Home Page
Safety
Construction
History
 
Interesting Facts
Types
References
Authors
Glossary
Testing
     
After the cars are installed, a roller coaster goes through dozens and dozens of tests. The first couple of tests are run with the seats empty, just to see if the coaster runs correctly. The next set of tests are run with weighted sandbags, or mannequins in the seats to see if the coaster can withstand the weight of passengers.
The sandbags or mannequins weigh somewhere between the minimum and maximum passenger weight (those weight depends on the roller coaster). Finally, the workers who built ,
Safety
 
Safety Features
 
Accidents
 
Testing
or designed the coaster, take her for a spin! By this time, it`s only about a week or two until the roller coaster is open to the public.
 Throughout all the tests, they are also looking to see if the restraints work properly. There are three main types of restraints, the shoulder restraint, the lap bar and the seat belt. The first type of restraint is the shoulder restraint, which comes down over your shoulders and prevents riders from shaking around and from falling out of the car when it goes on a loop. The second type of restraint is the lap bar, which basically just keeps you from flying out of the car! The last type of restraint is the seat belt, which does just about the same thing as the lap bar - it keeps you from flying out of the car. Seat belts are usually just in kiddy coasters.