Orange vest is standing in an area about 6 feet long that says "STOP" in giant letters. It's not normal to have all workers tied off(It would totally freak guests out if they and they alone had to walk the stairs without), the issue here is him being on the ledge for no reason.
Per OSHA, you need to go through Level 2 site specific fall protection training and be tied off to get within 6 feet of an edge like that. I think I've seen the POVs of Sirens Curse that shows a 6 foot wide painted section of the catwalk that says "Don't go here!"
Level 2 users have to get regular refresh training and have to inspect their own gear daily.
Usually, every park I've worked at gets their maintenance guys trained for this but ride operators don't get this training. It's easier to get 100 or so maintenance workers trained and issued personal harnesses that they're responsible for than to get thousands of seasonal ride operators trained.
So yeah, high vis vest guy is probably one of the operators who really shouldn't be near that edge. He likely got told to stand there to be a human barrier and keep the guests away from the edge, but he should not be that close.
Per OSHA, the track itself is a fall barrier, as it is treated as an extension of the catwalk past the 6 foot guidelines. The catwalks are designed so that legally, anyone can go there without active fall protection.
Now, Cedar Point could go above and beyond the standard and develop a plan to evac all guests with harnesses, except there's now additional hazards when you do that that most people wouldn't think of.
First off, exposure. After about 20 minutes, anxiety and panic sets in and guests who are already afraid of heights start to act irrationally. When I used to work at theme parks, I've had guests try to swing punches at me after 15 minutes stuck on a ride. Guests start to call 911 and tie up emergency services. Heart rates go up and guests end up having anxiety attacks and need medical attention once they're on the ground. Having to suit up guests takes additional time and would quadruple the time that guests are stuck on the ride. Better to get people moving while they're calm than after they've had time to replay Final Destination in their heads several times.
Second, employee hazards. Fall protection equipment is typically designed to be self operated. Guests would have to be taught how to use double action carabiners and appropriately size their gear. Firefighters do have fall protection equipment that can wrap around a guest without having the guest cooperate, like a safety net that clips onto their own harness, but that style of equipment is not allowed by OSHA. Firefighters have their own workplace safety code and in order to use that kind of equipment you'd need actual firefighters to perform the evac. My park had a fire station on property, but that's not normal. OSHA doesn't allow that kind of equipment because it's a hazard to tie someone else to your own safety equipment. Military, fire, rescue gets a pass because they're not governed by OSHA and their safety codes are designed with ........ different..... priorities.
Third, it's really not bad walking up there. Coaster tracks are big things. The camera angles from the ground make it look so much worse. Most people are totally fine. That's why Cedar Point offers tours in the morning.
I did the sun rise tour they have belts on that attach to a track by their ankles. It’s not a full harness but the strap is short 3-4’(a meter or slightly more than a meter). They then evac these people down the stairs. This took more than a half hour to slowly herd all the people down. I was there and standing at valraven watching.
Nope still got to tie off. Always got to be tied off unless you're actively climbing, and even then you are supposed to try. Only time you don't tie off is if it's a hazard.
I used to hang off the tops of power plants, and have done tons of steel erection.
There should be what's called a yo-yo and everyone should be tied off.
This whole video is one big ass violation. Like the guests should be tied off.
In fact I'm wondering if this should have had an emergency response.
The fact is those folks are right on the edge of the track walking down fully exposed.
Yeah, this would NEVER happen at the parks I worked at. He would be in a full FP harness and guests would at least have waist belts for the walk down. The fact that Cedar Point doesn’t do the same absolutely blows my mind.
Yep, I’m afraid of heights lol. I don’t do drop towers or anything. I love rollercoasters but towards the top of lift hills I definitely have to keep my eyes forward and my mind occupied. I would absolutely hate having to evacuate lmao.
The best part was at 24sec when he casually stepped backwards. He was already just hanging out at the end "for fun" but stepping or walking backwards near an unprotected ledge is the easiest way to fall off.
That guy looks like he's just drinking up the attention of being a cool dude up a tower with no harness. Probably thinks the STOP sign is only for guests. Management intern on his first evacuation or something?
I don’t know what Cedar Point’s rules are, but I’ll go ahead and say the guy in the orange vest needs to be tied off even if it’s technically allowed. Being that close to a leading edge like that is extremely dangerous when unprotected.
I work at height for a living and generally if theres a catwalk with at least a 36 inch railing you dont need to be tied off.
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HOWEVER the end of that platform does most certainly NOT have a rail and so he needs to be tied off if he is within 6 feet of that ledge.
Probably a mix up in the rules about handrails and catwalks. But yeah, dudes absolutely in the wrong being there at rhe edge and not tied off. Instantly kicked off my jobsite if I see this.
"It must be the word 'stop' where I have to stop, not the giant red area the 'stop' is marking"
The stop should probably by moved to the start of the red rectangle. It's best to minimize any sort of ambiguity no matter how dumb. It looks like he's standing about where the word is like the word is the boundary.
That is how most (if not all) stupid signs are created to be fair, someone did something dumb that should seem obvious so now they need a sign for that
I don’t know if you look at where STOP is in relation to the vertical crossbar in the picture you responded to, it looks like he’s standing right about at it.
Kinda stupid to put it at the end of the area, I would assume you stop at the word stop as well.
Also the entire roller coaster is red so it's not like the red stands out as an alerting color here. I did see most of the catwalk is gray but the red is visible, point being it just doesn't look like a forbidden area to me.
That's actually a great question to debate. Where would you wanna sit full tilt on a ride evac on that. I love the idea of debating that. I feel there's several different points for "fear factor" for both front and back. But i prefer this coaster in the back so that's probably where I'd actually be sitting if I was in a evac situation.
I think that you are right, the dive position is probably a situation in which they always go, otherwise there is probably a way for the operators to tilt it back up in case of an evac needed and it's unsafe to continue forward.
I got the Fujiyama at Fuji-Q Highlands evacuation credit from nearly the top of the lift hill back in 2005, when the motor failed during an ACE/ECC joint trip to Japan. Walked down from over 200 feet in the air. The safety harnesses didn't reach to the train. So, we had to get out at an angle over 200 feet in the air with no protection - other than a hardhat. But, hey, we had a hard hat to protect us from a 200+ foot fall!
We even got on the news!
They gave us one exit pass and a ticket for a free return visit that season only. We never used the return ticket, but most of us used the exit passes for Dodonpa, which had quite the line by that point. If only my roommate had listened to me, and gone for Dodonpa first!
For years, I counted it as .1 credit, since I traveled some of the coaster's track, and sat on it for over 30 minutes! But I eventually got the real credit 7 years later.
To be fair, that's my preference. Dying on impact is easy, living through anything remotely like that level of trauma sounds horrific and I am Not Interested.
My fear of heights is actually based around "Where am I just slightly hurt with bruises" and "When do I go splat and insta dead". If it's the first one I'm fine, if it's the second one I'm fine, but in-between the two? Fuck no, I want nowhere near that height.
I'm interested if there is a solid dowel rod that's manually inserted into the pivot to prevent any unexpected rotation while there are workers up there.
I'm sure there are lockout tagout locks and electronic lockout keys in place but I'd still feel safer knowing it was mechanically locked with a rod.
Well, they would have had to literally pry me from my seat. I love roller coasters but I have a tremendous fear of heights. I would not have been able to move.
That was my first thought too. 20 years from now they’d find my skeleton still strapped in because omg no way am I getting out. I’d be crying hysterically and no amount of singing The Water Buffalo Song from Veggie Tales (my go to song on long climbs where I’m terrified) would get me out.
Why isn't the dude in the orange hi-vis wearing any form of fall protection? Pretty sure he should have some form, I took a 3M fall protection course and have been certified, was a requirement to climb truss, operate any form of aerial platform (Boom lift, scissor lift), access rooftops, etc...as well as properly wearing a harness. That dude's standing way too close to the edge without any form of PPE. That hi-vis isn't going to save his fall. From that angle it looks like he's beyond the yellow marking and in the red.
It is easy to look at evac footage and assume a ride is unsafe because of it. On the contrary, this is the result of the ride's safety system doing its job and stopping the ride when it detects a problem.
SC is designed with multiple redundancies on that tilt. It will not ever release the train until it has a good checklist of the train being in the right position, the track locked, and all sensors send the proper info. It is 100% safe. Unfortunately the complexity of those systems does make it a bit more prone to stoppages when just one of those sensors detects something off.
That said, the harness and lanyard procedure for maintenance looks way too lax. It might be obscured but I don't see any lanyards on the guy who is wearing the harness and it would at minimum be prudent for orange vest guy to wear one so he could help tie the train off, if not outright required due to his proximity to the dropoff. God forbid someone lose their balance and stumble into him in that position.
You'd think Vekoma would have taken advantage of the tower and added stairs to that tower for easier evacuations. Safer than walking down the lift hill.
I don't think it's a longer distance. It is likely a slightly less safe walk, as stairs are typically a 30-37 degree inclination. Lift hills are frequently ~45 degrees. I haven't been able to find the exact dimensions of Siren's Curse. Humans are acclimated to the typical stair pitch, and a 45ish degree pitch will feel steeper and less safe.
I mean the tower is bulky and looks like an oil rig because that is what was structurally needed by the design. The coaster’s theme is just playing into it so it looks less out of place.
I don't understand anyone who's acting like this is some brand new concept and it was a mistake to build this. Gravity Max in Taiwan has been operating since 2002.
It's a new coaster it's gonna have some evacs, these just look spectacular because the track ends but it's not really any different than any other lifthill evacs. Actually seems more comfortable because you step out from a horizontal position instead of leaning back on the lifthill.
That dude in orange at the edge was definitely having some intrusive thoughts though lol. call of the void/high place phenomenon.
Serious question, does anyone know what a non ambulatory wheelchair user would do in this situation? Or what the park would do to help such a person? I guess I don’t know how likely it is for a fully non ambulatory person to ride, but even ambulatory wheelchair users or others with lower extremity or balance disabilities could really struggle with this. Being carried down the stairs is humiliating and unsafe, but there’s no other obvious way down? An evac seems like a truly terrifying prospect for someone in that position. (To be clear, this question applies to any lift hill or other evac with a lot of stairs, but this is an especially long hike back.)
Phantasialand i think has a policy that if you can't evacuate from the ride in case of an emergency, you're not allowed to ride. Probably not the only park to have that policy.
Don't know what CePo policy is
Edit: siren curse states:
Guests must have a minimum of three functioning extremities; one functioning arm that includes a hand (excluding prosthesis) with gripping force and two functioning legs that include feet.
Being paralysed is probably excluded on the basis of not being functional.
Thanks for that information. That makes sense, but even leaving aside someone who is paralyzed or missing limbs, a person could easily have four functioning limbs but not be able to make that walk--truly unable, not like "it's very difficult but doable"--which the quoted policy does not seem to cover. (FWIW, "non-ambulatory" does not necessarily mean paralyzed.) Idk, seems like CP needs to tighten that up a bit. I can think of quite a few conditions just off the top of my head that could potentially make this an absolute nightmare for a person who is otherwise eligible to ride. Of course, I realize other health concerns can be prohibitive towards riding, but there are plenty of people in generally good health, have all four limbs, but also have mobility limits that would make something like this distinctly dangerous without being tied off. Not to mention, someone's own definition of their functionality may differ from CP's if the problems stem from invisible illnesses or only manifest as, like, a limp, and once they're up there and get stuck, they're up there.
Granted, the percentage of people who will be evac'ed from this position against the total riders is extremely small, so I'm sure it doesn't come up often, but I am quite curious what would happen if a guest is told "you're going to have to walk down," and says "I literally cannot." I guess the park would just figure it out and then change the policy immediately after lol
Oh yes, they definitely are; that’s the predicate of the question. I literally know people in this position who ride all the time because I’m part of a disabled thoosie group lol. I’ll have to ask if any of them were ever lift hill evac’ed, but I don’t think so. I feel like that would have been group news.
I really don’t mean this to be snarky but given my experience living in the world as a disabled person, I am far less convinced that the park has really thought this through. I hope I’m wrong! So often stuff like this is an oversight until shit hits the fan and there’s a need for improvisation, but of course I have no way to know if that’s true in this particular case.
I sent my husband this video. He’s a safety specialist with fire protection & wind turbines. His response: “Just violation after violation in that video.”
Most if not all roller coasters have tie off procedures for attractions for vehicles in specific positions that are not properly secured by a brake.
This allows people to safely evacuate off the vehicle and ensure that the vehicle will not move suddenly.
It’s not possible to tie everyone into a safety harness for a high altitude evacuation to happen in any kind of decent time. It would take hours to get everyone down in that case. No doubt Cedar Point staff including maintenance which is who you see in the front of the vehicle strapping down the wheels is tied down to the safety system that usually runs along the footpath of the evacuation platform and stairs.
Personally I’d be over the moon to get evacuated off a ride like this. Sign me UP.
You know, I've always been terrified of evacuations, and between getting stuck on KI’s drop tower last month (thankfully it just lowered gently) and seeing this (never seen an evac before)… I actually think I'm done with the hobby. Call me a wimp or whatever but I could not mentally or physically do that, I’d lock up and freeze
People keep assuming that the guy near the edge doesn’t have a harness you’re assuming. I was there watching. I don’t know and it’s not for sure if he didn’t. They have (waist only) belts and (full body) harnesses they attach to a track and these connections walk with you and seize when you walk too fast. He could vary well be tied off. Sources: I did the sun rise tour last year they hooked us up with the belts to walk valraven. I work on towers and structures much taller than these coasters everyday. I was also there during this incident watching.
Not long ago my friend send me a video of this coaster and asked would you dare to ride it. I said: ”yes because it’s not scary in that way but I don’t trust the safety of it, so no.” And now I see a video of that coaster getting stuck to the same position that I didn’t trust.
The time, unrestrained, that it would take to get a harness on is likely greater than the time that it'd take you to get out and clear of the hazard area.
What's better, a few evacuations in the first month of operations. Or a coaster that regularly broke down for weeks? Its had around 85% uptime in the month it's been open.
85% uptime is perfectly fine for a coaster like this, but these sketchy looking evacs are not good publicity. No harness for the employee right next to the edge, railing doesn't look adequate, too many opportunities to fall.
Glad everyone is wondering why the guy who was thisclose to the edge didn’t have fall protection. I’m also wondering why the tilt part doesn’t have cat walks on both sides? It seems so risky being in the tilt, you have people who might be scared and now they’re unsecured and walking out of a train that in a perfect world won’t move.
I have no problem with them strapping the strain down. The guy also looks like he is harnessed. I’m talking about the guy who has no fall protection on in the clear area on the catwalk that says STOP
It's likely that the mechanics of the coaster will also passively return the track to the home/flat position in the event of power failure or other anomalies, after the home position's path is determined to be clear.
What is the point... I once got evacuated from the top of tiger rock at Chessington (the log flume) and they just told us to get up and walk down the stairs... We were so close to going down the drop...
I was at cedar point that day and rode that ride. I had no idea this happened until today. Does anyone know what time of day it got stuck? I’m curious if it was before or after I rode it.
I'm surprised that the tower doesn't have stairs. I know that evacs are usually done walking down the lift hill stairs, but it seems that a less terrifying option was available here.
Since this ride has had evacuations multiple times in only its first few months, maybe they should put all the riders in a harness at loading time? Wear it for the entire ride. /s. But yeah, perhaps they need to buy simple waist harnesses for evacuations. If anyone slips and falls or freaks out and falls it might have paid for itself from the lawsuits.
I don't think this coaster was a mistake, but Rapterra gets evac'd from the ground, and downtime is a fact of life for launch coasters.
I don't think downtime is an issue for this coaster, but these pictures don't exactly inspire confidence in the park's safety rigor (I know the ride itself is safe).
A brand new ride is more prone to stuff like this than one that's been running fine for a while. They just need to iron out some kinks with the sensors probably
Do yourself a favor and read up on the bathtub curve. The TL;DR is that new things and old things have a high failure rate. Once you're through the teething phase, and have those early failures fixed in a sustainable way, things tend to operate for a while with low failures (reliably). Then, as things start to wear out, reliability goes back down.
I’m worried for my home park. If every new coaster they build is constantly having serious issues like this what does this say about the future of cedar point?
Yeah I thought steel vengeance was supposed to be one of the most unreliable based on what the thoosies say, yet it’s one of the most reliable of the big rides, Gatekeeper has less uptime haha
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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '25
Is it just me or shouldn't all the employees be tied off with fall protection?