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Coasters to Face G-Force Limits?

Posted by chrisd on from the but-is-the-tilt-a-whirl-is-still-safe dept.

jonerik writes "NBC News is reporting that today New Jersey will begin examining the possibility of placing limits on roller coaster G-forces. Pointing out that the G-forces on coasters are considerably greater than even those experienced by astronauts and race car drivers, legislators on both the state and national levels want to start reining in coaster G-forces which have been blamed for a number of injuries and deaths over the past few years. Pansies. Why do they think people ride roller coasters to begin with?"

3 of 568 comments (clear)

  1. Roller Coasters in Jersey by lkaos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are an aweful lot of roller coasters in New Jersey, and most aren't in big theme parks (like Six Flags and stuff).

    Most are on the board walk on small piers, and there have been a number of deaths (actually, usually at least one every summer) from poorly design and/or maintained coasters. Regulating coasters is not necessarily a bad idea.

    It makes sense to not allow high speed coasters on little piers that don't have enough staff to maintain it properly. I think that is the basis of a law like this.

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  2. Re:57 known cases by Crazy+Diamond · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Trend? I see incomplete data. Also a self-fulfilling prophecy. Where are statistics about ridership versus injuries?

    "If a drug caused 58 cases of brain damage, it would be pulled!" Do some research. Do you know how many thousands of deaths each year are attributed to very popular FDA approved OVER THE COUNTER drugs? Do Tylenol and Asprin ring a bell?

    Why don't you work on banning alcohol which causes orders of magnitude more deaths and permanent injuries than something as insignificant as roller coaster.

    Don't you understand that we have much greater problems to worry about in this country and regulating roller coasters is not the best place to spend our tax dollars right now?

    Today in terms of safety expenditures, we spend $0.0021 per mile for airlines, $0.00015 per mile for automobiles. If we spend $0.00015 per mile on roller coasters we would only be spending $75,000 per year. In 1997 there were 21920 auto fatalities, 3 roller coaster fatalities.

  3. Re:Great... by SnatMandu · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The government's job is to attempt to preserve the lives of those who are willing to risk them.

    No, that's not their job. But sometimes they think it is, and that is pretty god-damned unfortunate.