Did anyone hear about the 17 year old; head cut off by rollercoaster at Six Flags?

Question

A 17-year old boy dropped his hat after riding a rollercoaster at Six Flags. Well, he took the incident into his own hands, and went over two, six foot fences, that had warning signs, etc. That tells you to stay out. That was a crazy idea, but it get's even crazier!

He goes under the coaster to get his hat, and the rollercoaster is coming at 45-50MPH, and the teens head is immediately cut off.

Has anyone else heard about this incident? How do you guys feel about it?

Answer 1

From screamscape:

"The news has been buzzing since last night over the decapitation of a teenager at Six Flags over Georgia, but the strange thing is that no one report still has the clear story on just what happened or exactly why he entered the restricted area under Batman: The Ride.

  The updated facts we do know is that he was 17 years old and visiting the park as part of a church group from Columbia, South Carolina. We do know that he scaled not just one, but two tall fences covered with warning signs to gain access to the area under Batman: The Ride. As confirmed by the park, the fences in question are 6 feet tall so this was no easy task. One was a wrought-iron perimeter fence and the second was a chain-link fence that blocked off the Batman: The Ride restricted area itself.

SFOG_080102_Batman4_300  Several of the reports also claim that a “friend” scaled the fences with him but avoided being killed by the coaster. So far there has been no public statement from this “friend” for the reason why he did it. While some of the later news reports have speculated that he may have been trying to retrieve a ‘hat’ he lost, this goes against the early reports that he was trying to grab someone’s legs hanging down from the coaster. There is also the common sense factor (that went out the window when he jumped the first fence…) that someone just trying to get a lost hat would have at least waited until the coaster was not in the area before going after it. Someone only after a hat would not have been trying to get as close to the coaster as possible, so I suspect something else may have been going on here. News reports have now mentioned that he climbed into the Batman area from the parking lot side of the park. It seems the group had left the park to have lunch in the parking lot. In this case… since he was clearly outside the park, it’s not like he just got off the ride and lost his hat, so the lost hat story makes even less sense. In fact another report also mentions that they believe the victim was trying to make a ‘short cut’ back into the park and chose to climb over the two fences rather than walk around to the main gate.

  While this wouldn’t be the first death of this type, in previous cases the victims were usually killed by being struck by the legs of the riders. In this case, there has been no report of him being struck by a rider because that would have caused a second injury and been mentioned. So we can only assume that either the riders managed to see him and lifted their legs to avoid him.

  In the end he was struck by the coaster itself (not a rider) which apparently sent him flying up and into one of the ride’s support posts where he was decapitated by the impact. Batman was closed for the rest of the day and will remain closed today, but the park expects to reopen the coaster by Monday."

So obviously no one knows the exact reason why the kid jumped the fence...could be just trying to be cool or just trying to grab a hat.

And this has happened before many times where people were struck by a coaster train..but this one is unique as it's unclear why the kid did it for, and you can clearly hear and see the coaster train zoom through the track, so you would get out of the way before it hit you...and this is an inverted coaster! That means the feet hang suspeneded below track unlike a typical coaster...so obviously someone else on the train would be injured as well.

You can read a news report about it here that was published today: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story....

And more news from screamscape about it here: http://www.screamscape.com/html/six_flag...

Answer 2

yea.. i live in california LA/OC area... tragic.. but kinda dumb...

he scaled a fence to get his hat... he could of easily just waited and told the ride operators...

their where people on the news who saw/hear it happen saying they heard a loud "Snap!" reffering to his decapitation...

Answer 3

it is sad that somebody died ,but he was stupid to hop the fence there is no one to blame but the kid

Answer 4

Yeah I've heard about it...apparantly his parents were there with him so i doubt it would have been a suicide attempt or anything.  That is so crazy that he jumped over the two 6-foot fences that said KEEP OUT!! I mean really, he could have just asked an attendant for help to stop the coaster and get his hat back at the end of the day or something.

It's just ridiculous because it gives 6 flags even more of a bad rep (remember that guy with down syndrome who jumped off of superman at six flags NE?) when it's not really their fault.  They tried to warn the kid but he was adament about getting over those fences, so it really is too bad in my opinion.

Answer 5

nope

Answer 6

if he had a brain he would have just said to himself, oh it's just a hat i can by A NEW ONE!?.

Answer 7

I heard of this.  It happened on the Batman ride in Six Flags Over Georgia.  It was all over the news.  I think it was really stupid of him to go over the fences just for a hat, he could always buy another!  I think it was completely his fault, and the company shouldn't have to deal with it.  If you want to find out more below is the link...

Answer 8

Wow, that is completely bizarre. I didn't hear about this. I feel bad for his parents that they had to witness this.

Answer 9

he wanted 2 b funny so he thought it would be funny if he hangs on peoples legs.[it was a ride were your feet hang!!] MY PARENTS TOLD ME BUT I DIDNT BELIVE IT

Answer 10

Yes, I think it was stupid just buy another hat. Also the mother has no right to sue the park after the teenager took the situation into his own hands this is a load of Bull c**p

Answer 11

wow. for real thats crazy.....

Good thing i never went to Six Flags:)

Answer 12

yeah i heard about it yesterday and ironically at an amusement park :). yeah anyway so not worth it. seriously it's a hat :|. just get a new one.