Shockwave added restraint

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

Basically it is a weird belt that is attached to the front, you put your head in the first of 3 gaps and than clip it into the back support. Has been used today and yesterday.

[Santa07]

I mean good on DW for trying to make their rides safer, but was this really necessary? Looks like all it's going to achieve is overcomplicate loading

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

The dispatches are significantly longer now as well.

[Tim Dasco]

I heard that the Disk o ride model had a flaw in it that they discovered during the DW audits that people could slip out of the restraints. (Take this with a grain of salt)

[Twilight Zone]

2 minutes ago, Tim Dasco said:

I heard that the Disk o ride model had a flaw in it that they discovered during the DW audits that people could slip out of the restraints. (Take this with a grain of salt)

I'll admit it is surprisingly easy to come out of the restraint!

[Brad2912]

Cmon.. 'easy' indicates that the majority or most could accomplish the task. I've never heard of anyone intentionally or unintentionally slipping out of the existing restraints 

[rappa]

So has Aussie World changed theirs?

[Slick]

I wish we could go back to a time where we could trust guests (and to a greater extent, trust people to have common sense and not sue over anything and everything) to do the right thing and not put themselves in harm's way. Instead we get stuff like this because the park's so worried about minimising any factor of risk, no matter how small.

I remember I grew up in an era where all you had to hold you in on the Chairlift at Dreamworld was a loosely fitted bar over your lap. Nowadays I feel like the cool kids would try and jump out of their chair into the river whilst doing 360 backflips and dabbing the whole way down for some YouTube fame.

[New display name]

@Slick I remember growing up doing crazy stupid things.  I only problem I had was my parents somehow always found out.  30 years ago, if I did something crazy I didn’t want anybody to know about it but these days you plaster it all over YouTube for everybody to see.  Who do you think invented the bullslap?

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Skeeta said:

Who do you think invented the bullslap?

Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H Macy of course...

[Theme Park Girl]

15 hours ago, djrappa said:

So has Aussie World changed theirs?

From what I've heard previously, this was a independent decision Dreamworld made as part of their efforts to increase their ride safety measures as a whole across the park. So not really related to any Zamperla requirements being changed, thus most other existing Disk-Os at other parks will remain the same. 

Edited June 19, 2017 by Theme Park Girl

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

...Furthermore to the above, in the interests of guest safety and security, Dreamworld will soon be implementing 'simulated cycles', so, instead of actually despatching the ride, the operators will blindfold* you, and then explain to you what WOULD have happened if the ride was actually moving, before removing the blindfold and releasing the safety harness, and directing you towards the exit.

 

*blindfolds cost $400 per ride. You must purchase to ride. You cannot bring your own. Blindfolds are not reusable, refundable, transferrable, or sanitary. Note that blindfolds may not be used on Flowrider, so we've just turned the water off instead, so it doesn't matter. For safety reasons, all animals will wear blindfolds too. If you find a blindfold in a burger patty, it didn't come from a kangaroo, and now that you've eaten it, that will be another $400 too.

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

No one also knows how to put the restraint on so everyone becomes annoyed and the dispatch times are much longer. Also, the staff seem to hate it aswell.

[joz]

I can't blame them for knee jerk reactions at this point tbh.  If there is a design flaw I wonder who designed the modifications, as I can't imagine DW would be in the mood to take on the liability that comes with modifying restraints, and again if it's a design flaw I wonder if Zamperla might be working on a fix.

 

As for the longer dispatch times, yeah it's shit but honestly can't see that making a huge impact on guests given where attendance is at.

[pin142]

Maybe they should do a queue line video explaining the process. I understand they are all the rage at the moment.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

But what accent will they use?

[Twilight Zone]

8 hours ago, pin142 said:

Maybe they should do a queue line video explaining the process. I understand they are all the rage at the moment.

Pretty sure there's one coming

[rappa]

20 hours ago, Theme Park Girl said:

From what I've heard previously, this was a independent decision Dreamworld made as part of their efforts to increase their ride safety measures as a whole across the park. So not really related to any Zamperla requirements being changed, thus most other existing Disk-Os at other parks will remain the same. 

That makes no sense from a liability or safety stand point. Either ride is safe and doesn't need an extra restraint, or it's unsafe and does need one. 

You don't just decide to increase ride safety on your own for no reason, and authorities don't become aware of a safety flaw and leave it optional to do something about it. Neither do insurance companies. 

[themeparkaddict]

From what I am aware, Rainbows End is also considering adding something like this for the Invader.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

16 minutes ago, themeparkaddict said:

From what I am aware, Rainbows End is also considering adding something like this for the Invader.

they're considering it? Or it's necessary? There really can't be any grey area on this particular issue. No further explanation is needed from me - just see below:

2 hours ago, djrappa said:

That makes no sense from a liability or safety stand point. Either ride is safe and doesn't need an extra restraint, or it's unsafe and does need one. 

You don't just decide to increase ride safety on your own for no reason, and authorities don't become aware of a safety flaw and leave it optional to do something about it. Neither do insurance companies. 

 

[WalleyWorld]

@AlexB and @djrappa I agree with it not being a grey area.

But in regards to the comments "if Dreamworld has incorporated this extra restraint device, then every other Zamperla Disk'o ride will also definitely have it installed" - Every country has different amusement ride safety laws and engineering standards that they must abide by. So it is quite a possibility that this ride's harness is deemed acceptable in (for example) Italy and Germany, but in Australia it is not. Why this seatbelt/strap harness has only been implemented now? I have no idea. Maybe the australian standards changed? Maybe Dreamworld just want to go above and beyond the standards (possibly due to the TRR incident) and introduce another fail-safe/redundancy harness feature?

[Brad2912]

That opens the can of worms though in that if they are now deciding to go above and beyond with safety, should all rides not have operated at the optimal top safety level at all times? So was the ride effectively not safe previously? 

I doubt ride manufacturers offer an upgraded "extra safe" add-on to their rides. If there is a feature that makes guests safer, it should be a standard 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

@Luke, you're absolutely right on the 'jurisdiction' point, but if it were a local law or regulation - Aussie World would also be modifying the funnel web, which was the original question @djrappa asked.

The response he got was Dreamworld choosing independently to increase the 'level of safety' by adding the additional restraint (which I note you covered in the last part of your post).

Now here's the problem -

If a regulatory authority has identified it as an issue, then choosing independently isn't an option - its a mandatory upgrade.

If a manufacturer has identified it as an issue, then choosing independently isn't an option.

If neither the regulatory authority or the manufacturer has identified it as an issue, then choosing independently becomes very dangerous, because that then suggests that the park has implemented this from some invented, non existent, fanciful risk, and then chosen to manage it by adding additional restraints.

Assuming that the manufacturer isn't involved here (otherwise it isn't choosing independently) - what if this negatively impacts the ability to evacuate the ride in an emergency? What if this additional restraint negatively impacts on somebody in some situation, and they suffer spinal injuries because the restraint prevented them from the range of motion the manufacturer permits in the factory fitted restraint?

going it on your own in the theme park business is dangerous - as you only have yourself to blame if something goes wrong.

[WalleyWorld]

7 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Assuming that the manufacturer isn't involved here (otherwise it isn't choosing independently) - what if this negatively impacts the ability to evacuate the ride in an emergency? What if this additional restraint negatively impacts on somebody in some situation, and they suffer spinal injuries because the restraint prevented them from the range of motion the manufacturer permits in the factory fitted restraint?

going it on your own in the theme park business is dangerous - as you only have yourself to blame if something goes wrong.

Very valid point! And for all the reasons you stated above, you would hope that either Zamperla, or at least a 3rd party ride safety engineering firm, was involved in the design and creation of this added restraint.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Luke