Theme Park Discussion / A woman just died on Six Flags' Texas Giant

Sad news for the recently redesigned Texas Giant. http://www.dallasnew...gs-confirms.ece

Seems like the restraints came open and the lady fell out of the car and died. They are being kind of quiet about sharing the details but they haven't silenced the witnesses.

Witnesses, like the one below, say the restraints came undone, and the woman simply vanished off the towering ride. Others say people on the ground directed rescue workers to her location.

On Facebook, a woman who said she was next in line to ride the Texas Giant wrote that “the lady whose seat I was about to get into on the Giant wasn’t there when the red train came back!! Seriously! People in front row screaming when they came back that their mom was gone. We waited about 50 mins & now kids are freaking out.”

Holy shit! That's terrible. D:

Thoughts go out to this poor lady and her loved ones; Six Flags better come out with a statement about this pretty soon..

Honestly, I've always been sort of suspicious of the lap-bar restraints. They used to make me really nervous when I was younger. An unfortunate case of wrong place, wrong time, I guess :/ or maybe just lack of attention to detail by a worker.

This is a little unrelated but there was also an accident on Shoot The Rapids at CP where a boat flipped over trapping 10 people in the water. Apparently, no one died thanks to nearby riders that jumped in to help them. Looks like a bad day to visit theme parks.

I don't want to make too much light of this but that's some Friday the 13th shit right there...

Over the shoulder on all RMC rides from now on? Probably

^I know, right?! I mean check out the date! This shit can't be a coincidence!.. Friday, July 19th..?

Had this happened 8 weeks from now, on Friday, September 13, I'd be a little more convinced.

What calender are you using, Milo?

meh yeah, I don't know my numbers at all

Luketh, do you read everything at face value? However, I did muff the proper ironic statement, which is that this week was making up for last week having a Friday the 12th.

I wouldn't be too quick to assume OTSR on all RMCs now, it was a Gerstlauer designed train. I just hope this doesn't dim the hype RMC was building as a company and hopefully this will not cancel the almost certain "iron medusa" transformation at six flags mexico.

^I was going to point out the same thing about the Gerstlauer train. I think RMC should be good, though. It sounds like an employee not checking properly or disregarding the rider's request, or just a Gerstlauer train problem.

Terrible news to hear. My prayers go out to the family and friends of the victim.

My point isn't that RMC designed the trains (I know they didn't), it's just the nature of the rides they design that people might call for OTSR on this style of ride from now on if people can be thrown. Most lapbar rides that's not the case, at least it would take some doing by the rider like standing up even if the restraint fails.

Christ, do you people really think I'm that dumb? It's not an illogical statement

Also, I'm not calling for it, I'm just saying people might in this safety-fanatic world we live in.

Why not have all lap restraints have seatbelts under them? I maybe wrong, but I don't believe NTG has seatbelts.

Forgot about the seatbelts...yeah, every woodie I've ever been on had seatbelts in addition to lap-bars. If Twiggy is right and it doesn't have seatbelts, I might pull a "I'm not going on New Texas Giant - it isn't safe"

MOTHERFUCKER. This is so upsetting.

No, Giant had no seatbelt or failsafe. Titan and La Vibora are Lap bars only as well. Iron Rattler is strictly a bar to. I think both Shockwave and Mr. Freeze have a failsafe seatbelt system to hold the bar down.

Absolute negligence on someone's part by not including such a system.

rocky mountain destruction

^This, @Austin. It's shocking that a ride like Texas Giant would have neither a seat belt nor a failsafe in addition to the lap bar...I was under the impression that failsafes were a requirement to pass a safety inspection? If they aren't, they should be, especially for big coasters like NTG.

Texas Giant does not have seat belts. It's restraint is hydraulic based and when secured it's difficult to move in if it's pushed down all the way. The computer will only allow the train to dispatch if the indicator light on the train is green- meaning it's secured- There are no reports on what exactly happened and all we are going on is pure speculation and witness account. if it was a restraint malfunction, the woman was probably larger and the computer allowed the train to dispatch because the restraint was at the highest point to allow it to. Once it whipped around the first curve she probably fell out. People tend to over react and I don't blame them

Again though this is thoughts...not truth... And my prayers from the bottom of my heart go out to all affected.

rocky mountain destruction

Remember that RMC did NOT make the trains, it's hard to tell anything at this point but I think RMC can be ruled out as a guilty party here.

like SFOT1994 said above, Giant's trains even have little indicator lights on them to show that the restraints are ready to go. Not at all sure the more complex systems, but I do not understand what could have gone wrong.


Absolutely every ride without failsafe nylon or similar seatbelt holding down either the restraint itself (probably preferred, ALA B&M) or the rider.

i was kidding about that

but yeah this is some sad shit

I'm just as shocked though...
And probably this will be regarded sadly as ride-op error resulting in

A: Giant getting seat belts as well as all RMC coasters receiving them (likely)
B: All tests and inspections are passed (somehow) and the ride reopens in three weeks (guesstimate)

And Austin55 is right, also I wouldn't be shocked is Six Flags Inc. decides to support the family and hold a lawsuit against Gerstlauer

Two other things. Many articles are stating witness's saying something about the women who fell out was concerned that her restraint only clicked once when she heard others click multiple times. This is utter horse shit because TG's restraint to not make any noise, they are pneumatic.

Second, the reports like this,

"She goes up like this. Then when it drops to come down, that's when it (the safety bar) released and she just tumbled," said Carmen Brown of Arlington. Brown said she was waiting in line to get on the ride when the accident happened.

Need to be taken with a huge grain of salt because (back me up on this SFOT94) You cannot clearly see any of the track excluding parts of the break run and the first turn to the lift. There is the one overbanked turn right next to the station, but the train is traveling so fast you would not be able to make anything out. It does not appear that this area is where the accident even occurred.

Sounds to me like the Brown women is simply trying to stir up controversy.