Originally Posted By tashajilek KNOTT’S BERRY FARM Buena Park, California Cedar Fair Entertainment Park News - (5/21/10) Guests coming to Knott’s Soak City this summer will be greeted with an odd new experience before being allowed to ride Pacific Spin, the park’s giant Tornado slide. Your entire group will be asked to step onto a giant scale to weigh you in before you ride. While it won’t display the actual weight, it will rate your group into three colors. Red means your group’s overall weight is over 700 lbs and is too heavy. Yellow means your group is between 400-700 lbs and is clear to go down on the 4 passenger clover-leaf tubes. Green means under 400 lbs which means you can ride on a 2 passenger tube instead. Why all the fuss? Seems there was an incident last August where a woman fell out in mid-slide, and complained about hurting herself. (Why? It’s a waterslide after all… you should be fully prepared to make the run with or without the tube if you ask me.) Unfortunately Cal-OSHA got involved and deemed that their party was too heavy to have ridden together as the cause of the accident. Cal-OSHA had warned Knott’s about this before and has decided to take the matter out of the lifeguards hands by requiring the pre-ride weigh in. This same scale system has also been installed at the Pacific Spin rides at the San Diego and Palm Springs parks as well I am going to give credit to LOVE-DCA for bringing up this topic in another thread. I think this is really degrating, and to be rated into color weight groups??? I understand that someone did get hurt but to assume that she got hurt b/c she was to fat? I hope this really doesnt actually happen. Everyone is a paying customer and deserves to be treated equal.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros There's a limit for a group of 4 people at 700 lbs? That's 175 per person. While that seems to be fairly reasonable for adults, it's also not that strange that they might weigh more than that, and the slide should have been designed with that in mind. I'm not sure what else could have been done, but I don't really see how her weight would make her fall out of her tube. Just a strange situation all around.
Originally Posted By tashajilek " That's 175 per person" yea thats not very heavy. For certain men to weigh 200 and up doesnt make them "overweight"
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< " That's 175 per person" yea thats not very heavy. For certain men to weigh 200 and up doesnt make them "overweight" >>> No, it doesn't. But if 4 of them wanted to ride this slide on a quad raft, perhaps they are too heavy collectively to do so safely. Some Disney attractions have minimum height (and in some cases, maximum height) limitations. This doesn't mean that people that fall outside the safety requirements should feel insulted.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I don't have a problem with this as a 200 lb man. If it isn't safe for me to ride with 3 other 200 lb men then I will happily find three lovely, fit women to do down the slide with. It isn't much different than the "test seats" they have for rollercoasters at parks these days. Before you get in line you sit in a seat and see if you fit and the lab bar/over the shoulder restraint/seat belt will fit you. If parks are going to be held accountable then they have to take these steps.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Yea but there was never a weight restriction before and i bet there were many many heavy people who rode safely before this one injury occured. I am under 130lbs myself and if someone told me to get on a scale at a water park even i wouldnt feel comfortable.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Let's keep in mind they are not weighing the individual but the entire group. Most people don't know but there is a ride at Cedar Point in Ohio called Dragster and a computer weighs the entire train before it is "launched" to make sure it will complete it's course. If my options are to be weighed or to possibly sustain an injury...or worse...put me on the scale.
Originally Posted By tashajilek "If my options are to be weighed or to possibly sustain an injury...or worse...put me on the scale." No thats true. But you cant really say the "one" person got hurt because she was Fat.
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins This reminds me of John Pinette and his waterslide routine. I'd be the only one there in my own group.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I can't say one person got injured because of a weight issue...but apparently Cal-OSHA can.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 I told my partner about this and the first thing he said was, "That's like when Homer got stuck in the water slide". LMAO!!!!!!!
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 Between us both thinking about Raspusha and Homer, I am starting to worry, Tasha!!!
Originally Posted By tashajilek How so Bob? are you thinking about having a 3 some with Raspuha and Homer LOL.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Yes, there are scales, required by DOSH to weigh folks. The one in Palm Springs was installed first, and has the weight, but only the lifeguard can see the number. Buena Park had a bit more time, and they have a light system, green means the weight on the scale is at or below the limit for a 2 person raft, yellow is the limit for a 4 person raft, and red means the weight is above all limits. Also note, you do not need 4 people for a 4 person raft, so 2 or 3 folks can use them, and you can avoid the issue. But I also have been a part of a Space Mountain Train that was weighed, and found too heavy for the ride. The entire train made the turn to the LEFT at the launch, and was made to unload, and then everyone was sent back to the loading area to be placed back in trains, but not all at the same time. Also, CM's at small world and Pirates also are trained to make sure not too much weight is placed in one boat, do to operational issues. SAFETY first.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney We once road Pirates and after the second waterfall I got DRENCHED by the wake. I had never even got that wet on Splash. I told my husband (we were in the front), and he told me to turn around and see who was else was in the raft. There were several bigger people (I'm thinking 6 or 7) in the raft with us. He figured it was the extra weight that caused the large wake. I'm curious now as to the weight limit on Pirate's. I wonder what it would do if it were too heavy. Also, sometimes Space seems really fast and other times not so fast. Could that be related to the total weight of the ride vehicle?
Originally Posted By DyGDisney BTW, I think this is a great idea if it increases safety. It's not saying any individual person can't ride (I guess unless they are over 700 pounds), it's just saying they may have to have fewer people on their raft. Where's the harm?
