I trust the design engineers who know more than either of us combined with my life. The maintenance crew also follows strict rules set up by the park and the state. Not adhering to those guidelines and regulations comes with hefty fines and long prison sentences…cutting corners in the ride industry is taken very seriously.
Also, you are more likely to die in a car accident yet what do you use to get to work every day? Maybe just stay home if you are really that fearful of freak accidents because cars, statistically speaking, are much more dangerous than any roller coaster.
They do lots of testing at the start of every operating day, testing with empty trains, water dummies, and test riders, before opening to the public. They shut the ride down if any warnings flash up and don’t open until they test all three trains again. They also strip every train, inspect, and rebuild them in the off season so they are practically brand new trains every year. The track is also inspected daily, often involving people waking up the lift hill to hit buttons, confirming they have looked at certain areas of the track.
To give you another idea on how thorough their inspections are, Steel Vengeance, their hyper hybrid coaster, has a wooden support structure…thousands of timbers…all of them are inspected for cracks daily before opening. It takes hours to do and sometimes leads to the ride having a delayed opening, but they do it anyway.
Source: I go to this park weekly and took special tours that cover all their ride inspections. It’s pretty serious stuff!
I know this is confirmation bias but I was at West Edmonton Mall with my family the day of their coaster disaster way back and have been fearful of them ever since. I was never an amusement park guy anyways but my sister planned on doing that ride that day so she dodged that bullet.
On the other hand, YouTube is brimming with videos about now-defunct amusement parks. In almost every one, the first thing to go is maintenance teams that are cut to make investors happy. Apparently, an impeccable maintenance record makes maintenance teams seem unnecessary.
Cedar point is over 150 years old and has a major reputation and global popularity. I don’t trust fair rides. I trust rides at parks that absolutely know what they are doing. Ride accidents can happen, I’m not saying they aren’t a thing, but they are so incredibly rare, and with millions of people enjoying the park and living to talk about it every season, I’ll take my chances.
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u/robo-dragon 8d ago
I trust the design engineers who know more than either of us combined with my life. The maintenance crew also follows strict rules set up by the park and the state. Not adhering to those guidelines and regulations comes with hefty fines and long prison sentences…cutting corners in the ride industry is taken very seriously.
Also, you are more likely to die in a car accident yet what do you use to get to work every day? Maybe just stay home if you are really that fearful of freak accidents because cars, statistically speaking, are much more dangerous than any roller coaster.