Volume 3, No. 12. June 27, 2003
Coaster Con Report
Safety
first
Coaster
Conventions are all about celebration. This year’s event, marking the end
of the American Coaster Enthusiasts’ 25th anniversary year at two Virginia
parks—Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Paramount’s Kings Dominion—where
the organization got its start, was to be the most celebratory of all. The 713
registrants were the third most in the club’s 26-year Coaster Con history.
Instead, a pall hung over the proceedings. The May 31 death of ACE member Tamar
Fellner, 32, at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana,
colored the weeklong events of Coaster Con XXVI. The fatality that occurred
while some 850 enthusiasts had descended on Holiday World for the annual Stark
Raven Mad event dominated discussion at ACE’s annual business meeting.
Barry Short of Richmond, Virginia, earned third place in the convention’s
annual video contest with his sweet-cum-bitter footage titled “Stark Raven
Mad Memories” chronicling that tragic Saturday in a black-and-white, faux-vintage
film that brilliantly captured a sense of lost innocence.
Losing a member, even a new one, was hard enough. That the accident occurred
at Holiday World, one of ACE’s greatest allies, on a favorite coaster,
The Raven, hurt even more. That it happened simultaneous to an enthusiasts'
event made it all the more troubling. But it was the nature of the accident
that raised the ire of ACE’s executive committee. According to law enforcement
reports and an independent investigation, Ms. Fellner was standing in her seat
during the fatal ride.
ACE distributes a code of conduct to all its members, now numbering about 8,000,
upon their joining. That code includes adhering to all safety rules of ride
operations at the parks. Failure to do so can lead to expulsion from the club.
Furthermore, ACE members are required to report violations of that code to ACE
or park officials. Notably, the Raven accident occurred not during ERT
but on the last public ride of the night while the enthusiasts were supposed
to be gathering in the park’s picnic pavilion.
“If we don’t conduct ourselves to this code of conduct, there will
be no ACE events. Parks will not invite us,” ACE President Carole Sanderson
told almost 200 members gathered for the club's annual business meeting. Already
sensing a distancing by park operators—despite the fact this was the first
ride-related death in the history of the club, which has had more than 25,000
members over the years—the ACE Executive Committee will be publishing an
open letter to the industry describing its code of conduct and its enforcement
of that policy. “Basically, we’re reiterating everything we already
have, but people forget it,” Sanderson said.
Well before the Holiday World incident ACE had already changed the rules in
its annual video and photography contest disqualifying any point-of-view ride
shots, a nod to many parks’ regulations forbidding cameras on coasters.
In the wake of Ms. Fellner’s death, the organization also has changed its
policy toward non-ACE members attending ACE events. In the past, they merely
had to adhere to the code of conduct or be expelled from the event. Now non-members
can attend events only as guests of a member, and in addition to the non-member
being expelled from the park, the member becomes responsible for all of that
nonmember’s actions.
“We cannot let the actions of a few people in this club ruin it for 8,000
people,” Sanderson said at the meeting, a statement which incited a loud
round of applause from her fellow enthusiasts.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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