Re:Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design St...
by Pulcinella on Monday March 26, 2018 @07:04PM
(#16683510)
Yes NASCAR and IndyCar oval tracks have catch fences around a at least part of the tracks. These are for the safety of the fans, not the drivers. Crashing into the fence will shred the car. This is how Dan Wheldon died.
Re:Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design St...
by ascagnel_ on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @09:32AM
(#16688126)
Not to mention that both series design cars to avoid going airborne or rolling as much as possible (the fenders on the DW12 IndyCars, the arrestor flaps on stock car roofs).
Re:Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design St...
by dawnerd on Monday March 26, 2018 @08:04PM
(#16683912)
Alternative would be a different track layout. Universal opened Volcano Bay last year with an aqua coaster where it's pretty much impossible for the raft to come up because it, surprise, uses upstops to prevent it from going airborne.
Whats interesting, and where they probably for the idea for the netting (they have one in the park): https://www.whitewaterwest.com/products/master-blaster/
Re:Water Slide That Decapitated Boy Violated Basic Design St...
by crooked-v on Monday March 26, 2018 @08:37PM
(#16684112)
The difference, of course, is that the netting in the image on that page pretty obviously isn't meant to catch people. It's more likely there to keep birds out or to keep somebody's phone or hat from shooting across the park at high speeds, or just to keep idiots from intentionally climbing out of the tube while it's elevated.
If that situation occurs for which the netting is there, it follows that the riders are hitting those hoops at full speed at an oblique angle. You're not going to somehow nicely land between those metal hoops and be caught just by the netting alone. (If that were possible, it doesn't seem safe, either, for that matter).
A much more appropriate restraint (if we can even discuss such a thing here) would be for that section of the track to be a fully enclosed, smooth tube.