Amusement Park Rides

Some experts on amusement park rides called this weekend for adopting recommendations to train park workers to shut down rides immediately after an accident and stay with any injured person. In addition, the experts at a national conference in San Diego called lap bars a mostly psychological safety device that do little to physically restrain riders.

Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is closing Jan. 7 to get new tracks, vehicles and paint. It will be the third major overhaul of a major Disneyland ride in as many years. The railroad in the Frontierland section of the Anaheim park has been operating since 1979 and portrays a runaway train that speeds through a barren Old West landscape. The ride is expected to reopen in fall 2013. Disneyland completed a similar overhaul of its Matterhorn Bobsleds ride this year that also included new paint, tracks and vehicles.

Recent deaths on amusement-park rides in California and Texas are prompting calls for tougher and more uniform regulation of the multibillion-dollar industry. Legislators in both states are pushing for more rigorous state oversight of rides that shoot park-goers down water-filled flumes, whirl them in the air or send them jouncing through simulations of off-road adventures. And a current and former U.S.

Thrill seekers will have to wait a little longer for a big new ride as Knott's Berry Farm unveiled plans for a trio of family attractions in 2013 aimed at bridging the gap in the Buena Park theme park's collection of kiddie and extreme rides. > Photos: A trio of family rides coming to Knott's in 2013 Knott's plans to add a wild mouse coaster, a flying scooter and a classic scrambler ride in summer 2013 to the Boardwalk section of the park, reusing a man-made lake left over from a water ride removed to make room for the new additions.

Investigators are looking into whether weight was a factor in the death of a woman who fell from a steep water ride Friday at Knott's Berry Farm. Lori Mason-Larez, 40, of Duarte fell from the Perilous Plunge ride as it dropped 115 feet at up to 50 mph. The mother of five slipped from both a seat belt and lap bar and fell to the water below.

The family of a man who was killed in 2003 when a wheel assembly fell off a locomotive on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and caused it to crash settled a lawsuit Friday against the Walt Disney Co. for an undisclosed sum. While the settlement's terms are confidential, Marcelo Torres' parents said they were giving $500,000 of it to Brooks College in Long Beach to provide scholarships to aspiring animators. Their 22-year-old son was a graphic artist.

The cause of a sickness that affected 30 people on Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride over the weekend has not been determined, a spokeswoman for the park said Sunday afternoon. But two of the six persons who were treated Saturday night at a hospital for coughing, tight chests, burning eyes, skin blotches and nausea said a doctor told them that "a gas, something like Mace" apparently caused their symptoms.

A state safety panel met Thursday in Los Angeles to iron out regulations for amusement park rides. The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board said it will consider comments made at the meeting and in writing by theme park officials, their lawyers and consumer advocates. Legislation passed in 1999 requires theme parks to report ride injuries and sets up a state inspection and investigation system.

State safety inspectors Wednesday interviewed the operator believed to be responsible for a roller coaster crash this week at the Orange County Fair, focusing on the possibility that he was distracted from activating the ride's brakes because he was trying to do two jobs at once.

Six Flags Inc., the second-biggest U.S. theme-park operator, closed a free-fall ride at four of its parks after a cable snapped on the attraction at its Louisville, Ky., park and severed the feet of a 13-year-old girl. Cedar Fair, operator of amusement parks including Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, said it temporarily shut down five similar rides at its locations. Rides at Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags' Magic Mountain in Valencia were not affected.

Steve Wicke is "just big into space. " The Westminster man took four months off his warehouse job last year to visit every NASA site in the United States. On Saturday, he joined an estimated 20,000 people who swarmed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's leafy campus for its annual open house weekend. Buses and SUVs clogged Oak Grove Drive near the La Cañada Flintridge boundary with Pasadena and filled JPL parking lots to disgorge passengers of all ages, who descended on the exhibits and activities as if they were new amusement park rides.

Southern California theme parks last year had few new attractions but lots of discounts, bargains and two-for-one deals for recession-weary vacationers. But this summer get ready for a 3-D King Kong, 200-foot-tall animated waterspouts and a 45-foot tall Lego water slide. Buoyed by an improving economy, most major Southern California theme parks have made multimillion-dollar investments in new attractions opening this summer to help attendance numbers rebound from last year's slump.

A few weeks before the opening of Santa Catalina Island's zipline attraction, its designer popped a question that caught a handful of local officials and visiting journalists off guard: "Want to zip?" Bradd Morse, the president of Canopy Tours Inc., was mindful that being among the first to hurtle over rocky, cactus-filled canyons at speeds of up to 40 mph while dangling from a cable as high as 300 feet off the ground might make some people nervous. But getting these individuals -- public safety officials, mostly -- to take a ride on the Catalina Zipline Eco-Tour is all part of the plan to transform this struggling harbor community of about 3,000 people into a more prominent Southern California destination.

After nearly 19 months away from the spotlight, a new King Kong -- more grizzled and, definitely, ferocious -- is preparing to return to Universal Studios Hollywood. Since the old animatronic Kong was destroyed in a fire on the theme park's back lot, Hollywood's top visual effects wizards have been tinkering away in a giant hangar in Playa Vista to create a new, more realistic ape to terrify visitors who take the park's signature back lot studio tour. Inside the humongous drab-green building, Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson has led a team of film and theme park ride experts in creating a 3-D version of the hairy ape to replace the Kong that died in the June 2008 fire.

It looks like Abraham Lincoln. It moves like Abraham Lincoln. And it quotes Abraham Lincoln. But historians say it still doesn't sound like Abraham Lincoln. After a four-year absence, Walt Disney Co. pulls the curtain back today on a new high-tech version of Lincoln for its "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" show at the Opera House on Main Street in Disneyland. The animatronic Lincoln, incorporating cutting-edge technology that gives the mechanical man nuanced, lifelike facial expressions and lip movements, first premiered debuted at the 1964 World's Fair in New York.

Michael Jackson was never a fixture on the county fair circuit, but his Neverland rides now are on a never-ending tour. The attractions he set up in his estate's private amusement park have been auctioned off and are being trucked from carnival to carnival, pitched as a chance to take a spin on a piece of history. At the far end of the midway at the Tulare County Fair in the Central Valley this month, signs announced: "Michael ride here! This is one of Michael Jackson's rides from Neverland Ranch!"

After nearly 19 months away from the spotlight, a new King Kong -- more grizzled and, definitely, ferocious -- is preparing to return to Universal Studios Hollywood. Since the old animatronic Kong was destroyed in a fire on the theme park's back lot, Hollywood's top visual effects wizards have been tinkering away in a giant hangar in Playa Vista to create a new, more realistic ape to terrify visitors who take the park's signature back lot studio tour. Inside the humongous drab-green building, Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson has led a team of film and theme park ride experts in creating a 3-D version of the hairy ape to replace the Kong that died in the June 2008 fire.

A woman died at a New Orleans amusement park when she was struck by one of the rides, officials said. Rosa Donaldson, 52, was killed in an accident on a teacup-style "circular family ride" called the Joker's Jukebox, said Ann Wills, spokeswoman for Six Flags New Orleans amusement park. Local news reports said Donaldson apparently was standing near one of the cars trying to strap in her 4-year-old grandson when the ride started up.

Two monorail trains crashed early Sunday morning in the Magic Kingdom section of Walt Disney World, killing one train's operator, emergency officials said. Disney said it was the first fatal crash in the monorail's 38-year history in the park. The transit system, which shuttles thousands of visitors around the sprawling resort each day, was shut down while authorities investigated. The monorail operator died at the scene of the crash, which happened about 2 a.m.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. is dreaming big. The studio behind the hit films "Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda," seeking to expand beyond its core animation movie business, is making an aggressive push into television, touring musicals, theme park attractions and even a Cirque du Soleil-style revue inspired by "Kung Fu Panda."