Too big to ride a roller coaster

I was at King's Island amusement park near Cincinnati, Ohio, last night.  It was the park's last regular season night.  I took my son and daughter for an hour to catch two rides:  Diamondback and The Beast.

The park was not busy an hour before closing so we almost walked up to the gate on DBack.  Waiting in line for the front row we had some time to observe.  As we got to the point where we were one ride away, a staffer came up to the guys just in front of us.  He asked if they would mind too much if they took the next car as there was a special rider circumstance.  The guys were fine.  They would get a ride in a minute. 

What was a special rider circumstance?  At that point, the car was loaded but for the front seats.  Two men, one older, likely a father son duo, were approaching from the exit side of the car.  A second staffer joined the first at the front of the car.  Both the staffers together weighed less than one of the big guys. 

The fleshy fellas, both in shorts and giant, sleeveless T-shirts, squeezed into the bucket seats. The two staffers then proceeded to try to get the lap bars to lock down on them.  Diamondback has only what appears to be a handlebar on a stalk that comes toward you and settles between your legs.  The handles go across your thighs and there are additional grips on top for the faint hearted. 

When you get into the car the stalk comes back and clicks into place.  It was not to be on these two big boys.  The Kings Island staffers were discrete and diligent, but they were no match, short of sitting on the safety bar, to overcome the sheer piles of soft flesh that must have been resting across the thighs of big daddy and son.  It was not for a lack of trying. 

It was a painful moment for the duo.  It had to be horrible.  It had to be just as painful for the thirty or forty people watching.  In the thirty seconds or so that it went on, it was silent in the waiting area.  No laughing, none of the usual nervous chatter.  We all just watched, agog at the scene.  In the end, the staffers could not make the safety bars secure.  Not even one little click. 

The big guys had to leave the way they came, but bearing a mental and emotional scar, I'm sure.   It was haunting and daunting and hopefully illuminating to them.  I hope that they see that horrible moment as a turning point and change their lives, or at least their eating habits.

If they get their acts together, then next year they can ride.  I hope they make it a goal and do it.