Comment on restraints

How about this idea? Old time lap bars but supplement by seat belts that have
an electronic locking (solenoid of some kind - I'm not an engineer) mechanism
and sensing mechanism of some kind so that the patron cannot undue the belt
themselves. Now you get the best of both worlds - fixed buzz bars and maximum
safety (i.e. limited liability exposure). With all the technology around, it
wouldn't seem that hard to accomplish.

Jim W

Successjw wrote:

> How about this idea? Old time lap bars but supplement by seat belts that have
> an electronic locking (solenoid of some kind - I'm not an engineer) mechanism
> and sensing mechanism of some kind so that the patron cannot undue the belt
> themselves. Now you get the best of both worlds - fixed buzz bars and maximum
> safety (i.e. limited liability exposure). With all the technology around, it
> wouldn't seem that hard to accomplish.

The buckles on Stealth operate just as you described.

> How about this idea? Old time lap bars but supplement by seat belts that
have
> an electronic locking (solenoid of some kind - I'm not an engineer)
mechanism
> and sensing mechanism of some kind so that the patron cannot undue the
belt
> themselves. Now you get the best of both worlds - fixed buzz bars and
maximum
> safety (i.e. limited liability exposure). With all the technology around,
it
> wouldn't seem that hard to accomplish.

You wouldn't think so.

Ever ride the old Superstition Mountain at IB? Ever see the original
LoCoSuMo car design? There's a reason you don't see many locking seatbelts.

Morgan almost got it right w/ Mamba, but even that has problems.

--
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<0 0>
=(o)=
-Wolf

Successjw (successjw@) wrote:
: How about this idea? Old time lap bars but supplement by seat belts that have
: an electronic locking (solenoid of some kind - I'm not an engineer) mechanism
: and sensing mechanism of some kind so that the patron cannot undue the belt
: themselves. Now you get the best of both worlds - fixed buzz bars and maximum
: safety (i.e. limited liability exposure). With all the technology around, it
: wouldn't seem that hard to accomplish.

You would think so, but you must remember that with very few exceptions,
roller coaster trains are passive devices with no telemetry and no
electrical or mechanical connection to the ride control. So first of all
that means that the seat belt latch plate realistically has to be mounted
in a fixed location (seat belts generally don't carry conductors) which
generally means that if the belt attaches in an anatomically useful
fashion, it is nearly impossible to fasten or release. Where it has been
tried on coasters (LoCoSuMo) it hasn't worked very well and been converted
to a more conventional design. Where an electrical buckle was used (X
Flight) it has proven first of all to not be very reliable, and second, as
I understand it, not to be very secure, either. Any time you have to beat
on the buckle repeatedly to get the thing to release in the station, you
have a system that doesn't work the way you want it to. The remaining
alternative is to use a buckle that requires a key to open, as Paramount
uses on some kiddie rides, and that creates other new problems, first of
all because it destroys capacity, and second because a rider can defeat it
with very little effort.

The bottom line is, we don't see locking seat belts because we have
locking lap bars, and for the overwhelming majority of riders it is simply
neither practical nor necessary.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
--
/-\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
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