Coaster Death at Six Flags Georgia

[acegear]

From FOXNews:

Man Dies After Riding Goliath Roller Coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia
Friday , July 28, 2006

AUSTELL, Georgia — A 45-year-old man died of an apparent heart attack after losing consciousness at the end of the newest roller coaster ride at Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park.
Firefighters were called to the park in Atlanta's western suburbs shortly before noon Thursday to help emergency medical services workers and park employees treat the man, who was in full arrest and not breathing, said Cobb County Fire Lt. Dan Dupree.
The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to a hospital, where he later was pronounced dead, Dupree said.
The man initially was conscious and alert during his ride on the park's newest roller coaster, Goliath, but was unconscious by the end of the ride, Six Flags spokeswoman Christy Poore said.
Poore said park workers stopped the ride, inspected it and reopened it after determining it was operating properly.
Goliath soars 200 feet over the park. The ride lasts just over three minutes and reaches speeds of 70 mph.

[figment1986]

Thats it.. i'm out of here... first gwazi ridder, and now a goliath ridder... in the same 7 day period

[2DieFR]

At least he died having the time of his life...

[SaraNoH]

Goliath has too many damn "g's" for its own good! Both of my friends completely blacked out on the ride while riding together, and I threw up when I exited the ride (which I have never done before after a ride!)

Also, the more you ride mega coasters, the more you up your chance of having massive brain hemorrhages . I stay away from those things, man, no good can come from them. LOL. (my personal opinion, of course)

[sir clinksalot]

^ They are talking about Goliath in Georgia not Goliath at SFMM. Goliath at SFOG has alot less forces than Goliath at SFMM.

Will be interesting to know if he already had HBP and ignored the signage on the ride.

[SaraNoH]

Originally Posted by sir clinksalot

^ They are talking about Goliath in Georgia not Goliath at SFMM. Goliath at SFOG has alot less forces than Goliath at SFMM.

Will be interesting to know if he already had HBP and ignored the signage on the ride.

I knew which one they were talking about. But seriously, can you REALLY think a coaster named "Goliath" has anything less than too many g's?
I'm trying to look up the difference of each ride through Google. I'd be curious to see the difference, if anybody knows off hand.

[Kaye]

It's sad that he had to go that way, I guess this is why my husband doesnt like to go on any rollercoasters he's afraid that its going to happen to him.. And he's never had a heart condition (knock on wood)

[lazyboy97O]

Goliath is just a name. The ride is incredibly smooth and if anything you experience more negative Gs than high positive ones.

As always though this is a sad event and sympathies should go out to the gentleman's friends and family.

[Hector]

Originally Posted by SaraNoH

Also, the more you ride mega coasters, the more you up your chance of having massive brain hemorrhages .

ummm... no.

[SaraNoH]

Originally Posted by Hector

ummm... no.

*shrug* maybe I am misinformed, but I did hear that information from a Discovery Channel coaster show, i didn't just make it up. Maybe they were being biased, I don't know.

Either way, I was just voicing an opinion. I can see this isn't my place anyway, among coaster fans. Sorry to disrupt the flow.

[lazyboy97O]

Originally Posted by SaraNoH

*shrug* maybe I am misinformed, but I did hear that information from a Discovery Channel coaster show, i didn't just make it up. Maybe they were being biased, I don't know.

And which show was that? Coasters can cause a physioloigcal response and trigger fear in the brain, but I have never heard Discovery claim they were dangerous. Actually, the recent show that had people being monitored while riding Mind Bender in Canada showed that the response wasn't really there amongst the coaster junkies.

[SaraNoH]

Originally Posted by lazyboy97O

And which show was that? Coasters can cause a physioloigcal response and trigger fear in the brain, but I have never heard Discovery claim they were dangerous. Actually, the recent show that had people being monitored while riding Mind Bender in Canada showed that the response wasn't really there amongst the coaster junkies.

I don't remember. And for all I know it might have been TLC or another educational channel that shows those "Extreme Rides" or whatever titles they have for those coaster shows. All I do remember is thinking, "woah, note to self, if you are gunna ride one of those, ride once, and that's it." LOL.

I don't hate roller coasters, nor do I condemn people for riding them, I simply want to make sure I stay away from frequent riding, based on what I have experienced, and from what I have heard from television shows. Call it ignorant, call me misinformed, call it whatever. *shrug*.

Sorry to the board for derailing the topic!
And getting back to topic, I do feel for the man and his family. These things are always so tragic and sad.

[tloolgb]

Originally Posted by SaraNoH

Goliath has too many damn "g's" for its own good! Both of my friends completely blacked out on the ride while riding together, and I threw up when I exited the ride (which I have never done before after a ride!)

I find that kinda suspect that you all got sick together on it. Sorry...but I do. You don't just balck out on a ride and wake up fine. Plus Goliath at SFoG is amazingly smooth, and does not have too many Gs for it's own good. It is perfectly designed. You want bad Gs you & your pals should have gone to Batman.

Originally Posted by SaraNoH

I'm trying to look up the difference of each ride through Google. I'd be curious to see the difference, if anybody knows off hand.

SFMM: Goliath. Made by Giovanola. Height= 235'. Drop = 255'.
SFoG: Goliath. Made by B&M. Height = 200'. Drop = 173'
(now the hypers that really are not hypers).
La Ronde: Goliath. Made by B&M. Height = 174'. Drop = 170'.
SFHolland (whatever it is now): Goliath. Made by Intamin. Height = 153'. Drop = 150'.

Originally Posted by SaraNoH

*shrug* maybe I am misinformed, but I did hear that information from a Discovery Channel coaster show, i didn't just make it up. Maybe they were being biased, I don't know..

I highly doubt any show on Rollercoaters, a show who's whole point is to promote these rides, said you'll die from riding it more than once.

Anyways, that is too bad. That is a string of bad luck. Gwazi, Goliath, Son Of Beast's incident...hmm. I blame it all on Final Destination 3.

[kelly]

my son had blacked out for a second on this ride in MM santa clarita.. but siad he would go on it again.. go figrue

[Hector]

I'm pretty sure she's talking about the Goliath at Magic Mountain, which has an extremely powerful Helix pulling High G's for an extended period.



Also for that show on TLC or Discovery, I think you may have misheard, having ridden and worked (and obsessed over) coasters for a while, I have never heard of any study done on Roller coasters that has had that result.

There was a study done by the University Hospital of Mannheim in Germany last year that Basically said what lazyboy97O wrote, Roller coasters increase heart rates which can ultimately be deadly in some people, which is why there is that "Do not ride if you have heart problems" signs at most rides. The 12 year old who died after riding Rock 'N' Roller coaster in June was found to have had a congenital heart defect as a recent example. It doesn't mean everyone knows they have heart problems as some have no symptoms and show no signs until after it's too late.

A few years ago, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., made a big stink about roller coasters leading to death because of the G-forces associated with them, and has actually gone as far as having a law in New Jersey limit the amount of Gs that can be experienced by riders on a roller coaster. Of course there have been multiple studies (CBS,The Daily Texan) that can NOT find a direct link between roller coasters leading to brain damage. Even the Brain Injury Association of America, which was requested to study the risk of riding Roller coasters and other amusement rides, by Markey and Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ), along with 12 additional Members of Congress. The BIAUSA concluded that:

Originally Posted by BIAUSA

1)There is evidence that roller coaster rides pose a health risk to some people some of the time. Equally evident is that the overwhelming majority of riders will suffer no ill effects. Most major categories of at risk populations such as pregnant women or persons with heart conditions, epilepsy, back or neck injury or prior orthopedic surgery, among others, are already warned against riding. People of small stature are usually excluded. Thus, there is risk, but effort is made to warn those at risk to prevent injury.

2) No systematically acquired comprehensive database, longitudinal history or natural history data was available. The Panel’s review of the 57 cases of patients who reportedly sustained craniocerebral injury related to roller coaster rides over the past 38 years revealed no evidence of riderelated brain injury absent head contact. Furthermore, of the 51 non-fatal injuries, the majority sustained neurovascular injuries, and of the six fatal injuries, all suffered undiagnosed neurovascular abnormalities such as blood vessel abnormalities, malformations or aneurysms. These are risk groups, like those listed in section one above, but unknown to the rider. It is unlikely that the rider’s physician, much less the amusement ride owners/operators, could have known that these persons were at risk before the fact.

3) The committee has questions about the methodology of existing measurements of two significant variables on roller coasters as they relate to occupant acceleration: linear and angular accelerations and their duration. Location and type of accelerometers were found to be less than ideal and not as directly relevant to the linear and rotational accelerations of the head as desired. However, improvements in precision and relevance probably would not result in accelerometer findings of more than a 20% difference from those already obtained.

4) The accelerations experienced by roller coaster riders are far below experimentally derived injury thresholds for healthy individuals. The highest advertised roller coaster acceleration levels are 6 g’s for 1 second, although instrumented testing suggests a lower maximum of 4.5 g’s for 0.5 seconds. In comparison, significant research has been done on healthy individuals regarding the level of sustained acceleration at which blackout can occur and the lowest reported threshold is 5.5 g’s over a period of 5 seconds. Animal and other experimental research regarding serious brain injury suggest a much higher threshold (35 g’s or more); however, it is not clear how this threshold applies to the healthy, human population.

5) The conclusion supported to date is that the risk of brain injury from a roller coaster is not in the rides, but in the riders. That is, there are some people we already know should not participate in roller coaster rides. The 6 reported fatalities were in a shared, logical, but infrequent risk group that could not be established before the fact.

(source)

The emphasis is mine, but I think that phrase should put to rest any misconceptions you might have had. Roller coasters are VERY safe when running properly and up kept.



Thank you and Good night!