Ferris Wheel.... of DEATH!

[Morrigoon]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20248185/

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I always imagine this happening when I'm on the sun wheel. I'm sorry it happened in real life.

[CoasterMatt]

Korea's doing well at maiming/killing off guests at carnivals this season.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Ooops. The sun wheel worries me because there's water under it. If a car falls I can't get out. I'll have to take a look and see if there's something I'd be able to dismantle to get out.

[cirquelover]

How sadly tragic. I find it amazing that the 70 yr old managed to hang on though.

[flippyshark]

This sort of story is always chilling, especially as really no park is immune to such disasters. (Not even Disneyland, obviously.) The more basic and primitive the ride, the more I tend to feel antsy on it. Ferris Wheels always make me nervous. It's especially heartbreaking that a 7 year old boy was killed.

Wow, abgrrl, if you figure out an emergency escape procedure, let me know. The Sun Wheel certainly triggers my most pessimistic imaginings.

[Capt Jack]

Capt Jack
hater of ferris wheels in all their forms

[Chernabog]

Ugh I will never, ever go on the sun wheel again or any other ferris wheel. I know this was a freak accident, but it gives me the willies to be just HANGING there up in the air.

Roller coasters, freefall drop rides, bring it on. I just can't handle dangling for LONG periods of time.

[CoasterMatt]

Um... If a car falls off Sun Wheel, you're falling close to 40 meters in an enclosed steel box, do you really think you're gonna have to worry about getting out in a few feet of water? :evil:

Seriously, though - Sun Wheel at DCA is a big tubular steel beast of a machine, there are redundancies upon redundancies designed into the closures of it's gondolas, and it's inspected (both X-ray and nondestructive particle testing of welds) more often than any bridge in the U.S. I'd put my money on a catastrophic failure of that horrible parking structure before any ride at DCA.

(I'm not kidding about being more afraid of the parking structure than any of the rides, either).

[Morrigoon]

Up until the major refurb the Matterhorn was pretty hairy as far as the structure was concerned too.

I'm going to venture a guess that their standards for safety aren't what ours are.

[€uroMeinke]

My fear of the sun wheel, is that it fall off it's axle into the lagoon, where safely locked in your cage, you slowly drown to death in the same waters that hosted Luminaria and the Angels victory celebration.

[scaeagles]

Ironically, when I clicked the link, the ad the the top of the article was "Click here for your ultimate getaway". Ultimate getaway indeed.

[CoasterMatt]

Sun Wheel was built by Intamin/Ridetrade - it'll only kill fat people.

[Alex]

If amusement park rides regularly killed more people then I might be able to actually find them exciting.

[scaeagles]

Try skydiving.

[Not Afraid]

Sun Wheel was built by Intamin/Ridetrade - it'll only kill fat people.

Good thing all of us are so tiny, eh?

[Alex]

Try skydiving.

I will someday, but the big negative is that I'd have to go alone.

[scaeagles]

(nuked a duplicate post)

[scaeagles]

Or, speaking of skydiving, how about this guy (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=474879&in_page_id=1811) - how cool with that be to create your own sonic boom.

[CoasterMatt]

That is SO cool!

I can create my own sonic boom - Rancho Zocalo, style.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

:( This is such an awful, awful story. The ones that survived are forever marked by this carnival ride. Terrible.

[Ghoulish Delight]

ETA: Gads, the OP is...unsettling.

"Ensure his bodily fluids don't boil"? Hooey.

This sounds like a job for....NASA (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html)

And right now, the image of a very disgruntled Alex falling from an airplane with some dude strapped to his back is making my evening. :D

[RStar]

ETA: Gads, the OP is...unsettling.

"Ensure his bodily fluids don't boil"? Hooey.

This sounds like a job for....NASA (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html)

And right now, the image of a very disgruntled Alex falling from an airplane with some dude strapped to his back is making my evening. :D

Why is he discruntled? Because Lani won't go? I'd go with you Alex, if it weren't for my operation, which may prevent me from even going on ToT for ever :( . I've always wanted to skydive. I may have to settle for the hot air ballon ride in Irvine.....

[Ghoulish Delight]

Why is he discruntled? Because he doesn't want to have to do a tandem jump.

[CoasterMatt]

He doesn't HAVE to do a tandem jump, he could always go base jump...

[Kevy Baby]

He doesn't HAVE to do a tandem jump, he could always go base jump...Or take a skydiving lesson. That is what I did and never did a tandem. My first jump was on my first day.

Unless they have changed the rules, tandem is just for those who don't want to take the full lesson.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I will someday, but the big negative is that I'd have to go alone.
Hmm, perhaps I did misunderstand that. I thought you meant you were putting it off until you could do it without doing a tandem jump.

[Alex]

No, I meant I'd want someone to go with me. But even so, someday I'll do it.

[Capt Jack]

I see no valid reason for leaving a perfectly good airplane in mid flight, tandem or otherwise.

[Morrigoon]

hear, hear!

[Kevy Baby]

I see no valid reason for leaving a perfectly good airplane in mid flight, tandem or otherwise.After watching the plane that we would be jumping out of land a couple of times, I decided I would rather jump out of it than land in it.

Also, it gave Susan and I the opportunity to be able to say that we have landing together in more planes than we have taken off in together. That never fails to illicit some odd looks.