Efteling offers new safety solution for coaster fans
Efteling is offering a new safety solution for thrill ride fans with leg prostheses.
The park's new SafeStrap allows visitors with leg prostheses to ride several park attractions without having to remove their prosthesis. The device will be available starting October 1 for riders on the floorless dive coaster Baron 1898, the Hooghmoed free-fall towers, and the park's swing rides. The new Ravenring attraction also will use the device when that ride opens December 1.
Riders using SafeStrap on Baron 1989. Photo courtesy Efteling
Let's talk about thrill ride restraint systems for a moment. The general concept is to develop a restraint system that can accommodate as many riders as possible while allowing operators to unload, load and dispatch the ride vehicle as quickly as possible.
That typically leads designers to a one-style-for-all solution, where all the seats on a train or ride employ the same system. That makes it easy for operators to load and dispatch, as all they need to do is check that riders have engaged the restraint, whether that's a lap bar, seatbelt, or over-the-shoulders pulldown bar. There's no need to customize the restraint offered for each rider.
Prospective riders who cannot be accommodated by the ride's restraint system would be excluded from the ride. Most often, that means a minimum rider height. But in some cases, that also has meant that people with a leg prosthesis, for example, would not be allowed to ride without removing it, given that the default restraint may not be able to secure the prosthesis.
Efteling's device removes that restriction. But it does so with an extra device that must be put on before the ride can dispatch. The challenge here is whether that has enough of a detrimental effect on load time that it reduces ride capacity to a significant extent.
The percentage of the population with leg prostheses is low - less than 1 percent. And I suspect that the percentage is even lower within the thrill ride community. So the time to get on and off a ride with the SafeStrap might easily get lost in the noise of variance among different hundreds of other riders' natural load and unload times. The downside then to the general population of coaster riders might be low, but the upside to a fan with a prothesis could be huge.
"From the very beginning, we worked together with prosthesis users, healthcare professionals and Efteling to develop a solution that is both safe and practical for users and amusement parks," said India Hoekman, who developed SafeStrap as part of her graduation project at Delft University of Technology. "I find it incredibly special that the product I designed as part of my final-year project is actually being used now."
Following its launch at Efteling, the SafeStrap is now available worldwide to theme parks and prosthetic users. Parks wishing to use the SafeStrap must, in consultation with their own regulatory body, obtain approval for its use on each individual ride.
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