Alton Towers- Potentially Fatal Fault

black-saturn

A similar thing happened to one of my daughters at Legoland. She was sitting on a ride which was just starting up. I was standing at the side watching and I noticed that her seatbelt wasnt done up. So I start screaming at the ride operator like a maniac and everyone was staring at me because loud music was playing and he couldnt hear me. Eventually they stopped the ride and did it up. I think if they hadnt she wouldnt have lived :eek:

lipidicman

zappomatic wrote:

The seatbelt on such rides is just a backup and to reassure nervous people - many rides with similar "over the shoulder" restraints don't even have seat belts. It's easy to undo those seat belts as you only have to flip a flap up, it can even be done accidentally. This is nothing to worry about though I can see why it could cause concern to those who aren't in the know.

This is spot on. I like to have the belt on in case the locking mechanism is dodgy but lots of rides don't have this extra feature. I don't think you will get anywhere if you do attempt to persue this. Maybe if somebody had fallen out to their death....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4628856.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4377081.stm
...but even then, maybe not!

Astaroth

arthurx1234 wrote:

the belt was done up prior to the ride starting.From my experience of these rides they are over in liss than 60 secs and i cant remember looking down to see if my seat belt was fastened i was concentrating on hanging on and trying not to scream like a little girl
arthur

I ment after the ride - if he remembered it being "tested" before going I would imagine he would remember thinking it is odd after the rid had stopped that it was no longer fastened rather than noticing it during the ride itself.... go with the screaming... clears the lungs

juno

Astaroth wrote:

I ment after the ride - if he remembered it being "tested" before going I would imagine he would remember thinking it is odd after the rid had stopped that it was no longer fastened rather than noticing it during the ride itself.... go with the screaming... clears the lungs

I'd've just thought it undid automatically like the over the shoulder restraints do. Usually after a ride you're keen to jump off and run to the next one, or stagger off feeling sick etc, so it's not something you'd think about.

lipidicman

No, on this particular ride you have a metal clasp that you need to 'flip up' The belt would prevent the over shoulder from raising in the unlikely situation that the automatic locking of the shoulder restraints had failed. It is a secondary safety feature often absent from rides and therefore I would think, not an obligation

kuohu

I agree with previous posters, it is the over the shoulders support which keeps you in your seat. The aircraft seat belt type clasp at the bottom (on Nemesis) is purely cosmetic.

So no, it wasn't a technical fault or safety issue that the belt clasp was undone, but you could still email Alton Towers anyway if you would like their engineers to put your mind at rest. It would be interesting to read an official response if you could post an update in due course.

arthurx1234

kuohu wrote:

I agree with previous posters, it is the over the shoulders support which keeps you in your seat. The aircraft seat belt type clasp at the bottom (on Nemesis) is purely cosmetic.

So no, it wasn't a technical fault or safety issue that the belt clasp was undone, but you could still email Alton Towers anyway if you would like their engineers to put your mind at rest. It would be interesting to read an official response if you could post an update in due course.

Well the seat belt strap may be cosmetic according tom a few of you, however, the very same day the oblivion ride was halted because the heavy over the shoulder type of harness would not stay down--eventually the got it to stay down-did a test run with nobody on board --the harness stayed down, so it got the all clear and the next passengers were ushered onboard.
So i would say that the seat belt type strap is not cosmetic it stops you from sliding out under the heavy over the shoulder harness and also stops the aforementioned harness from realeasing totally and leaving the rider in the hands of gravity.
arthur

lipidicman

arthurx1234 wrote:

the very same day the oblivion ride was halted because the heavy over the shoulder type of harness would not stay down

Exactly, I think you will find that the ride will not run if the shoulder harness is not secured. The mechanism will prevent the ride from starting. It would also be extremely unlikely that you would be able to slip under the shoulder restraint. As I recall the strap is very short and the bit which sticks up between your legs from the seat is only a few inches from the bottom of the shoulder restraint.

For extra safety I do like the presence of the strap though, which is why I do it up and check it stays in place. I also often ask the operator to give my shoulder bar an extra push so it locks in one click tighter. Perhaps I shouldn't confess my liking for being tightly restrained so publicly though!

suekjw

lipidicman wrote:

Perhaps I shouldn't confess my liking for being tightly restrained so publicly though!

Don't worry - we won't tell!

kuohu

arthurx1234 wrote:

Well the seat belt strap may be cosmetic according tom a few of you,

Don't take our word for it. Email Alton Towers.

arthurx1234 wrote:

however, the very same day the oblivion ride was halted because the heavy over the shoulder type of harness would not stay down--eventually the got it to stay down-did a test run with nobody on board --the harness stayed down, so it got the all clear and the next passengers were ushered onboard.

As lipidman says, the over the shoulder harness is the actual safety device which is locked and sensed to be locked before the ride will move off.

arthurx1234 wrote:

So i would say that the seat belt type strap is not cosmetic it stops you from sliding out under the heavy over the shoulder harness and also stops the aforementioned harness from realeasing totally and leaving the rider in the hands of gravity.
arthur

If you look at the seat and harness design it is not possible to slide out under the shoulder harness. You can see photos on the net of the seats on Nemesis, a quick google found this:
http://www.towersdiscovered.co.uk/Rory&TheoSweeneyNemesisOnride.jpg

But again, rather than making assumptions yourself why not email Alton Towers and they will tell you. The safety of machinery is a top priority for any company and I am sure that Alton Towers is no exception.