while, but I think I got it: "Also, it's not many seats to check. You shouldn't make a mistake on a large capacity coaster, but it makes a little more sense to miss something. This tower has like five seats and the alarm went off."
Tower of terror is a seatbelt. They are perfectly safe when done correctly. Ontop of that stating over the shoulder restraints are safer is a false opinion look what happened in Orlando
I really feel for the ride operators, I've had a highly repetitive job and after doing the same task several dozen times, you start to feel like you've mastered the task, even if you make continue to make mistakes. I'm rather thankful that nobody's life depended on what I did.
I'm truly having a difficult time trying to comprehend how the girl's seat belt being under her and not secured across her lap was missed by TWO separate people at multiple different points. I'm not a ride operator myself yet I would have thought it would be a no-brainier that the first thing you would do before dispatching a ride would be to look and make sure each guest has their restraint on correctly. And what's more I would think that her size and age would warrant closer attention from the ride operators as you can't expect a small child to understand the restraints and their importance which in turn introduces the potential for them to be used incorrectly. The whole thing is just a horrific tragedy and my heart goes out to all involved including the attendants who were clearly victims of circumstance. My only hope is that the lessons learned in the wake of this incident prevent something like this from ever happening again.
I didn't understand why they did make her stand up since it was specifically her seat setting of the error. Had they had her stand up and checked the seat out they would have seen the belt was under her. Again it goes back to lack of training. This is very sad for all involved 😢
@@melanielazare9 She might have been with an older sibling, friend or family member. My boys ride together all the time and I wait outside of the ride. This is why it’s even more important that the operators do their job thoroughly.
What is really frustrating about this accident is that too many people and media outlets are quick to blame the restraint type itself as the main cause of the accident. If the restraint had actually been secured as intended, this whole ordeal could've been avoided. THAT BEING SAID, I think it is fair to say that if the seatbelt was made to be *a little* easier to check, like how for instance Disney's ToT has its belts covered in a neon yellow fabric to make them more visible, it'll help solve that issue. I'm not the type who thinks all rides should have hard shoulder restraints (if anything, I am in full support of minimalistic restraint types), but even I have to admit that there are things that can be done to the belt in order to make it easier to check, and it isn't unfair to square a *very tiny* fraction of the blame on it.
This. I went to ride Dinosaur at Disney. When the ride first started moving, I did not have it in yet. However there was a stop before the true ride to check to pull the yellow. Luckily I had mine plug in before I got to that step, but that double check is highly responsible
I love this series, learning about how these accidents can be avoided. I, a normal GP at any theme park, had no idea how in depth safety truly was until I started watching this series. This is so sad. Did she not realize she needed the seatbelt?
She was 6 and probably learned that seatbelts aren't important as long as she can get away with looking like she had it on. Child probably did this countless times with her parents in the car, taking off her seatbelt because it was uncomfortable, but pulling it over her lap to "look" like she had it on to avoid getting in trouble..
She was 6 and clearly sitting on the belts, she should not have been allowed on the ride. Even if she was tall enough. secondly no one really checked her.
The operators should not have been required to operate the ride through trial and error! Also, let this be a warning to anyone riding any type of ride: *DO NOT RIDE IF YOU HAVE TO HOLD THE RESTRAINTS CLOSED!* Or if you have to hold onto the restraints to stay *inside* the vehicle.
I saw this video just after a major RUclips channel did a video on the park which chose not to talk about this accident. Thank you for this factual and professional video.
I don't understand how a family member didn't realize the child wasn't in their restraints, because they're usually super focused on their kid's restraints rather than their own.
@Chad Meckstroth Weird. We don't allow children under the age of 7 on our rides without a person 14 or older to accompany them. Pretty sure there's a state law or something that prevents us.
That's what I was thinking. When my son rides ANYTHING, I double check restraints every single time. I can't imagine not making sure it's put on correctly. If the child was riding alone that's a different story, but how no one noticed she was sitting ON the seatbelt...I don't understand.
@@karenelizabeth1590 Not often enough. I wish I had a dollar for every time (before I had even started to check the restraints) someone had said their restraint or their child's restraint was too tight, especially when there's a visible gap between them and their restraint. Like actually no, it needs to be tighter.
This reminds me a lot like that plane that crashed into the Everglades decades ago, we're all the pilots were so focused on the broken light in the cabin that they stopped paying attention to flying the plane. Obviously, it looks like the operators were vigilance in doing what they were trying to do, but they got so fixated on the pins and the computer that they all fail to check to see if everyone was actually secured into their seat. Of course, this is not completely all on the ride operators. Situational awareness and resource management is vital two operating a ride safely, and it is on the ride owners to ensure that this training happens. Looking at this laughably brief Manuel, it's obvious that the park was cutting corners on safety training, which is absolutely appalling in the year 2021. What a horrible incident, and what a horrible thing for everyone there to have witnessed.
This is it. So many people using hindsight to be like "well why didn't they do x?" "i woulda done x", it's easy to say that after you know what happened. The fact that two seperate people checked and double checked doesn't seem at all negligent on the operators part. Makes me think they got so tunnel visioned on the error that they were thinking "problem with machine" not "kid not strapped in". Like, ironically, the machine didn't detect she wasn't strapped in either, the machine was merely detecting it hadn't been released and clipped in again since the last run. Hindsight makes everything so easy, but in the heat of the moment, making a simple assumption like "everyone is buckled in, i have checked, but the machine is still making an error" is perfectly reasonable, and anyone saying otherwise is fooling themselves. I have thoughts like "maybe I'd have made everyone unclip and stand up and readjust" but I'm also aware I'd have no idea what I'd have ACTUALLY done in the moment, especially without the hindsight of a death. Literally everyone alive has done something in their life where it's like "i should have done it this way instead" but sadly this was tied to a death for these operators.
Yeah, that manual gives me no confidence in that park and I will never go to that park. The thing that boggles me though is that nobody thought to ask the child to unbuckle their seatbelt and stand up. And I guess that goes to show that the practice so many rides have where they tell you to pull on the strap of the seatbelt is an inadequate safety measure since it can be foiled simply by someone sitting on the seatbelt
I like that the ride has the thing to stop it if the belt hasn’t been cycled. I wish it didn’t take something like this, but I’m sure now if you get this error on a similar ride they’d make you leave the seat. But I like that you stand up for these operators- it would need to be a hard-written rule that is trained into their daily routine for it to happen. I feel so badly not only for the family of the child but for the operators who are definitely going to be beating themselves up for this for quite some time.
I live in Colorado. Adventure Park is my *favorite* theme park in the state, but they really need to ensure that nothing like this *ever* happens again. This was SO tragic and it's upsetting that it was also so avoidable.
3 pages of operator manuals? i needed 1200 hours of school and to take a written AND hands-on test to WORK IN A HAIR SALON! that manual is an utter disgrace.
I can't imagine what the operators felt when they realized a rider fell. That feeling isn't something that'll likely ever go away. My heart goes out to them and the family of that little girl.
I am revisiting your series, and after doing a bit of digging it appears that the ride has been rethemed and reworked as Crystal Caverns, with the entire ride vehicle being caged and likely some other safety steps taken. However, the fact that this occurred at all and the fact that the park was so quiet about the reworking and reopening of the ride seems at least mildly concerning to me.
As someone who's from Colorado and has been to Glenwood Caverns multiple times I think some important context for this park is that the actual "amusement" part of it is very much an add-on to the main attraction: the titular caverns. They operate it with the intentions of it being another way to get people to stick around and spend money, not as the top priority. So with that in mind, it's unfortunately not surprising that their training for their staff and their guests' safety isn't their top priority. Having been in the caves and knowing how pitch-black it is (if you haven't been in a cave it's darker than anything you've likely experienced- it's darker than a dark room at night) and how cold it is I don't want to imagine what this girl experienced. This is the definition of the term "tragically avoidable". It's beyond tragic.
Thanks for covering this. It bothers me that people keep blaming the ride itself. The ride did not malfunction and is not inherently dangerous when operated properly.
So the park is more at fault than the operators are due to the vagueness. Also I feel as if the parents should have been on the ride with her, they probably would have been able to tell the operators that she was sitting on the seatbelt rather than it being over her.
Thanks for explaining this tragedy properly because it was reported so badly in the media. It's so sad and it could of been avoided with the proper material. I just hope everyone got psychological help afterwards
Everything was in place to prevent this and it still happened. I can only imagine the horror for those operators, family and other guests who were there. Prayers for all of those involved.
My boyfriend used to work at this park, and said they had previously allowed things that were not safe to happen. The fact that they allowed him onto a rollercoaster when he has no legs and he had to hold himself into the seat the entire time is scary enough. It makes a lot more sense now that their operator manuals are only 2 and a half pages.
I wonder if the parents were with her on the ride. I'd be surprised if they were and didn't do something like tug on their daughters seatbelt when the operators came back for her seat. there's not really anything wrong with sending your kid alone on a ride, but this is really unfortunate
You guys clearly didn’t read the news articles. She was not unsupervised, she was with an aunt, uncle, and cousins. So the guardians were dealing with multiple kids here and it slipped their mind to check the seatbelts for themselves
@@NekoCat999 I do think it's a little odd that they wouldn't specifically start checking things out if the ride operators came back to check that specific seat multiple times though. But it's a moment of oversight, I don't blame the guardians or the ride ops solely. Many sad factors, and I'm sure the guilt eats away at all of the people involved.
I can’t believe this popped up on my feed two days after another drop tower incident where I live in Orlando. That case has its own faults. I’m glad this channel is exploring the whole picture here, the multiple failures that lead to this incident.
This just reinforces to me that I need to do with my kids what my parents did for me. From the age I was old enough to ride thrill rides, I was on them. But my parents gave me a "roller coaster safety" lesson. They taught me how to properly buckle myself in to each ride (we basically always went to the local park), to pull on my restraints to check the locks and tightness, and to not hesitate to yell for a ride attendant if I felt something was wrong or needed help. They told me its important to secure and check my own restraints because people can make mistakes. They would watch me buckle and check myself before they would double check me, then they would secure themselves. Its also shocking how short that ride manual is. My friend now works at the park I grew up going to and I saw his manual copy for the new ride he had been transferred to. It was at least 75 pages, and this was for a very small, single operator, train going 8mph around a loop with a tiny bump toddler ride. In the event of total power, everything's gone nuclear failure, his ride is small, slow, and weak enough to be manually stopped by just pushing the front or back car off the rails that sit 3in from the ground. His little baby ride, that extremely easy to operate, extremely safe by nature, and can even just be brute forced by the operator into an emergency stop with basically no threat of injury had a novella for a manual....and they had 3 pages.
I don't doubt that the lack of a better manual played a part in this tragedy, but I'm aghast that multiple ride operators failed to notice a passenger on top of the seat belts. Were they informed to rush through the process due to a long line? Was it too dark to properly see?
Taking a look at the loading shots (such as 4:09), it looks like the major functional light sources are the flourescents on either side of the ride. Those are partially blocked by the sides of the ride vehicle, and would be further blocked by, say, an adult on either side of the seat in question (which, based on the numbering, was likely in the middle). The decorative "oil" lamps don't look like they put out enough light to meaningfully aid ride ops. Although it's not stated here (likely because the information is not public), if the girl had been wearing dark clothes where the restraint wouldn't stand out against the colors, that could also have been a factor.
Look, I know the girl was 6 and it’s bad to speak of the dead… But 3 year-olds know about seatbelts, it sounds awful but I see this as entirely the childs fault or her parents for teaching her to ignore seatbelts. When I was 5, I always insisted on putting on my seatbelt for safety in the car. This kid purposely didn’t wear the seatbelt and was old enough that the parents should have tought her better. Yes, the ride ops job is supposed to check all the seatbelts, but for the kid to think it’s okay to sit ontop of seatbelts….🤦♀️
@@mro4ts457 my friend she was 6 years old probably excited to be getting onto a fun and scary ride (in her perspective, at least) let's not call it the small child's fault when the real fault lies on whoever was charged with training the ops. That's where the fault really lies, not on the undertrained ops and certainly not on a 6 year old who's brain is still incapable of understanding what consequences are.
@@BoxOKittens I’m not saying it’s really all the little girls fault. Yes, the ride ops are at fault, but also the parents/gaurdians didn’t teach their child about safety restraints before getting on a ride? As a parent myself, I wonder where the parents/gaurdians were and why they taght their child to ignore/sit ontop of seatbelts instead of always strapping-in? There were multiple ways this sad event should have been prevented, very unfortunate for the little girl who lost her life.
that operator manual is horrifying. i picked up the habit of collecting manuals (i learned english by reading them, they hold a weird sentimental value to me) and from the ones within my reach the mauals were 88 pages long (sewing machine) abridged 10 pages long (tablet, with the full manual available as a pdf ) 35 pages (toaster). if you'd ask me to summarise any of them into 3 pages to hand to someone who'd never used any of them I'd spit in your eye. i feel the blame for this accident lies solely on woever made the decision to only train operators on the sparknotes edition. that's an insane kind of negligence
I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING!!!! Pause the video at 3:26. Page one, "Operating Procedures" #7: VISUALLY CHECK TO COMFIRM THAT EACH PASSENGER HAS SEATBELT OVER THEIR LAP. I'm not posting this to point fault at the ride operators, I just decided to read it, and noticed it.
If you can’t figure out that you need to make sure the seatbelt needs to go over someone’s lap, then how can you use an inadequate manual as an excuse?
I won't slander the ride operators for not knowing the things that should have been told to them in their training, but I would like to point out that it doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to notice whether or not a rather large black strip of fabric is resting on top of someone's legs. The fact that not one, but two people missed this, even after an error involving that specific seat, boggles my mind. Great video though!
The girl might have been wearing dark clothing. The area is propably not very well lit either. And maybe the operators were guys and didn't dare to really check the seatbelt because of possible pedo lawsuits ...
It sounds like on visual inspection, the rider _did_ have a large black strip of fabric on her legs. The problem was what they saw was the _loose end_ of the buckled belt around her. The rider didn't understand her seat belt was already buckled, and pulled the loose part of the belt around her waist and that fooled the operator. I suspect the operators didn't make it a practice to dig fingers into people's waists to pull on the belt. It's just sad they knew what seat had the problem and they didn't take the time after it was identified to then inspect it thoroughly. It seems like a guest sitting down on top of a buckled belt would be an obvious thing that confused riders might do - that should have been a scenario defined in the manual. They knew what seat was the problem - at minimum they should have asked her to try to stand up to _verify_ if she was being restrained. If they couldn't figure out the fault, then the procedure should be all seats are unlocked, _everyone_ physically disembarks, inspect and unlock _every_ belt, then everyone re-boards and re-locks to see if the fault happens again.
Personally I don't see how they could have missed the girl sitting on her seatbelt when they unlocked and relocked the restraints multiple times and checked each one themselves???
It's not the most well lit area. In my (completely worthless) opinion, the seatbelts should have been a florescent color to make them easier to notice when not in place. Other parks do this with tape or paint.
@@CoasterCollege I agree, better visibly of the restraints in such a dark place could have helped to avoid this accident, hopefully it's something they take into account before the ride reopens, if it does reopen.
I honestly can't imagine being an operator and having to deal with the very real trauma this has caused them. PTSD ocurrs with even some of the seemingly minor amusement park incidents. We fail to track them properly in the US and we fail to have propper legislation in place to do so largely because of the parks not wanting to have to pay money to follow new regulations. Sometimes people say that it just seems there's more incidents than there are, but in reality I believe the problem is much more widespread than we knew and because everyone now has phones and cameras and can communicate across borders.
I love your channel. Whenever someone says "i think roller coasters / thrill rides are dangerous because (insert accident name here) and i can link then one of your videos and it almost always changes their mind! Keep making informatuive dvideoers!
boy, I cannot tell you how relieved I am to see Worlds and Oceans of Fun on that map. I live in KC and my sister's family always has season passes and park hopper passes to the parks. those parks helped me create some very special memories with the people I care about. it brings great peace of mind to know that they care about proper training.
I work in a career where safety is incredibly important and when explaining procedures in training we use an abstract concept called safety barriers. A safety barrier could be anything, it could be a procedure or it could be a literal alarm, but the idea is you only need one safety barrier to be triggered to prevent disaster, so even if 5 things fail the 6th one can save the day. It's disheartening to see how few of those barriers were mandated by the manual, there clearly just wasn't enough thought put into "what could go wrong." There were way too few things that had to go wrong for this to happen. I think the suggestion from the creator of bright seatbelts is a good start that could have prevented this, but there's so much more that needs to be in place. When dealing with something this dangerous it's not enough to just say check the seatbelts and use common sense. Frankly, it's disturbing that a park could be allowed to operate like this in 2021.
Pretty amazing that one of the safety systems built in requires *every* restraint to be cycled before dispatch in order to motivate ride operators to actually go check them. It's unfortunate that no matter how much foresight goes into designing rides, accidents still happen.
Would love if you were able to cover the Adventureland accidents on the Raging River in Iowa. I live nearby and it literally made me sick. So grateful that they FINALLY shut that old ride down after the two incidents.
This was entirely preventable and those responsible should face negligent homicide charges. I’m not talking about the operators, I’m talking about those responsible for training their operators.
@@CLR2TKF She was 6. 6 year olds are not exactly known for their good judgement or rational thinking. As for her guardians: It was dark, and it looked as though she was buckled in at first glance, as the video describes.
@@CLR2TKF are you fucking kidding? It's literally the operators job to do this. Not anyone else's. Not you sitting here trying to blame the 6 years old victim and her parents. What the fuck
the bulk of the fault lies with the park and their ride ops training, no doubt. but how did the people around the little girl miss that she wasn't strapped in properly? even if the ops missed it, the other riders also could have noticed. yet somehow none of them did, and it ended in tragedy. this is why i don't think kids that young should be riding alone - ops can be under a lot of stress to get loads out and can forget things because they're human too. at least with someone else responsible for the child with eyes on them, this may not have happened.
@Lucas Lucas man you're in every comment. This was operator error **as a result of poor training**, it's not like the ops went "yes let me kill this child today"
@Lucas Lucas the only people who should be held liable are the park owners. Strip them of their assets, make payment to those affected, and charge them with negligent homicide
@@sunshinefine1886 Their job as park employees is to enforce height and weight requirements, and to double check that latches are properly locked. But ultimately I agree with you. Pretty much nobody will love a child as much as their own parents, so parents need to be proactive and not trust that others will actually do their job. Edited because I thought I was responding to a comment on a different video.
Most restraints on rides like this are designed so that it's impossible for a rider to sit on top of the restraint. Six Flags Great Adventure had an accident on Lightning Loops, where a rider sat on top of the over the shoulder restraint and was ejected from the ride. The restraints on Lightning Loops, as well as Great American Scream Machine, which used the same trains, included replacing the handles with large hoops so that a rider could never sit on top of the restraint again.
I just can’t imagine how traumatizing it would be as one of the staff when this happened, or one of the other guests on that same car… even the people waiting in line. I mean of course that’s other than the family and friends of the girl lost. That’s obviously horrible. But I just sit and wonder what that did to so many people that day. I thought I was falling out of a Larson Looper when I was 8 at a rinky dink fair and that made me not ride another upside ride for almost 10 years. To be there when someone literally is ejected from their seat and killed and it was a little girl…. Just like the little boy at Schlitterbahn… just horrifying. My thoughts are with them all.
My question is you mentioned that the restraints need to be recycled after every ride but without include the seatbelts too? I mean I know for Tower of Terror the seat belts are probably more technologically advanced. I've been on this ride and I can't remember though if the seat belts are like on a sensor or anything like that. If they are how do they recycle the ride restraints without undoing the seatbelt should not have given an error still? Or is there something in the system where they can just clear out all the errors? I do know that they are putting in new restraints and things like that for this ride. I had heard someone mention about that they were going to put a cage around at 2:00 and they're going to have a new type of show and lighting down in the bottom to have like a cooler show so that will be exciting. Honestly too about being vague on the restraints and the seat belts even though it is kind of dark in there I would have checked to make sure that the seat belts were actually going over the Riders again it's vague in the operations manual what you're supposed to do. I mean they pulled the tail of the belt but it should have been in a way where they're like oh hey this is not even hooked around the person they're sitting on it. I just find it hard to believe they didn't know that it wasn't hooked around her. But after this incident I mean like I said they're updating restraints and stuff but they should definitely do more training and tell them to visually inspect to make sure that their seat belt is hooked around them and not them just sitting on it.
Also parents need to be more responsible too. I say this because I took my son to Six Flags Magic Mountain when he was six. He was tall enough to get on all the rides however he was skinny, he was a child. Rides that I didn’t like how they fit across his lap especially rides with loops I took him off. I decided this as his Mom and told him he can get on the when he’s bigger. I didn’t rely on the park I used my mothers intuition and I had him was I was a teenager myself so I don’t want to hear that age stuff. My heart goes out to the little girl and everyone involved. I’m just praying 🙏🏾 a parent will read this. You as a parent check your kids restraints yourself.
I’ve been on a ride before where my restraints weren’t checked. It wasn’t busy, it was a very small funfair that was part of a caravan park for the bank holiday. It was at the end of the Monday, but it was also not really active all day (we could see it from the caravan). The ride was a jumping frog style ride, and was right next to the sea. When me and my cousin got on, he originally began checking every seat, including ones that weren’t filled, before my sister hailed them and asked a question in a different cart. The lap bars were our only safety protection and they could only be locked from the outside. When he went back to locking and checking seats, he went the opposite way and completely blanked our cart. He then got in the control centre and began to start the ride. Me and my cousin were trying to flag down the operator, along with my mum and aunt, who were next to the ride and could see that our cart wasn’t secured. I managed to use my foot to secure it enough that we wasn’t ejected from the ride, and the two of us held onto solid parts of the cart just in case it came undone. Luckily, no problems occurred, but the negligence was awful and could have flung us straight up in the air and back down into the still moving ride, or the shallow seabed depending on the angle. Either way, serious injuries would have occurred. I’m so glad that the lock I half put in and kept my foot on held, and nothing happened, but it was a horrible feeling to think any moment, we could have been ejected from the ride.
Operators aside, where on gods green earth were the parents? The fact that the kid was too young to realize how a bloody seatbelt worked means she was too young to be riding alone. Whoever was in charge of that girl should be found just as guilty as the operators.
Which as you mentioned prior to 3:50 in the introduction, they DID NOT do number 4, this they did not abide by this guide thus the operator is at fault as they did not do number 4, Pull the Seatbelt over the passenger, so yes Operator was at fault as clearly by your introduction you have already convicted them.
I dunno man. Sure the training was lacking, but if these people couldn’t use their eyeballs and see that the girl was on top of the seatbelt, that’s absolutely a serious personal error on their part. No amount of training can prevent that
You're criticizing the manual but I mean if ride operators had just followed #4 in the operating procedures section about pulling the seat-belt OVER the passenger and insert into the restraint block., wouldn't this accident have been prevented???
Another great video with all the information laid out clearly. While I had hear about this incident a few times before I don't recall hearing that the seat had been empty the cycle before. Which answers my question of how were the belts done under the guest? Thank you for all the diligence you do in making these videos, cause even the little things help make a clearer picture
Wow this was truly an unfourture accident, People on t RUclips and MSM blaming the operators not the park itself as outstanding,the operators were out in a rock and hard place by Glen Wood caverns, Not knowing Error codes or knowing that the buttons do is a terrible way to run an amusment park I feel for these operators as this accident could’ve been prevented if the Park wasn’t trying to cut corners with Manuel and proper procedures are layed out by manufacturing, I don’t know the law in Colorando, but here in NJ each park is required to have manuel that ride manufacturer has written and provided with safe operations no expections, I put full blame on Glen Wood Cavens Ride Manager(not the operators)for having terrible training and ignoring a large part of amusement park safety, as being a ride op this broke my heart knowing a little girl suffered and MSM and RUclipsrs blaming operators despite never having work in a park before, but otherwise great video explaining what happen
I know this happened a year ago but i went there a day before this happened and sat in seat 2. My dad rode with me and he held me down the whole way down. it is sad that the little girl has passed😢
I haven't heard of this until this video. So sad all around and sounds preventable. I've never been a ride operator, so my view is different and I'm glad to hear from others who have been operators. From an outsider view I think they did everything they were supposed to do. To me, a second operator cross checks the first one. I'm glad you clarified the steps that the park should take to correct this or what was lacking. That's something I wouldn't have known and clearly this situation made it apparent. Aside from trying to find blame on parks, manuals, and training I want to know who joined the child on the ride. Even if she is a sole rider, did someone walk up to the ride with the child? There is a guardian responsibility of safety. I always check my kids (and others if I'm near them). I would model how mine should look and ask how theirs looks/feels for someone so young. IMO, this is a form of neglect, not a ride/park issue. The operators and families have so much tragedy to deal with. 💔
I understand how tragic it is that a child lost their life. But as someone who has 5 siblings who enjoy amusement parks, I would never get on anything without also checking to make sure the little one was secured. You mean to tell me a parent or guardian was next to them and couldn't see that the child didn't have on a seatbelt? It should also be common sense that you need a restraint on a ride even for a child. My 5 year old brother is a daredevil but won't ride anything if he feels like he can fall out of it or it's loose. It's instinctual. Like....I just never understand accidents like this where no blame is placed on the rider, especially when there is evidence that multiple people were trying to check for the issue.
Exactly & I’m not 100% sure if baby girl was riding alone or not, but if she was with family, how did they fail to realize she wasn’t buckled in the same way they were?
While I do agree that the Manuel needed a much clearer order of operations/pattern, I do have a Point of order: #7 on page 1 says “Visually check to confirm that all passengers have a seatbelt OVER their lap.” That being said, having a specific, repeatable pattern for securing riders should include all important parts of those safety steps, so the operators don’t have to remember each thing each time, rather it just becomes habit/reflex they don’t have to think about. Checking for the belt actually securing the person should 1000% be one of them. I love the idea of standardizing all of those types of training. Lessens the human error risk…
This is why I never wanted to work as a ride operator at an amusement park. I’ve either preferred costumed character (face), prize/game counter attendant, or off hours maintenance. No one dies as a result of my errors. Great video!
2:47 What? Sorry, but it's 100 percent the operators' fault. This is exactly what the seatbelt check is for, missing the fact that she wasn't properly restrained is inexcusable.
How in the world do you not notice she’s not buckled when then both checked multiple times… come on now… this voice over says he won’t tolerate the crew being talked down… but if they don’t know what an error is or means, and if they can’t see a rider isn’t buckled multiple time, how in the hell do they tie their own shoes??? I’m not talking down on them, but damn, so preventable
The operation manual clearly states to, “visually check to confirm that each passenger has seatbelt over their lap.” And that’s the final step#7 in operating procedures. While I do not condone the harassment of individuals, I do believe all individuals should be held responsible from the top to bottom Like the steps that were highlighted in the video even said, “pull the seatbelt over the passenger and insert rod into the restraint block. Gently tighten seatbelt against my passenger and repeat step for each passenger” clearly indicates what the operators were supposed to do. The interpretation of this seems pretty clear to me of how things were supposed to be handled versus what actually happened.
As a former SFOT Ride Operator if an error was received that could not be cleared by repeating the loading procedure. I would unload everyone until Ride Maintenance fixed issue (s) that caused error. At times seasoned Ride Operators would tell me, " oh this is what you do to bypass the error." I would immediately respond with, "NO I CAN'T DO THAT! The consequences for poor judgement weren't great. That's why I only lasted a summer season plus being outside all day wasn't as much fun as I once remembered.
It's right there in #7: "Confirm that each passenger has seatbelt over their lap." You repeatedly noted that the operators failed to notice that the victim's seatbelt wasn't "over their lap." Assuming they had the manual and could read English, how is this not operator error?
Exactly. I thought the same thing. This is inadequate employee training and the trainer and employee should be held accountable. It's the trainers job to make sure their employees know how to do their job.
Thank you for saying exactly what I was thinking when this story first broke. I hate when people point fingers at the employees or the parents in situations like this when the park owners are meant to set the guidelines.
Where the heck were her parents or the adult that was with her. I would never get on a ride with my child or let them get on a ride with an adult that wouldn't separately check their seatbelt when they're only SIX years old. So sad. This was completely avoidable. All adults involved in this situation failed the child.
Probably was ant width her. Most pea pole don't know diss is a extreme ride from de out side,but it's steel stupid two let a six year old walk through a queue line a lone. I dought diss happened wild de parents was next two her.
I can't help but feel like the fact that these seatbelts tend to be black might also be a contributing factor to how this accident played out. I mean, they would have been working in a dimly lit area as it was and a black strap might not be easy to see - especially not if the rider is wearing dark clothing, too (not all girls like to wear pink). It might have helped the operators to have at least a reflective strip sewn through all seatbelts so that you have a continuous line to quickly and easily look for... the contrast should be easy to spot against most clothing and in dimly lit locations.
I'd be traumatized for life and not to mention guilty for the rest of my life had I been one of the operators that missed the seat belt issue. I can't imagine what they or the child's family went through 😔
Thanks for the map at the end. I'm going to Canada's Wonderland on Thursday and it was nice to have a little bit of relief and assuredness after watching this video.
It's pretty shocking that the ride operators checked so many times and failed to see that the girl was sitting on the seatbelt. For that reason, I'd have to say that Inattention was the predominant factor here. That probably has to do with having a job that requires such repetitive motions and the fatigue associated with jobs like this. Even MORE shocking to me was the lack of any type of secondary restraint, as operator error and seatbelt restraint failure (due to wear and tear) are both forseeable events, so a secondary restraint just seems natural -- even a minimal one. I had no idea the girl was totally and completely unsecured in the ride.
I don't know why but this was one of the hardest park accident videos I've ever watched. The slow horrible build up as they checked and checked again but never realized. I feel sick.
I can't imagine the operator manual being 3 pages. I temporarily operated a carousel at local science center and even the manual I had to read beforehand was long than that and I had previous attendants help teach me before leaving it in my care! It makes me so mad to think about this because it is so clearly the fault of the park and those responsible for teaching their operators! And I can't even believe how recent this was! It's shocking to know that negligence like this still happens. They need to do better and I hope they will because stuff like this is unacceptable. That poor girl and everyone who was there when it happened. If I were the operators, I know I would probably never work as any ride operator again after that personally. The trauma and grief and shock that everyone there must have felt...how terrible... /srs /gen
That’s sad. Im glad you do these videos tho for ppl that say negative things about rare amusement park deaths. My gf won’t ride drop towers no more because of that so I had her watch this video. Your content is more help then you know.
I'm astonished none of the instructions mention anything at all about looking at the passengers' laps. They put the entire focus on the bars being in the correct position, on top of not saying boo about the error messages. I feel so badly for everyone involved. I'd not heard of this. Such a sad story.
Actually I did notice that the final step in the operating procedures is “Visually check to confirm that each passenger has seatbelt over their lap”. But yeah the whole situation with the error codes and stuff is a mess. Can’t believe that’s not in the manual. Ugh this is all just so sad….and I can’t believe how recent it was
It has everything to do wirh the adults this Child came on with. How come the adults that were with this child didint check if she put on her seat belt. I check my kids before every ride leaves prob 5 times
Make a rule that you need to get a supervisor to the road to bypass the safety. And for goodness sake, a six year old no matter her height, should not be able to ride alone. Where was the parents or older siblings to help the poor kid
She was a kid. Her brain wasn’t fully developed yet. Kids do stupid things. That’s why the official Darwin Awards website disqualifies young children from being candidates for a Darwin Award: little kids are simply too young to understand deadly risks.
I cannot imagine not checking my child myself. We have been to a few parks and if the young ones qualify for and want to ride some of the more wild rides I feel it's MY job to make sure they are strapped latched and ready. I'm even looking at any other kids near me as instinct. Did she ride alone?
I told a mother on Jurassic Park to hold onto her kid before the drop, as he was tiny and the whole row lap bar level was dependent on the largest rider in the row. There was a huge gap between the child and the restraint. The mother COMPLETELY ignored me, so I ended up wrapping my arms around HER child before the drop. She looked and saw me do it, and still said nothing. Tbh most parents would get annoyed at a stranger cradling their child, never mind ignoring someone expressing their concern for them! Even after the drop she didn't so much as smile at me or say thanks. I'm glad I did what I did though, and I'd do it again.
Important note: The operators shown in this video are NOT the operators that were present for the accident.
ngl i think you saying that this is not the operators fault is a bit dumb. it don't take a rocket scientist to see that the seat belt is not on properly
Agreed.
All individuals at fault should be held accountable from top to bottom.
Are you related to the operators? lmaoooooo
The last few words said in this video are awful considering the drop tower death at Icon park was just a few months later.
@@Lady.B0420 Likely a very different cause.
the fact that neither operators could tell what was wrong should be enough for anyone to tell that the park was inadequately training them.
This industry is one of many that were screwed most by the pandemic
While of course they should have been more thorough, you can't really grab a lap seatbelt to test it and having the tail of the seatbelt on her lap likely made them just think she did the right thing.
They just made assumptions that she was doing what 99.9% of the other guests did and put the belt on correctly. Sadly all it takes is a mistake with 0.1% who don't put it on right
I'm guessing they figured whatever adult/s she was with had made sure she had actually buckled in- you know, like they apparently did to themselves- instead of just allowing their young child to sit on top and drape it across them. I think that even as a fellow rider who didn't know that girl, if I'd been seated next to her I'd have likely checked myself, especially after the operators had to keep coming back to check. I'm more surprised that her parent or whoever was with her and the other people on the ride didn't see this.
@@mommy2libras that was my first thought when I heard the age of the victim. I was sitting here like why did they not put on their seatbelt. And then I was like where was their parent??
@@mommy2libras As someone who works in an amusement park I'm also pretty surprised by this. The amount of times I have to dodge the aggressive checking of their kids seatbelts and their own concern over their own seatbelts, to the point where it interrupts our seat checking process sometimes, is insane. Add on top of that the amount of concerned looks and question we get when we have to unlock and reset the seatbelts when an error occurs, I'm also a bit surprised this wasn't noticed by whoever was with her or another rider in general.
one of the reasons i love this channel: not laying the blame solely on the likely underpaid, overworked, and traumatized attendants, but on the bigger picture and those in charge. thank you.
@Lucas Lucas because management was too lazy to provide them with a legitimate ride manual and train them properly. And what kind of parent doesn't sit next to and make sure their six year old is safe on a ride that is probably way too intense for them???
@@Asshat237 if they checked it multiple times then its not their fault. They can't touch the rider so its not like they can lift every kid and see if that is the problem. Blame is definitely on the guardian of that little girl here.
Yes, and not making a spectacle of the tragedy. This is the only channel I’ll ever watch about topics like these.
@@teal_panda_8434 Were you there?
I think the park is to blame, I think the parents are to blame, but I also think the ride ops certainly have some culpability here. The manual sucked, yes, and their training was inadequate, yes. HOWEVER, they had to physically disengage and re-engage her restraints WHILE SHE WAS SITTING ON BOTH OF THE SEAT BELTS. I am very familiar with this ride and would have been exceedingly obvious that she was sitting on the belts if they were paying any attention whatsoever. They would need to have been very, very negligent in their checking of the restraints to allow this to occur. Like I said, not all of the blame is on them, but their failure to just use simple common sense and pay simple attention was a big contributing factor to why this occurred.
I'm kind of surprised that the parents didn't buckle her in themselves / made sure she wasn't _sitting on top of the only thing that would hold her in place._ I remember my folks practically zip-tying my brother and I into rides such that the operators were impressed. And they look like seat belt style restraints. Shouldn't have been that difficult for parents to comprehend.
Same.
I'm not even a parent but I've been in charge of my minor neice and cousins. Even at 16 I couldn't fathom not buckling especially a 6year old into anything before myself. As 6 years olds a stupid/don't understand the gravity of not doing something will cost. Because they're 6.
I still watch my 10 year old niece buckle before I start to sit down as she may need help.
Maybe it's just the fact I follow the belief Never trust yours and your families safety to others. They are the backup you are the primary.
I was thinking the same, there's no way this poor girl knew what she was doing, if I were the operators I would have told everyone to unbuckle, get up, and buckle yourself in one at a time to ensure everyone is on right 😞
It sounds like the parents weren’t riding with her. Its possible she was there with an older sibling, or her parents stayed at the gates because they didnt want to ride. Not something I’d personally do, and my dad always rode with me (even on some kids rides because he’s only 5’5 so he could safely do that), but a lot of parents have a perceived safety in park rides. My oldest niece will be six in a month and I would personally never do something like this, I probably wouldn’t even let her ride a drop tower, but I really don’t think blaming the parents is a good way to go about something that came from training error/lack of detailed training. It’s clear training was lackluster when the ride operators didn’t even know what the error on the screen meant, and thus cancelled the error without actually resolving it.
Exactly !
@@kittikat4124 I don't think they where out right blaming the parents.
More so like myself. We are just heavy heartedly perplexed/flabbergasted.
Why didn't they buckle her in? She was so young? (Even if it was an older sibling, as I don't know many parents who'd let their 6year old ride a ride like this alone. So assuming parents where on the ride too is not a leap.)
Just strange how some parents/guardians of children drastically different in the safety precautions we take over those under our care.
Like I don't blame the parents or the ride operators. This event just happened to be the time when both those whom should have caught this 6year old child's stupidity/naivety to safety systems. Both failed her. Not maliciously or intentionally negligent.
According to the report, a passenger sent the park an email on August 15 complaining bout a very similar incident on August 14 where the passenger sat on top of the seat belt, and had to argue with the operator to convince the operator that the belt was not deployed correctly. That email should have been a huge red flag that the operators needed more training.
Shouldn’t need training to know a seatbelt goes over the legs. If you need to be trained that you shouldn’t be in any situation where you are in charge of safety. You have to be one dumb mother fucker to not know that💀
I went on it a couple days before that email and one of the people I was with had an issue with his seatbelt too😬 I forgot the day I went but it was like the second week on August
How tf does that even work? "Hello, yes, I'm a rider on this ride and I'm sitting on top of the seat belt. Therefore it is not latched correctly. What are you going to do about it?!" Like, if you KNOW that you're sitting wrong then don't argue about it, just... get up?
(The child that died in the incident described in the video is not who I'm talking about.)
@@Black-Swan-007 I'm confused about this too. Maybe they were disabled and needed help to redo the belt?
@@Black-Swan-007 He/she might be referring to another rider.
As a ride op, this was truly shocking to me that something like this could happen. Even working at a six flags park, this was so lackluster compared to what my park does. The manual being only 3 pages was crazy I’d never feel comfortable operating a ride with that
Same,. I worked at Busch Gardens. Even our most basic kiddie rides have at least a 10 page manual for each individual ride.
Calling it 3 pages is being lenient. I'd say that's 2 1/2 at best
My toaster has a longer manual than that!
Yeah but like even the three page guide states that the operators need to strap every passenger in themselves. I don't know what else to say other than those two couldn't even follow up to Step 4 of Operating Procedures. Imagine trying to give them even more to learn :/
My toaster has a 25 page manual... How does a ride only have a 3 page manual?
This is a very unfortunate event. The official release of “operator error” is arguably a little slap in the face for the operators involved. I’ve had kids climb into locked seats for my ride by themselves instead of waiting for a ring attendant to open them. One thing that we do to make sure the restraint is on properly is we either lock them ourselves or we have guests raise their arms so we can visually see it around them while tugging to make sure the waist belt is secure. This prevents anyone from riding incorrectly. The vague and pitiful “operator manual” that is no longer than a C- college English paper is the cause here. Ride attendants will only be as consistently good as the manual and training at their disposal.
Some people. I hear ya. Fit a stereotype like line jumpers. Watched two random youtubes this week with dorks "standing" on rapids rides. Ya'all deal with a lot.
@@rockingtr1 it’s honestly baffling at some people’s lack of understanding how powerful these machines are. When riding properly and following rules in place, rides are surprisingly safe. However lackadaisical attitudes of ride operators or guests acting on their ignorance of the rides can cause an infinite possibility of negative outcomes. And even if both parties have good intentions, if the training and manual for the ride and its operators are not adequate, an unfortunate incident like this could eventually happen.
@@floridalife2419 or their lack of compassion in a tragedy, acting like someone intentionally won by committing murder. It’s all victims in situations like this, a park employee would have likely wished to have died and taken the child’s place in a heartbeat.
People act like they wanted the child dead.
@Lucas Lucas what are you even talking about? They didn’t want anybody to die. They didn’t intentionally cause a death. Fault lies in numerous hands but the core of the issue that stemmed to this tragedy is the operator training and operator manual.
They didn’t rig the ride to explode or to make everyone’s seatbelts come undone during the drop. If that was the case then yes I would agree with your pure evil narrative. However that is clearly not what occurred.
That statement made me cringe too. Not "operator error'.
I feel bad for the family, the people on the ride with the girl, and the operators. Grief, trauma, and guilt impact all of those above. No one here intentionally contributed to the loss of life.
How do you not see a seatbelt overlapping someone??????????
@@KJfromTheFort He explained why they thought the belt was overlapping her.
@@KJfromTheFort ratio
@@craigalexp I'll ask again, after hearing every explanation everyone has. Hoooooow, doooooo you not see a fucking seatbelt on top of someone???
@@KJfromTheFort that's what the investigators have to find out. Ride operators often rely to much on the safety devices telling them on a screen everyone is safely strapped in that they forget the basics.
As a parent who rides thrill rides with her daughter: I do not get in my seat until I see she is properly secured. Period. I was the same with my sister. My husband and I double check each other's restraints as well.
Definitely. I ride everything with my little sister. I check her restraints, check my own, and then check hers again. I watch the park staff when they check her restraints as well. I would never let her on a ride that I wasn’t checking
Agreed, i always check my childs seat belt before i do my own
If I'm with a younger sibling, or cousins. Same here don't have kids my niece and nephews are still too young for it. But you already know same goes for them gotta make sure their in seat properly before even I get inm
This is exactly what my parents used to do for me. Ask the attendant to double check. And they'd check too.
Exactly that shhh is weird in itself. No one can be that careless. It's insane.
I'm glad you covered this tragic incident. People need to understand what happened and why. I would like to see major safety and/or management changes take place before I even consider visiting this place.
I was harassed online for saying the park was at fault, calling for a boycott and "trying to cancel a small business" . But what happened to that poor girl is infinitely more important. The park must be held accountable and make actual changes to prevent something like this from happening.
People blaming the parents and operators alone likely don't want to blame the park because they want to visit it. I wanted to visit it too, but some things are more important.
I live in this town, have had friends who have worked here, and have ridden on this very ride and plenty of the others countless times. The middle management there is abysmal. I think that is largely because it is hard to find good middle management in such a small town. A friend of mine worked there and about half of the managers were incredibly toxic and would rush you through training on a ride, the other half were solid.
Agreed!
Dawg it’s a seatbelt, if they can’t tell if it’s in properly then they are deadbeat fools. The parents and the operators. Pull your head out of your ass. You say some people don’t want to blame the park but look how hard you are trying to not blame the operators. The ones who don’t know a seat belt goes OVER the person? Absolute fool mentality
I agree. Its easy to blame the parents but its up to the ride operators to ensure that people are ready and secured for the ride.
They should of checked that she was actually secured rather than just checking the lock and not the location of the whole belt.
@@sillyface6950 Same should’ve happened with that 14 year old in Florida
The manual is the biggest cause of that accident. I was a trainer at one ride at Disney and Universal. The one ride I was a trainer at Disney the operator manual was close to 400 pages; at Universal the shortest manuals were about 150 pages. The manuals for the haunted houses for Halloween Horror Nights are close to 50 pages. When I was a trainer I went through every word on those manuals with every single trainee I had. Sure it’s officially operator error, but it’s much deeper than that. The root cause was both poor design of the restraint system and lack of training for the operators. The double seatbelt design is not an idiot proof design as a 6 year old wouldn’t necessarily know they had to unbuckle the belt when they got into the seat.
No lack of common sense was the killer. If you need training on if a seat belt goes above or below your legs you should not be in charge of safety for anything or anyone. Fucking victim mentality
Doesn't 400 to 500 pages seem as equally as crazy as 3 pages? I don't know much about the topic, just interested but 500 pages? Are certain people responsible for small portions or are you responsible as an operator for knowing all 500 pages? Seems like it's overkill in the opposite direction.
@@TomSmith-kc8mz each position has about 10 pages and with full diagrams of each console those positions will be responsible for. For greeter it has diagrams of the full queue completely closed and opened. You also have opening, closing, and evac procedures for each position. Along with that full diagrams of the the ride vehicles and each block zone, and full track layout with separate diagrams of each element of the ride including minimum and maximum speeds through each element. Space Mountain alone has 38 block zones, and instructions on how to reset a reset a ride cascade stop which is the most common ride stoppage.
@@TomSmith-kc8mz Haha I know, right?!!!
@@TomSmith-kc8mz a manual exists as a reference. No one expects you to memorize it. But it needs to be there for reference.
Your average car manual is several hundred pages long. In it are some of the most important and basic things you probably have memorized (check engine light, low air light, hazard lights location, adding fuel, what type of fuel, ect.) And many many things even mechanics won't memorize but may need to know in specific scenarios.
So the manual is there, usually in the glove box, in case it's needed. The day to day stuff is there to be memorized but the weird stuff you may never need to know makes up the hundreds of other pages. In case you do need it.
So no multiple hundreds of pages is not weird. Most complicated pieces of machinery has one. The phone or computer you watched the video on has one. And it's probably also hundreds of pages.
Jesus man. As much as a lot of people hate those over the shoulder restrains or big lap bars, you can see them clearly. I find rides with only seatbelts quite unnerving. I'm so sorry for that girl, her family and everyone involved. It's pretty much always human error, isn't it? Never the automatic system. I really hope everytime that all parks will treat safety seriously after an accident, but the only park that starts to care is the one where the accident took place.
Whoa, whoa… wait. It was ONLY seatbelts?! If it was only seatbelts and nothing else covering what could have been the girl’s lap, how’d the belt get missed?! How is a seatbelt sufficient?!
@@rebekahwolkiewicz449 tot at Disneyland was only seatbelts
@@rebekahwolkiewicz449 The seat belt is perfectly fine since there is no tilting. The only design flaw with the ride itself seems to me that the system ist unable to detect this specific situation the seat belt is locked but doesn't secure the person in the seat. This could potentially be solved by measuring how far the belt has been pulled out. The belt needs to be longer to reach the locking mechanism over the lap of a person rather than an empty seat. (Not sure how reliable this would be since sitting on it would also lengthen the belt.) The belt should also be automatically ejected from the locking mechanism so it is open when the ride is loaded. Using a proper restraint that physically blocks the seat when closed seems to be the most efficient and safe way as it prevents the whole problem from occurring. That makes me wonder how the belt system on TOT is designed. The belts are closed and checked by the riders themselves with ride OP supervision on that ride. Seems kinda questionable now that I think about it.
People shouldn’t use Jesus as an exclamation
@@ChicagoMel23 Oh be quiet who are you to be the authority of how people should talk
I feel terrible for the child and family, but also for the operators. The guilt and regret must be absolute hell to live with.
This has major Smiler vibes to it, in the sense that someone trusted their own perception more than that of a computers and conducted a bypass. I’m sure many false errors happen too, these situations are so complicated.
Thing is they didn't *really* do a bypass. They did in fact unlock all the seat belts and relock them, so the system was happy. It just wasn't designed to detect whether someone was, you know, under the seat belt.
@@Sleepyhead080808 True, though I was using the word bypass in a non-literal sense.
Un-locking and re-locking the seatbelts isn’t that much different from pressing a button obnoxiously labelled “bypass”; the end result is that you skipped the regular procedure of unbuckling the seatbelt because it was preventing a customer from leaving the vehicle.
@@awesometwitchy I disagree. The system was erroring out that a seat wasn't buckled properly. The operators weren't trained on what the error actually meant, so they did the best thing they could given their (lack of) training: Undid all the seat belts and made sure they were securely buckled. It's hard to imagine how they didn't notice the misplaced seat belt during this double-check, but I wasn't there and don't know how easy it would be to miss. Perhaps based on the girls clothing or something.
One thing that floors me about this, is what park allows a 6 year old to ride alone on a thrill ride?! Where were the parents? And, how in the hell did the ride op NOT have the child get out of the seat after the second failure to clear the seatbelt sensor? As an old attractions host, the idea of a double fault like that would have told me that something may be wrong with the sensor itself, and to clear and tag the seat for maintenance to check. It seems like poor training, poor operations/operators and poor parenting all led to this tragic and highly upsetting event.
ive never operated a ride before and even i would have had her go back in line and have her sit in a different seat on the next round if i could figure out wtf was going on just to be extra safe about it
There were two young kids that went on Iron Gwazi by themselves. Me being an aunt and my friends also worried about them, we kept an eye on them and if we noticed anything wrong on their restraints we would let an operator know to double check since they were by themselves. Luckily when the lap bar wasn't going down the little girl spoke up and so did her brother and if the operator didn't listen my friends and I would step in. We wouldn't feel good if something would've happened to them. Honestly parents need to keep an eye on their kids just go along and make sure their secure before exiting the ride and waiting for them. It isn't that difficult to prioritize safety. :/
@Billie Boheme Exactly. It's been a few decades since I worked at Disneyland and Knott's berry Farm, but I highly doubt that they changed the rule where a child under a certain age MUST be accompanied by an adult or guardian over the age of 15, no matter their height.
I don’t think there was a double fault. They didn’t have to override anything to clear the error, just unlock and re buckle the seatbelt. The fact that the operator didn’t know what the error meant means their training was inadequate, and their debugging procedure was reasonable if not flawed because they failed to check that the belt was secure over and not under the rider’s waist. The problem is that they didn’t have to override anything to make the ride start, and they were able to clear the error without fixing the problem
She was not alone, she was with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. Actually read the articles before you say stuff
3:26 "Operating procedures" step 7 clearly says "Visually check to confirm that each passanger has seatbelt over their lap". *This whole step was clearly skipped.*
The biggest design failure of this raid was that there was not redudant restraint system. Simply failing to use the belt incorrectly (one restraint) should not be enough to make accident possible.
I'm just not sure this park has strong operating values. I visited this park in 2019 for my first and only visit, and rode this ride countless times. After some rides the operator literally locked us in, then told us he needed to use the restroom and straight up left the ride. Then, after a couple of more rides, the operator offered to loosen our seat belts for a more "thrilling ride." Now at the time I of course said yes and thought that was such a fun time, but in hindsight, this was extremely poor operating procedures. This is something I've just now felt the need to share after hearing about this accident.
Thank you for sharing your experience. This is even more eye opening that the operator was able to get away with leaving you all locked into a ride and then willing to tamper with the safety belts by loosing it. And the park took no actions on it.
If I was in your shoes I probably would have done the same thing, though I hope I wouldn’t have.
This slander seems pretty tolerated to me...
Pretty soon, very few people will want to be ride operators, with this kind of pressure vs pay...not worth it..
This happened to my gf they didn’t even check the belts correctly
@@user-ge3km6ip9i yikes. I’m glad she was ok.
I can't imagine how much guilt & self loathing the operators live with everyday, just thinking how I'd feel in their place. That poor child & family... So much grief over a situation that could of been prevented.
Tragic and avoidable. I'm not going to do the blame game that a lot here are doing, as there's blame all over the place. I will say that, as a parent, I always verify what my child is doing when safety is involved. Ever since hearing about this event, I've been waiting for the sequence of events that went wrong, because, as a theme park enthusiast and someone who's worked at a theme park, I know the levels of safety and checks in place. It's unfortunate that most of the best ways to make things safer generally involves tragedy.
Totally not blaming here, but it’s not clear to me if she was riding with an adult or not. Do you happen to know? Wondering if it would’ve turned out differently if people under a certain age/height had to ride with an adult
My Lord, a responsible parent... THANK YOU ❤️
@@saxybandgeek9645 according to some reports, she was riding with uncle and cousins I believe
I sorta feel that. I'm an older sibling and even riding kiddie rides with my younger brother can be anxiety inducing for me
"You put your seat belt on, right? Let me make sure you did it correctly"
What I want to know is why the girl's parents didn't notice her not wearing the seatbelts properly!
I watch my siblings like a hawk when we get on rides to make sure they correctly apply their restraints, even though they're now 16 and old enough to know how to do it correctly. This girl was 6 and had absolutely no business being allowed to get in that seat without careful supervision. Her parents would've been right next to her. They should've seen her sit on the belts and not apply them correctly. Everyone who's ever dealt with a 6 year old knows they're lying little dorks and MUST be carefully supervised and have their claims verified. While it's sad their little girl was killed, there's definitely some fault on the parents.
Plus how could the girl not even say anything?!
@@Clay3613 Bc I highly doubt that every 6 year old fully understands the concept of the safety belt. Also a note to the parents thing: Who knows if they were even with her on the ride? It it quite a scary ride for some people. As a kid my parents weren't going to set a foot in these things, so alone in there I went.
@@Fox_on_a_Rollercoaster But who let's a 6 year old not just go on this ride alone, but into the very dark building alone. Plus, most rides have restrictions of children under a certain age can't ride alone. 🤨
@@Fox_on_a_Rollercoaster I knew how to change a tire on a car at the age of six. I damn sure knew what a seatbelt was for. This is just a darwin award. Open the ride back up.
@@Fox_on_a_Rollercoaster I feel like most 6 year olds are at least familiar with riding in cars and the presence of seatbelts in them. Unless, due to poor parenting, they aren't taught to wear seatbelts in the car either.
I feel that if I were in that situation as the ride operator and then this incident happened, it would continue to torment me, having me wonder if only I had noticed. It's truly sad case from all aspects.
Thank you for sharing details on this. I always hope that ride operators as well as people who work on generic training, watch these videos and learn from them.
Having clear repeatable instructions for any system, is always very valuable.
You can just tell how much effort you put into these videos each day! Never stop posting!
Thank you!
The fact that they even went and re-checked all of the restraints and still missed the child... So so so sad and messed up for everyone involved. This is so tragic. But I have to ask---- WHY is a drop tower only secured by a seatbelt?!?! Most modern rides have over-the-shoulder restraints. This is so so upsetting!!!
the seatbelts are fine the Tower of Terror at all disney parks have only seatbelts and they are fine but its just cause the ride ops didnt throughly check this restraint
Isle so, it Knott mini seats two check. You should ant make a Ms. Steak own a large come pass sit tea coaster,but it makes a little Moore cents two Ms. Some thing.
Diss tower has like five seats indie
Alarm went off.
@@iwkaoy8758 I had a stroke trying to read this omfg
@@brandonjc13 Took me a little while, but I think I got it: "Also, it's not many seats to check. You shouldn't make a mistake on a large capacity coaster, but it makes a little more sense to miss something. This tower has like five seats and the alarm went off."
Tower of terror is a seatbelt. They are perfectly safe when done correctly. Ontop of that stating over the shoulder restraints are safer is a false opinion look what happened in Orlando
I really feel for the ride operators, I've had a highly repetitive job and after doing the same task several dozen times, you start to feel like you've mastered the task, even if you make continue to make mistakes. I'm rather thankful that nobody's life depended on what I did.
I'm truly having a difficult time trying to comprehend how the girl's seat belt being under her and not secured across her lap was missed by TWO separate people at multiple different points. I'm not a ride operator myself yet I would have thought it would be a no-brainier that the first thing you would do before dispatching a ride would be to look and make sure each guest has their restraint on correctly. And what's more I would think that her size and age would warrant closer attention from the ride operators as you can't expect a small child to understand the restraints and their importance which in turn introduces the potential for them to be used incorrectly. The whole thing is just a horrific tragedy and my heart goes out to all involved including the attendants who were clearly victims of circumstance. My only hope is that the lessons learned in the wake of this incident prevent something like this from ever happening again.
I didn't understand why they did make her stand up since it was specifically her seat setting of the error. Had they had her stand up and checked the seat out they would have seen the belt was under her. Again it goes back to lack of training. This is very sad for all involved 😢
@@Rogersbabyforever exactly!! They should have made her stand up 😡 very infuriating to say the least.
She a six year old. Where was her parents.
@@Rogersbabyforever Not just training but common damn sense. You check and double check! Especially with someone that young.
@@melanielazare9 She might have been with an older sibling, friend or family member. My boys ride together all the time and I wait outside of the ride. This is why it’s even more important that the operators do their job thoroughly.
What is really frustrating about this accident is that too many people and media outlets are quick to blame the restraint type itself as the main cause of the accident. If the restraint had actually been secured as intended, this whole ordeal could've been avoided.
THAT BEING SAID, I think it is fair to say that if the seatbelt was made to be *a little* easier to check, like how for instance Disney's ToT has its belts covered in a neon yellow fabric to make them more visible, it'll help solve that issue.
I'm not the type who thinks all rides should have hard shoulder restraints (if anything, I am in full support of minimalistic restraint types), but even I have to admit that there are things that can be done to the belt in order to make it easier to check, and it isn't unfair to square a *very tiny* fraction of the blame on it.
This. I went to ride Dinosaur at Disney. When the ride first started moving, I did not have it in yet. However there was a stop before the true ride to check to pull the yellow. Luckily I had mine plug in before I got to that step, but that double check is highly responsible
I love this series, learning about how these accidents can be avoided. I, a normal GP at any theme park, had no idea how in depth safety truly was until I started watching this series. This is so sad. Did she not realize she needed the seatbelt?
She was 6 and probably learned that seatbelts aren't important as long as she can get away with looking like she had it on. Child probably did this countless times with her parents in the car, taking off her seatbelt because it was uncomfortable, but pulling it over her lap to "look" like she had it on to avoid getting in trouble..
@@danikinzstar So sad and unfortunate this happened.
She was 6 and clearly sitting on the belts, she should not have been allowed on the ride. Even if she was tall enough. secondly no one really checked her.
The operators should not have been required to operate the ride through trial and error! Also, let this be a warning to anyone riding any type of ride: *DO NOT RIDE IF YOU HAVE TO HOLD THE RESTRAINTS CLOSED!* Or if you have to hold onto the restraints to stay *inside* the vehicle.
I saw this video just after a major RUclips channel did a video on the park which chose not to talk about this accident. Thank you for this factual and professional video.
I don't understand how a family member didn't realize the child wasn't in their restraints, because they're usually super focused on their kid's restraints rather than their own.
@Chad Meckstroth Weird. We don't allow children under the age of 7 on our rides without a person 14 or older to accompany them. Pretty sure there's a state law or something that prevents us.
@Chad Meckstroth was with uncle and cousins
That's what I was thinking. When my son rides ANYTHING, I double check restraints every single time. I can't imagine not making sure it's put on correctly. If the child was riding alone that's a different story, but how no one noticed she was sitting ON the seatbelt...I don't understand.
Loading is sometimes rushed, and we often trust the ride operators to know how the restraints work.
@@karenelizabeth1590 Not often enough. I wish I had a dollar for every time (before I had even started to check the restraints) someone had said their restraint or their child's restraint was too tight, especially when there's a visible gap between them and their restraint. Like actually no, it needs to be tighter.
This reminds me a lot like that plane that crashed into the Everglades decades ago, we're all the pilots were so focused on the broken light in the cabin that they stopped paying attention to flying the plane. Obviously, it looks like the operators were vigilance in doing what they were trying to do, but they got so fixated on the pins and the computer that they all fail to check to see if everyone was actually secured into their seat. Of course, this is not completely all on the ride operators. Situational awareness and resource management is vital two operating a ride safely, and it is on the ride owners to ensure that this training happens. Looking at this laughably brief Manuel, it's obvious that the park was cutting corners on safety training, which is absolutely appalling in the year 2021. What a horrible incident, and what a horrible thing for everyone there to have witnessed.
This is it. So many people using hindsight to be like "well why didn't they do x?" "i woulda done x", it's easy to say that after you know what happened. The fact that two seperate people checked and double checked doesn't seem at all negligent on the operators part. Makes me think they got so tunnel visioned on the error that they were thinking "problem with machine" not "kid not strapped in". Like, ironically, the machine didn't detect she wasn't strapped in either, the machine was merely detecting it hadn't been released and clipped in again since the last run.
Hindsight makes everything so easy, but in the heat of the moment, making a simple assumption like "everyone is buckled in, i have checked, but the machine is still making an error" is perfectly reasonable, and anyone saying otherwise is fooling themselves. I have thoughts like "maybe I'd have made everyone unclip and stand up and readjust" but I'm also aware I'd have no idea what I'd have ACTUALLY done in the moment, especially without the hindsight of a death. Literally everyone alive has done something in their life where it's like "i should have done it this way instead" but sadly this was tied to a death for these operators.
Yeah, that manual gives me no confidence in that park and I will never go to that park. The thing that boggles me though is that nobody thought to ask the child to unbuckle their seatbelt and stand up. And I guess that goes to show that the practice so many rides have where they tell you to pull on the strap of the seatbelt is an inadequate safety measure since it can be foiled simply by someone sitting on the seatbelt
I've been on rides where they've asked me to raise my arms and they have manually checked to make sure the seatbelt was in its proper place around me.
how can you even pull the strap to check it when the kid was sitting on it?
I got the impression that she sat down on the seatbelt a second time.
I want to point out number 7 of the operating procedure of that manual “visually check to confirm that each passenger has seatbelt over their lap”
I like that the ride has the thing to stop it if the belt hasn’t been cycled. I wish it didn’t take something like this, but I’m sure now if you get this error on a similar ride they’d make you leave the seat. But I like that you stand up for these operators- it would need to be a hard-written rule that is trained into their daily routine for it to happen. I feel so badly not only for the family of the child but for the operators who are definitely going to be beating themselves up for this for quite some time.
I live in Colorado. Adventure Park is my *favorite* theme park in the state, but they really need to ensure that nothing like this *ever* happens again. This was SO tragic and it's upsetting that it was also so avoidable.
3 pages of operator manuals? i needed 1200 hours of school and to take a written AND hands-on test to WORK IN A HAIR SALON! that manual is an utter disgrace.
I can't imagine what the operators felt when they realized a rider fell. That feeling isn't something that'll likely ever go away. My heart goes out to them and the family of that little girl.
I am revisiting your series, and after doing a bit of digging it appears that the ride has been rethemed and reworked as Crystal Caverns, with the entire ride vehicle being caged and likely some other safety steps taken. However, the fact that this occurred at all and the fact that the park was so quiet about the reworking and reopening of the ride seems at least mildly concerning to me.
As someone who's from Colorado and has been to Glenwood Caverns multiple times I think some important context for this park is that the actual "amusement" part of it is very much an add-on to the main attraction: the titular caverns. They operate it with the intentions of it being another way to get people to stick around and spend money, not as the top priority. So with that in mind, it's unfortunately not surprising that their training for their staff and their guests' safety isn't their top priority.
Having been in the caves and knowing how pitch-black it is (if you haven't been in a cave it's darker than anything you've likely experienced- it's darker than a dark room at night) and how cold it is I don't want to imagine what this girl experienced. This is the definition of the term "tragically avoidable". It's beyond tragic.
Thanks for covering this. It bothers me that people keep blaming the ride itself. The ride did not malfunction and is not inherently dangerous when operated properly.
So the park is more at fault than the operators are due to the vagueness.
Also I feel as if the parents should have been on the ride with her, they probably would have been able to tell the operators that she was sitting on the seatbelt rather than it being over her.
Thanks for explaining this tragedy properly because it was reported so badly in the media. It's so sad and it could of been avoided with the proper material. I just hope everyone got psychological help afterwards
Everything was in place to prevent this and it still happened. I can only imagine the horror for those operators, family and other guests who were there. Prayers for all of those involved.
My boyfriend used to work at this park, and said they had previously allowed things that were not safe to happen. The fact that they allowed him onto a rollercoaster when he has no legs and he had to hold himself into the seat the entire time is scary enough. It makes a lot more sense now that their operator manuals are only 2 and a half pages.
I wonder if the parents were with her on the ride. I'd be surprised if they were and didn't do something like tug on their daughters seatbelt when the operators came back for her seat. there's not really anything wrong with sending your kid alone on a ride, but this is really unfortunate
You guys clearly didn’t read the news articles. She was not unsupervised, she was with an aunt, uncle, and cousins. So the guardians were dealing with multiple kids here and it slipped their mind to check the seatbelts for themselves
@@NekoCat999 I do think it's a little odd that they wouldn't specifically start checking things out if the ride operators came back to check that specific seat multiple times though. But it's a moment of oversight, I don't blame the guardians or the ride ops solely. Many sad factors, and I'm sure the guilt eats away at all of the people involved.
I can’t believe this popped up on my feed two days after another drop tower incident where I live in Orlando. That case has its own faults. I’m glad this channel is exploring the whole picture here, the multiple failures that lead to this incident.
This just reinforces to me that I need to do with my kids what my parents did for me. From the age I was old enough to ride thrill rides, I was on them. But my parents gave me a "roller coaster safety" lesson. They taught me how to properly buckle myself in to each ride (we basically always went to the local park), to pull on my restraints to check the locks and tightness, and to not hesitate to yell for a ride attendant if I felt something was wrong or needed help. They told me its important to secure and check my own restraints because people can make mistakes. They would watch me buckle and check myself before they would double check me, then they would secure themselves.
Its also shocking how short that ride manual is. My friend now works at the park I grew up going to and I saw his manual copy for the new ride he had been transferred to. It was at least 75 pages, and this was for a very small, single operator, train going 8mph around a loop with a tiny bump toddler ride. In the event of total power, everything's gone nuclear failure, his ride is small, slow, and weak enough to be manually stopped by just pushing the front or back car off the rails that sit 3in from the ground. His little baby ride, that extremely easy to operate, extremely safe by nature, and can even just be brute forced by the operator into an emergency stop with basically no threat of injury had a novella for a manual....and they had 3 pages.
I don't doubt that the lack of a better manual played a part in this tragedy, but I'm aghast that multiple ride operators failed to notice a passenger on top of the seat belts. Were they informed to rush through the process due to a long line? Was it too dark to properly see?
Taking a look at the loading shots (such as 4:09), it looks like the major functional light sources are the flourescents on either side of the ride. Those are partially blocked by the sides of the ride vehicle, and would be further blocked by, say, an adult on either side of the seat in question (which, based on the numbering, was likely in the middle). The decorative "oil" lamps don't look like they put out enough light to meaningfully aid ride ops.
Although it's not stated here (likely because the information is not public), if the girl had been wearing dark clothes where the restraint wouldn't stand out against the colors, that could also have been a factor.
Look, I know the girl was 6 and it’s bad to speak of the dead…
But 3 year-olds know about seatbelts, it sounds awful but I see this as entirely the childs fault or her parents for teaching her to ignore seatbelts.
When I was 5, I always insisted on putting on my seatbelt for safety in the car.
This kid purposely didn’t wear the seatbelt and was old enough that the parents should have tought her better.
Yes, the ride ops job is supposed to check all the seatbelts, but for the kid to think it’s okay to sit ontop of seatbelts….🤦♀️
@@mro4ts457 my friend she was 6 years old probably excited to be getting onto a fun and scary ride (in her perspective, at least) let's not call it the small child's fault when the real fault lies on whoever was charged with training the ops. That's where the fault really lies, not on the undertrained ops and certainly not on a 6 year old who's brain is still incapable of understanding what consequences are.
@@BoxOKittens
I’m not saying it’s really all the little girls fault.
Yes, the ride ops are at fault, but also the parents/gaurdians didn’t teach their child about safety restraints before getting on a ride?
As a parent myself, I wonder where the parents/gaurdians were and why they taght their child to ignore/sit ontop of seatbelts instead of always strapping-in?
There were multiple ways this sad event should have been prevented, very unfortunate for the little girl who lost her life.
@@mro4ts457 I think you need to go back and re read our comments lol
that operator manual is horrifying. i picked up the habit of collecting manuals (i learned english by reading them, they hold a weird sentimental value to me) and from the ones within my reach the mauals were 88 pages long (sewing machine) abridged 10 pages long (tablet, with the full manual available as a pdf ) 35 pages (toaster). if you'd ask me to summarise any of them into 3 pages to hand to someone who'd never used any of them I'd spit in your eye.
i feel the blame for this accident lies solely on woever made the decision to only train operators on the sparknotes edition. that's an insane kind of negligence
I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING!!!! Pause the video at 3:26. Page one, "Operating Procedures" #7: VISUALLY CHECK TO COMFIRM THAT EACH PASSENGER HAS SEATBELT OVER THEIR LAP. I'm not posting this to point fault at the ride operators, I just decided to read it, and noticed it.
the trauma that this operators have to endure for the rest of their lives is just really sad
If you can’t figure out that you need to make sure the seatbelt needs to go over someone’s lap, then how can you use an inadequate manual as an excuse?
You wouldn’t be able to understand a more complex manual anyway
I won't slander the ride operators for not knowing the things that should have been told to them in their training, but I would like to point out that it doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to notice whether or not a rather large black strip of fabric is resting on top of someone's legs. The fact that not one, but two people missed this, even after an error involving that specific seat, boggles my mind. Great video though!
The girl might have been wearing dark clothing. The area is propably not very well lit either. And maybe the operators were guys and didn't dare to really check the seatbelt because of possible pedo lawsuits ...
@@Robbedem the first part is actually a good point, I didn't think about that.
It sounds like on visual inspection, the rider _did_ have a large black strip of fabric on her legs. The problem was what they saw was the _loose end_ of the buckled belt around her. The rider didn't understand her seat belt was already buckled, and pulled the loose part of the belt around her waist and that fooled the operator. I suspect the operators didn't make it a practice to dig fingers into people's waists to pull on the belt. It's just sad they knew what seat had the problem and they didn't take the time after it was identified to then inspect it thoroughly. It seems like a guest sitting down on top of a buckled belt would be an obvious thing that confused riders might do - that should have been a scenario defined in the manual.
They knew what seat was the problem - at minimum they should have asked her to try to stand up to _verify_ if she was being restrained. If they couldn't figure out the fault, then the procedure should be all seats are unlocked, _everyone_ physically disembarks, inspect and unlock _every_ belt, then everyone re-boards and re-locks to see if the fault happens again.
Not many seats to check but yet they failed. Who else can you blame here? The ride operators!! RIP little girl…..
Personally I don't see how they could have missed the girl sitting on her seatbelt when they unlocked and relocked the restraints multiple times and checked each one themselves???
It's not the most well lit area. In my (completely worthless) opinion, the seatbelts should have been a florescent color to make them easier to notice when not in place. Other parks do this with tape or paint.
Agree! And they knew the culprit was seat 3. Wild.
@@CoasterCollege I agree, better visibly of the restraints in such a dark place could have helped to avoid this accident, hopefully it's something they take into account before the ride reopens, if it does reopen.
I honestly can't imagine being an operator and having to deal with the very real trauma this has caused them. PTSD ocurrs with even some of the seemingly minor amusement park incidents. We fail to track them properly in the US and we fail to have propper legislation in place to do so largely because of the parks not wanting to have to pay money to follow new regulations. Sometimes people say that it just seems there's more incidents than there are, but in reality I believe the problem is much more widespread than we knew and because everyone now has phones and cameras and can communicate across borders.
Thank you for your respect to the operators, I feel like too many people give unnessary grief to people after accidents.
I love your channel. Whenever someone says "i think roller coasters / thrill rides are dangerous because (insert accident name here) and i can link then one of your videos and it almost always changes their mind! Keep making informatuive dvideoers!
boy, I cannot tell you how relieved I am to see Worlds and Oceans of Fun on that map. I live in KC and my sister's family always has season passes and park hopper passes to the parks. those parks helped me create some very special memories with the people I care about. it brings great peace of mind to know that they care about proper training.
I’m here after the Wendover Productions partnership thanks to a helpful comment for more info
I work in a career where safety is incredibly important and when explaining procedures in training we use an abstract concept called safety barriers. A safety barrier could be anything, it could be a procedure or it could be a literal alarm, but the idea is you only need one safety barrier to be triggered to prevent disaster, so even if 5 things fail the 6th one can save the day. It's disheartening to see how few of those barriers were mandated by the manual, there clearly just wasn't enough thought put into "what could go wrong." There were way too few things that had to go wrong for this to happen. I think the suggestion from the creator of bright seatbelts is a good start that could have prevented this, but there's so much more that needs to be in place. When dealing with something this dangerous it's not enough to just say check the seatbelts and use common sense. Frankly, it's disturbing that a park could be allowed to operate like this in 2021.
Pretty amazing that one of the safety systems built in requires *every* restraint to be cycled before dispatch in order to motivate ride operators to actually go check them. It's unfortunate that no matter how much foresight goes into designing rides, accidents still happen.
Would love if you were able to cover the Adventureland accidents on the Raging River in Iowa. I live nearby and it literally made me sick. So grateful that they FINALLY shut that old ride down after the two incidents.
That's on the list!
This was entirely preventable and those responsible should face negligent homicide charges. I’m not talking about the operators, I’m talking about those responsible for training their operators.
So no blame for the girl who deliberately evaded wearing the seatbelt or her parents/guardians?
@@CLR2TKF She was 6. 6 year olds are not exactly known for their good judgement or rational thinking. As for her guardians: It was dark, and it looked as though she was buckled in at first glance, as the video describes.
@@CLR2TKF not to be crass, but 6-year-old girl is dead. Kinda hard to prosecute her for anything
@@CLR2TKF are you fucking kidding? It's literally the operators job to do this. Not anyone else's. Not you sitting here trying to blame the 6 years old victim and her parents. What the fuck
the bulk of the fault lies with the park and their ride ops training, no doubt. but how did the people around the little girl miss that she wasn't strapped in properly? even if the ops missed it, the other riders also could have noticed. yet somehow none of them did, and it ended in tragedy. this is why i don't think kids that young should be riding alone - ops can be under a lot of stress to get loads out and can forget things because they're human too. at least with someone else responsible for the child with eyes on them, this may not have happened.
@Lucas Lucas man you're in every comment. This was operator error **as a result of poor training**, it's not like the ops went "yes let me kill this child today"
@Lucas Lucas They were probably fired, I doubt they got off "scot free."
@Lucas Lucas the only people who should be held liable are the park owners. Strip them of their assets, make payment to those affected, and charge them with negligent homicide
Cause how you gonna expect strangers to be looking out for your child? Especially better than you should be? That’s not their job.
@@sunshinefine1886 Their job as park employees is to enforce height and weight requirements, and to double check that latches are properly locked.
But ultimately I agree with you. Pretty much nobody will love a child as much as their own parents, so parents need to be proactive and not trust that others will actually do their job.
Edited because I thought I was responding to a comment on a different video.
Most restraints on rides like this are designed so that it's impossible for a rider to sit on top of the restraint. Six Flags Great Adventure had an accident on Lightning Loops, where a rider sat on top of the over the shoulder restraint and was ejected from the ride. The restraints on Lightning Loops, as well as Great American Scream Machine, which used the same trains, included replacing the handles with large hoops so that a rider could never sit on top of the restraint again.
I just can’t imagine how traumatizing it would be as one of the staff when this happened, or one of the other guests on that same car… even the people waiting in line. I mean of course that’s other than the family and friends of the girl lost. That’s obviously horrible. But I just sit and wonder what that did to so many people that day. I thought I was falling out of a Larson Looper when I was 8 at a rinky dink fair and that made me not ride another upside ride for almost 10 years. To be there when someone literally is ejected from their seat and killed and it was a little girl…. Just like the little boy at Schlitterbahn… just horrifying. My thoughts are with them all.
My question is you mentioned that the restraints need to be recycled after every ride but without include the seatbelts too? I mean I know for Tower of Terror the seat belts are probably more technologically advanced. I've been on this ride and I can't remember though if the seat belts are like on a sensor or anything like that.
If they are how do they recycle the ride restraints without undoing the seatbelt should not have given an error still? Or is there something in the system where they can just clear out all the errors?
I do know that they are putting in new restraints and things like that for this ride. I had heard someone mention about that they were going to put a cage around at 2:00 and they're going to have a new type of show and lighting down in the bottom to have like a cooler show so that will be exciting.
Honestly too about being vague on the restraints and the seat belts even though it is kind of dark in there I would have checked to make sure that the seat belts were actually going over the Riders again it's vague in the operations manual what you're supposed to do. I mean they pulled the tail of the belt but it should have been in a way where they're like oh hey this is not even hooked around the person they're sitting on it. I just find it hard to believe they didn't know that it wasn't hooked around her.
But after this incident I mean like I said they're updating restraints and stuff but they should definitely do more training and tell them to visually inspect to make sure that their seat belt is hooked around them and not them just sitting on it.
Also parents need to be more responsible too. I say this because I took my son to Six Flags Magic Mountain when he was six. He was tall enough to get on all the rides however he was skinny, he was a child. Rides that I didn’t like how they fit across his lap especially rides with loops I took him off. I decided this as his Mom and told him he can get on the when he’s bigger. I didn’t rely on the park I used my mothers intuition and I had him was I was a teenager myself so I don’t want to hear that age stuff. My heart goes out to the little girl and everyone involved. I’m just praying 🙏🏾 a parent will read this. You as a parent check your kids restraints yourself.
I’ve been on a ride before where my restraints weren’t checked. It wasn’t busy, it was a very small funfair that was part of a caravan park for the bank holiday. It was at the end of the Monday, but it was also not really active all day (we could see it from the caravan). The ride was a jumping frog style ride, and was right next to the sea. When me and my cousin got on, he originally began checking every seat, including ones that weren’t filled, before my sister hailed them and asked a question in a different cart. The lap bars were our only safety protection and they could only be locked from the outside. When he went back to locking and checking seats, he went the opposite way and completely blanked our cart. He then got in the control centre and began to start the ride. Me and my cousin were trying to flag down the operator, along with my mum and aunt, who were next to the ride and could see that our cart wasn’t secured. I managed to use my foot to secure it enough that we wasn’t ejected from the ride, and the two of us held onto solid parts of the cart just in case it came undone.
Luckily, no problems occurred, but the negligence was awful and could have flung us straight up in the air and back down into the still moving ride, or the shallow seabed depending on the angle. Either way, serious injuries would have occurred. I’m so glad that the lock I half put in and kept my foot on held, and nothing happened, but it was a horrible feeling to think any moment, we could have been ejected from the ride.
Operators aside, where on gods green earth were the parents? The fact that the kid was too young to realize how a bloody seatbelt worked means she was too young to be riding alone. Whoever was in charge of that girl should be found just as guilty as the operators.
Which as you mentioned prior to 3:50 in the introduction, they DID NOT do number 4, this they did not abide by this guide thus the operator is at fault as they did not do number 4, Pull the Seatbelt over the passenger, so yes Operator was at fault as clearly by your introduction you have already convicted them.
I dunno man. Sure the training was lacking, but if these people couldn’t use their eyeballs and see that the girl was on top of the seatbelt, that’s absolutely a serious personal error on their part. No amount of training can prevent that
You're criticizing the manual but I mean if ride operators had just followed #4 in the operating procedures section about pulling the seat-belt OVER the passenger and insert into the restraint block., wouldn't this accident have been prevented???
Another great video with all the information laid out clearly.
While I had hear about this incident a few times before I don't recall hearing that the seat had been empty the cycle before. Which answers my question of how were the belts done under the guest?
Thank you for all the diligence you do in making these videos, cause even the little things help make a clearer picture
Wow this was truly an unfourture accident, People on t RUclips and MSM blaming the operators not the park itself as outstanding,the operators were out in a rock and hard place by Glen Wood caverns, Not knowing Error codes or knowing that the buttons do is a terrible way to run an amusment park I feel for these operators as this accident could’ve been prevented if the Park wasn’t trying to cut corners with Manuel and proper procedures are layed out by manufacturing, I don’t know the law in Colorando, but here in NJ each park is required to have manuel that ride manufacturer has written and provided with safe operations no expections, I put full blame on Glen Wood Cavens Ride Manager(not the operators)for having terrible training and ignoring a large part of amusement park safety, as being a ride op this broke my heart knowing a little girl suffered and MSM and RUclipsrs blaming operators despite never having work in a park before, but otherwise great video explaining what happen
I know this happened a year ago but i went there a day before this happened and sat in seat 2. My dad rode with me and he held me down the whole way down. it is sad that the little girl has passed😢
I haven't heard of this until this video. So sad all around and sounds preventable. I've never been a ride operator, so my view is different and I'm glad to hear from others who have been operators. From an outsider view I think they did everything they were supposed to do. To me, a second operator cross checks the first one. I'm glad you clarified the steps that the park should take to correct this or what was lacking. That's something I wouldn't have known and clearly this situation made it apparent. Aside from trying to find blame on parks, manuals, and training I want to know who joined the child on the ride. Even if she is a sole rider, did someone walk up to the ride with the child? There is a guardian responsibility of safety. I always check my kids (and others if I'm near them). I would model how mine should look and ask how theirs looks/feels for someone so young. IMO, this is a form of neglect, not a ride/park issue. The operators and families have so much tragedy to deal with. 💔
I understand how tragic it is that a child lost their life. But as someone who has 5 siblings who enjoy amusement parks, I would never get on anything without also checking to make sure the little one was secured. You mean to tell me a parent or guardian was next to them and couldn't see that the child didn't have on a seatbelt? It should also be common sense that you need a restraint on a ride even for a child. My 5 year old brother is a daredevil but won't ride anything if he feels like he can fall out of it or it's loose. It's instinctual. Like....I just never understand accidents like this where no blame is placed on the rider, especially when there is evidence that multiple people were trying to check for the issue.
Exactly & I’m not 100% sure if baby girl was riding alone or not, but if she was with family, how did they fail to realize she wasn’t buckled in the same way they were?
@@aprils9795 that’s what I’m saying like….we wanna have fun but we also don’t want to die in the process.
Good video, I’m glad that my clip was able to help make this.
While I do agree that the Manuel needed a much clearer order of operations/pattern, I do have a Point of order: #7 on page 1 says “Visually check to confirm that all passengers have a seatbelt OVER their lap.”
That being said, having a specific, repeatable pattern for securing riders should include all important parts of those safety steps, so the operators don’t have to remember each thing each time, rather it just becomes habit/reflex they don’t have to think about. Checking for the belt actually securing the person should 1000% be one of them. I love the idea of standardizing all of those types of training. Lessens the human error risk…
This is why I never wanted to work as a ride operator at an amusement park. I’ve either preferred costumed character (face), prize/game counter attendant, or off hours maintenance. No one dies as a result of my errors. Great video!
2:47 What? Sorry, but it's 100 percent the operators' fault. This is exactly what the seatbelt check is for, missing the fact that she wasn't properly restrained is inexcusable.
thank you!
How in the world do you not notice she’s not buckled when then both checked multiple times… come on now… this voice over says he won’t tolerate the crew being talked down… but if they don’t know what an error is or means, and if they can’t see a rider isn’t buckled multiple time, how in the hell do they tie their own shoes??? I’m not talking down on them, but damn, so preventable
The operation manual clearly states to, “visually check to confirm that each passenger has seatbelt over their lap.”
And that’s the final step#7 in operating procedures.
While I do not condone the harassment of individuals, I do believe all individuals should be held responsible from the top to bottom
Like the steps that were highlighted in the video even said, “pull the seatbelt over the passenger and insert rod into the restraint block. Gently tighten seatbelt against my passenger and repeat step for each passenger” clearly indicates what the operators were supposed to do.
The interpretation of this seems pretty clear to me of how things were supposed to be handled versus what actually happened.
As a former SFOT Ride Operator if an error was received that could not be cleared by repeating the loading procedure. I would unload everyone until Ride Maintenance fixed issue (s) that caused error. At times seasoned Ride Operators would tell me, " oh this is what you do to bypass the error." I would immediately respond with, "NO I CAN'T DO THAT! The consequences for poor judgement weren't great. That's why I only lasted a summer season plus being outside all day wasn't as much fun as I once remembered.
It's right there in #7: "Confirm that each passenger has seatbelt over their lap." You repeatedly noted that the operators failed to notice that the victim's seatbelt wasn't "over their lap." Assuming they had the manual and could read English, how is this not operator error?
THANK you. I mean I agree that they're not the only ones at fault, but how could they fail to check this multiple times?
Exactly. I thought the same thing. This is inadequate employee training and the trainer and employee should be held accountable. It's the trainers job to make sure their employees know how to do their job.
Thank you for saying exactly what I was thinking when this story first broke. I hate when people point fingers at the employees or the parents in situations like this when the park owners are meant to set the guidelines.
Where the heck were her parents or the adult that was with her. I would never get on a ride with my child or let them get on a ride with an adult that wouldn't separately check their seatbelt when they're only SIX years old. So sad. This was completely avoidable. All adults involved in this situation failed the child.
Probably was ant width her. Most pea pole don't know diss is a extreme ride from de out side,but it's steel stupid two let a six year old walk through a queue line a lone. I dought diss happened wild de parents was next two her.
I can't help but feel like the fact that these seatbelts tend to be black might also be a contributing factor to how this accident played out.
I mean, they would have been working in a dimly lit area as it was and a black strap might not be easy to see - especially not if the rider is wearing dark clothing, too (not all girls like to wear pink).
It might have helped the operators to have at least a reflective strip sewn through all seatbelts so that you have a continuous line to quickly and easily look for... the contrast should be easy to spot against most clothing and in dimly lit locations.
I'd be traumatized for life and not to mention guilty for the rest of my life had I been one of the operators that missed the seat belt issue. I can't imagine what they or the child's family went through 😔
Thanks for the map at the end. I'm going to Canada's Wonderland on Thursday and it was nice to have a little bit of relief and assuredness after watching this video.
It's pretty shocking that the ride operators checked so many times and failed to see that the girl was sitting on the seatbelt. For that reason, I'd have to say that Inattention was the predominant factor here. That probably has to do with having a job that requires such repetitive motions and the fatigue associated with jobs like this. Even MORE shocking to me was the lack of any type of secondary restraint, as operator error and seatbelt restraint failure (due to wear and tear) are both forseeable events, so a secondary restraint just seems natural -- even a minimal one. I had no idea the girl was totally and completely unsecured in the ride.
I don't know why but this was one of the hardest park accident videos I've ever watched. The slow horrible build up as they checked and checked again but never realized. I feel sick.
I can't imagine the operator manual being 3 pages. I temporarily operated a carousel at local science center and even the manual I had to read beforehand was long than that and I had previous attendants help teach me before leaving it in my care! It makes me so mad to think about this because it is so clearly the fault of the park and those responsible for teaching their operators! And I can't even believe how recent this was! It's shocking to know that negligence like this still happens. They need to do better and I hope they will because stuff like this is unacceptable. That poor girl and everyone who was there when it happened. If I were the operators, I know I would probably never work as any ride operator again after that personally. The trauma and grief and shock that everyone there must have felt...how terrible... /srs /gen
That’s sad. Im glad you do these videos tho for ppl that say negative things about rare amusement park deaths. My gf won’t ride drop towers no more because of that so I had her watch this video. Your content is more help then you know.
I'm astonished none of the instructions mention anything at all about looking at the passengers' laps. They put the entire focus on the bars being in the correct position, on top of not saying boo about the error messages.
I feel so badly for everyone involved. I'd not heard of this. Such a sad story.
Actually I did notice that the final step in the operating procedures is “Visually check to confirm that each passenger has seatbelt over their lap”. But yeah the whole situation with the error codes and stuff is a mess. Can’t believe that’s not in the manual. Ugh this is all just so sad….and I can’t believe how recent it was
This one broke my heart. So sorry for the family, but I'm sorry for the park too. Accidents like this have killed parks in the past.
It has everything to do wirh the adults this Child came on with.
How come the adults that were with this child didint check if she put on her seat belt. I check my kids before every ride leaves prob 5 times
Make a rule that you need to get a supervisor to the road to bypass the safety. And for goodness sake, a six year old no matter her height, should not be able to ride alone. Where was the parents or older siblings to help the poor kid
6yrs old and didn't realize using a seatbelt on a coaster ride was a good idea?
Darwin doesn't care for age.
She was a kid. Her brain wasn’t fully developed yet. Kids do stupid things. That’s why the official Darwin Awards website disqualifies young children from being candidates for a Darwin Award: little kids are simply too young to understand deadly risks.
I cannot imagine not checking my child myself. We have been to a few parks and if the young ones qualify for and want to ride some of the more wild rides I feel it's MY job to make sure they are strapped latched and ready. I'm even looking at any other kids near me as instinct.
Did she ride alone?
I told a mother on Jurassic Park to hold onto her kid before the drop, as he was tiny and the whole row lap bar level was dependent on the largest rider in the row. There was a huge gap between the child and the restraint. The mother COMPLETELY ignored me, so I ended up wrapping my arms around HER child before the drop. She looked and saw me do it, and still said nothing. Tbh most parents would get annoyed at a stranger cradling their child, never mind ignoring someone expressing their concern for them!
Even after the drop she didn't so much as smile at me or say thanks. I'm glad I did what I did though, and I'd do it again.