Amusement Park Troubles
-
ZebProctor
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:56 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: Nov 2012 motorcycle accident. C4-C7 avulsed. T1 partially attached. Primary Nerve Graft done in March 2013.
Amusement Park Troubles
Always been a fan of Amusement Parks so I was curious after my accident how my injury would impact this. Well last month I found out. I went to both with my arm very securly strapped with my Dan Aldrich Sling.
The first park I attended was 6 Flags in Dallas, TX. This park was the worst of the two. Almost every ride they insisted since my right arm was in a "cast" that I sit in the far right seat. Even if I showed them there was no cast, that my arm was just in a sling, they still made me do this. It was irritating for a few reasons. One was that since my right arm is not usable I've become used to sitting to the left of my wife. This gives me, and her more elbow room. The other reason is that I was attempting to video each ride with a gopro and the left seat gave me a better angle. No ride attendant nor the few supervisors I spoke to could give me any valid reason why a person with a paralyzed arm strapped to their chest should sit with that arm on the outside. If anything I would think having the flail arm on the INSIDE would ensure that if it came out of the sling it would just bounce around the inside of the ride not swing out the ride to possibly hit something and/or get ripped off.
I attended the next park, Knotts Berry, in LA, just a few days ago. This park had a wildly different approach. They had no care what seat I sat in, but for a few of the rides they made me unstrap the sling so my arm was flopping around. And with the bulkiness of the restraints on the rides, I was unable to reach over with my other arm and hold down the flail arm. Luckily my wife was able to do so since I wasn't forced to sit with my flail arm to the outside but I again could get no reason why my arm couldn't be strapped to my chest even though its paralyzed. The worst experience of the day was when they insisted I not only release the sling but take it all the way off. There were people wearing huge jackets but I couldn't have the fabric from the sling covering my arm for some reason.
With both parks I give the attendants extremely low scores in customer service. I know most are just following whatever rules the park has in place and I don't expect everyone to understand the tbpi injury buy when I show you I don't have a cast and you're still enforcing rules intended for people with casts, you're an idiot.
Feel free to check out the videos I took on the rides at my youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ5WEs ... ity_view=3
The first park I attended was 6 Flags in Dallas, TX. This park was the worst of the two. Almost every ride they insisted since my right arm was in a "cast" that I sit in the far right seat. Even if I showed them there was no cast, that my arm was just in a sling, they still made me do this. It was irritating for a few reasons. One was that since my right arm is not usable I've become used to sitting to the left of my wife. This gives me, and her more elbow room. The other reason is that I was attempting to video each ride with a gopro and the left seat gave me a better angle. No ride attendant nor the few supervisors I spoke to could give me any valid reason why a person with a paralyzed arm strapped to their chest should sit with that arm on the outside. If anything I would think having the flail arm on the INSIDE would ensure that if it came out of the sling it would just bounce around the inside of the ride not swing out the ride to possibly hit something and/or get ripped off.
I attended the next park, Knotts Berry, in LA, just a few days ago. This park had a wildly different approach. They had no care what seat I sat in, but for a few of the rides they made me unstrap the sling so my arm was flopping around. And with the bulkiness of the restraints on the rides, I was unable to reach over with my other arm and hold down the flail arm. Luckily my wife was able to do so since I wasn't forced to sit with my flail arm to the outside but I again could get no reason why my arm couldn't be strapped to my chest even though its paralyzed. The worst experience of the day was when they insisted I not only release the sling but take it all the way off. There were people wearing huge jackets but I couldn't have the fabric from the sling covering my arm for some reason.
With both parks I give the attendants extremely low scores in customer service. I know most are just following whatever rules the park has in place and I don't expect everyone to understand the tbpi injury buy when I show you I don't have a cast and you're still enforcing rules intended for people with casts, you're an idiot.
Feel free to check out the videos I took on the rides at my youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ5WEs ... ity_view=3
-
Dan
- Posts: 170
- Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:08 pm
- Injury Description, Date, extent, surgical intervention etc: Injured 5/11/86, had just turned 18 yrs old
Evulsed C5-T1
Intercostal into Bicep 10/86 - Location: Los Angeles
- Contact:
Re: Amusement Park Troubles
Hi Zeb,
If you are still in the LA area, let's grab lunch.
As far as rides, I have never had an issue, I also haven't tried wearing my sling. I just get in and let er rip.
Thinking about the issue you faced, I am sure they are responding out of prior issues with people with casts or some form of a sling, which as we know, us using a sling is vastly different from other uses, plus the sling you are using is unlike any sling they have experienced. My thought for future roller-coaster rides would maybe be to contact customer service and see about visiting them when you first arrive at the park to briefly explain your injury, sling and that you are fully capable to do the rides and then get a note you could use as you board the ride that let's you ride like anyone else. Not sure if that is possible, but might be worth a call to an amusement park to see how they respond.
Dan
If you are still in the LA area, let's grab lunch.
As far as rides, I have never had an issue, I also haven't tried wearing my sling. I just get in and let er rip.
Thinking about the issue you faced, I am sure they are responding out of prior issues with people with casts or some form of a sling, which as we know, us using a sling is vastly different from other uses, plus the sling you are using is unlike any sling they have experienced. My thought for future roller-coaster rides would maybe be to contact customer service and see about visiting them when you first arrive at the park to briefly explain your injury, sling and that you are fully capable to do the rides and then get a note you could use as you board the ride that let's you ride like anyone else. Not sure if that is possible, but might be worth a call to an amusement park to see how they respond.
Dan
