Girl defeeted by Six Flags ride
 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...t_N.htm?csp=34

Six Flags and Cedar Fair shut down eight more thrill rides around North America on Friday after a teenage girl's feet were sliced off during a ride in Kentucky.

State inspectors were at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom to examine the Superman Tower of Power, where the accident happened Thursday. The ride lifts passengers 177 feet straight up, then drops them nearly the same distance at speeds reaching 54 mph.

It was unclear at what point in the ride the 13-year-old was injured, said Wendy Goldberg, a Six Flags spokeswoman. The girl was taken to a hospital, where her condition was not immediately available Friday.

Six Flags shut down similar rides at parks in St. Louis; Gurnee, Ill.; and near Washington as a safety precaution, Goldberg said. She said Six Flags Over Texas, near Dallas, also has a Superman Tower of Power, but it is not the same ride.

There had been no reports of injuries on the ride before Thursday, she said.

"Millions of people have safely ridden this ride in our parks," Goldberg said.

Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. also shut down drop tower rides at five of its amusement parks for inspection, company spokeswoman Stacy Frole said. Frole described it as a precautionary measure.

Intamin AG, a Swiss company, made all the rides but did not supply all the parts, said Sandor Kernacs, president of the company's American operations, Intamin Ltd. in Glen Burnie, Md.

Bill Clary, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which inspects amusement park rides, said a cause hadn't been determined Friday afternoon.

The accident didn't appear to slow business Friday at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. A stream of cars and foot traffic poured into the amusement park on a warm, breezy summer day.

The five Cedar Fair rides that were shut down are at Kings Island near Cincinnati; Canada's Wonderland, in Toronto; Kings Dominion in Doswell, Va.; Carowinds, in Charlotte; and Great America in Santa Clara, Calif.

Raph's Girl note: Yeowch!! :o

Yeah, I was reading about this at work today. I hope they can save her feet.

BTW, that is the single most twisted head line for this story imaginable. Congrats. :D

Goodness. I've always hated that ride....

I'm still in shock about this. Scary to say the least. I cannot even begin to imagine if it happened to me. Poor girl. I hope her legs can be repaired.

I just heard about this today! Way to be on top Raph's Girl. Sharp as always.

It's weird that they don't know how her feet were severed. That is offputting.

It must have possessed a lot of tension and force in order to cut through so much bone. Plus I wonder if she would have bled significantly without immediate medical attention.

^ Yes but what part of the ride actually did the "cutting" through her bone. That is what boggles me because I have ridden a very similar ride and I just don't see it.

that is weird. could she have gotten her feet stuck between the ride's track structure and the car she was in?
that ride's nasty as it is...bleah...im surprised Magic Mountain hasn't shut theirs down

A cable snapped and slapped accross her feet.

Kentucky Kingdom isn't too far up the road from me....So anyway, one of the big high tension cables on the ride frayed and broke and that's what did it. cut both her feet off right below the ankles and the park workers found her feet below the ride and sent them to the hospital with her. (The 'they may never know what caused it' part refers to the fact that they don't know why the cable broke....but the cable clearly snapped and clearly slapped back accross those people in all the footage I have seen)

Don't think a cable could sever someone's feet? I had my dog tied to a tree with one of those coated wire cables (tough enough to hold back a 150 lb dog it said) and she saw a cat and decided to chase it. I was in the way of the cable and just the force of my measly 39lb dog charging full speed at that cat was enough to break my ankle. that was a few years ago and I still have a cable shaped scar on the outside of my right ankle.

imagine cables as thick around as your arm breaking loose with full tension. She's lucky it wasn't her head.

Where is the footage for this!??! That's crazy insane! I wanna see the footage! I mean... that's just... I don't know but I wanna watch the video of this! Man, I'm Morbid.

Yea, I've seen damage from cables before. And it can be down right gruesome. This story is still insane!

[QUOTE=RaphistheBest;530068]Where is the footage for this!??! That's crazy insane! I wanna see the footage! I mean... that's just... I don't know but I wanna watch the video of this! Man, I'm Morbid.

YouTube has a news report video of the ride and the wire that cut her feet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz1QSIosHb4

...this is why I don't ride those things.
Also...I thought you'd spelled "defeated" wrong at first Ahem.

Oh that explains it. Glen Burnie. You should know, something in the air around here makes gore happen. We're like the body parts getting cut off even when you're not stealing capitol of the world! I'm not gonna go into detail...

That's a disgustingly insensitive headline.

I hope she doesn't read the Technodrome.

Hey thanks. I didn't think something like this would hit youtube so fast. It's insane, I mean you can see the cable even without the video zoomed in. Crazy wicked. On a side note... there was a really hot guy walking around in a black tank on that video. *wink wink*

Life is disgustingly insensitive.

Well now... wouldn't that suck all to hell.

Wow. That sucks:cry: :cry: :o , I wonder if her family will sue the park or not??? I sure would.

Not sure if they will. Those rides are checked constantly. At least, they're supposed to. I'm not an engineer but I don't know how obvious a bad cable would look. Then again the parts didn't come from the company that made the ride... maybe the family will sue the parts company.

Is there some kind of warning or ride at your own risk so they can cover there arse?

Well they always say "keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times" but I don't quite think that that is possible with a ride like that. I'm sure that there are warnings somewhere on the ride, I mean, isn't that a law or something.

I feel bad for both parties because this was truely and accident. No one wins in this situation. If the family sues, their daughter is still hurting. If the park counter sues, their reputation is still severely damaged.

It is a tough call though on whether there is someone at fault. I hope it works out as well as it possibly can for both parties.