Sunday, June 29, 2008

Roller Coaster Decapitation

This is one of those stories that get to me. Two kids hop two six-foot isolation fences to gain entrance to the area in which a roller coaster is running. One of them is decapitated as a result of their trespassing--presumably not while riding the coaster, clearly not while riding as a paying customer. This is referred to in the story as the second fatality associated with this roller coaster this year. Putting aside the sadness of a young person's death, this death was not caused by a roller coaster; it was caused by a human being's actions. That he was in the park with a "church group" does not excuse his own culpability.

3 comments:

SamShapiro said...

How much of a settlement will some attorney get the family because there wasn't another 6 foot fence in place or 8 foot fences were not used or a sign was not in place warning you to duck.

Anonymous said...

Freakanomics predicted his death.

Anonymous said...

It is incumbent upon any entity - public or private, on whose premises there are general dangers that pose threat to common senseless citizens, to provide adequate safety measures. Said amusement park should have had a DMZ - in this case "de-moron-ized zone" with armed guards atop a 4 ft thick, 30 ft high wall girded with concertina wire above a 20 ft wide moat patrolled by trained attack dogs. I dare say an 8 foot fence would have sufficed. For shame Six Flags, for shame.

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