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A safety bar on Coney Island's Polar Express ride broke, causing a 15-year-old girl to be thrown from the ride. Lanique Watts was knocked unconscious (but regained consciousness by the time she got to the hospital), and one witness told the Daily News, "She fell out the car and just rolled down the hill. Everyone started panicking. It looked pretty bad. She was bleeding." She added that a worker had checked all the safety bars before the ride.
The Polar Express ride consists of cars going up and down slopes, and at the time of the accident, the ride was in reverse. It's unclear what may have caused the accident (the News describes Watts as "heavyset," but, still, you'd want the safety bar to be very sturdy). The Department of Buildings shut down the ride, which will be closed through the weekend until the DOB finishes its investigation.
The Post reports there were no accidents on the Polar Express last year. Watts was taken to Lutheran with an injury to her head, as well as neck and leg pain. She is in stable condition.
Photograph of Coney Island amusements by wallyg on Flickr
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I saw on the news last night, I think on WPIX, that they had a warning sign about "large" people going on the ride. The basic gist that I got from the whole thing was "large" person + ride designed for non-"large" people = safety problem. Perhaps they need to have a sign saying "You must be less than this wide to ride."
Or perhaps people should realize that safety should include safety for ALL people. To blame a steel bar's mechanical failure on extra pounds -- especially at Coney Island, where large people ride the rides regularly -- is just a very prejudiced way to let the ride operator off the hook.
I've lived here long enough to realize that making fun of fat people is a regular sport in New York City, and the prejudice is rampant enough to appear on WPIX, the News, and Gothamist. But think about it for a second, and you'll realize...skinny OR fat, we need those rides to be safe. Period.
I have no problems with fat people (I used to be obese), but I don't see how this reportage is exactly letting the operator off the hook. If you've ever been to Great Adventure and recoiled in fear at seeing a fat person being locked into the Batman ride and thought about them shooting off the ride once it starts, it's very easy to imagine rides like these being compromised over time because of the unbelievable pressure they sustain over time because of overweight persons. Yeah, amusement parks need to be safe for everyone, but it seems rather hypocritical that obese persons who CAN do something about their weight should be so vigilant about such safety measures when they so callously disregard their own bodies everyday.
same with a skinny ADD kid who can't sit still and squirms under the seat bar and get's rocketed to the ground. I dance my jig when I see that happen.
ADD my ass, he's just dumb, stupid and LAZY.
Jen, Your post says the Polar Express is operated by Astroland. NOT TRUE! The Polar Express is on 12th St, just down the street from the sideshow and is not even in Astroland Park. The ride is owned and operated by the Guerrero family
Someone should tell the guys investigating the latest death at Playland in Rye that this is what it looks like when the ride owners can be faulted. At least this time the victim wasn't being a complete moron.
Um, how "heavyset" was she?
Rides with a single bar-type restraint rely on a ratcheting mechanism which will go one way prior to start, which is in, and be released at the end of the ride. If her front-back dimensiion was more than the point where the ratchet was engaged, she was essentially unrestrained.
A bigger problen is when a "bigger" person sits next to a kid. The bar only engages to the depth of the bigger. The kid is left unrestrained.
This is one of the main reasons for trying to do away with row ratchet bars and use individual restraints.
Or it could have been a failed retaining pin. Sometimes a cheap cotter pin is subbed for the OEM hard pin with lock. Has been known to happen before.
Dadoc
i am so sick of f$%#$%ing fat bashing its always ok esp if its a woman! try saying the same thing about a different subsect of people and people cry foul-not so with a fat woman- unfair!
Wny are you using a pic of Deno's Wonder Wheel Park when this ride is an independent one on 12th st? That pic is misleading and it's not that hard to find an actual polar express pic.
Hey, #8, go eat a box of Twinkies and calm down.
BTW, is a "subsect" a group of people who worship hero sandwiches?