For the non-enthusiasts that clicked to join us, roller coasters are designed with a clearance envelope. Along this tube the maximum reach of park guests is calculated to give riders ample room that they can enjoy their favorite rides without risking injury. Even if they prefer to ride with their hands up, given up totally to the forces of the ride.

I first saw it in real life years ago, but was first made aware last summer by a post at the rollercoasters subreddit.

Once you see it, you don’t unsee it. On every POV you watch it whiz past. In the most dramatic of sunset photos, your eyes are drawn to it.

At the fifth connection of the massive structure supporting the ride’s awe-inspiring opening overbank, with nearly all the potential momentum left in the ride, is a notch in the supports to achieve the necessary ride clearance.

My jaw dropped when I first saw it. How could I have careened past this and not noticed it? Had it been there to be noticed? Would it have been designed like this? Could it have opened if it hadn’t been? If they noticed, when? How?

Obviously, I was full of questions. Turning to YouTube proved surprisingly fruitless. As far back as I could find POVs, there the notch was.

Though Millennium Force was a highly publicized attraction covered in many travel-oriented television series and in special reports on news stations, these higher production value pieces of media rarely provided even an obstructed view of the support in question.

At times, it almost seemed as if the support had been edited around entirely, shots beginning or ending just as riders entered or left the trouble spot.

I sought out the advice of enthusiasts, but nobody with a definitive answer heard the question. Most people knew of it. Nobody really knew much about it though.

The only solution seemed to be redoubling efforts on the search for myself, starting with YouTube POVs as old as I could find them.

The further back I went the worse the video resolutions became, but still clear enough to make out the distinctive notch. The POVs themselves became rare the further back in time I went, with noise of off-ride compilations in the early thousands drowning out potential prospects. Even then, it was between difficult and impossible to date the exact season the videos were taken.

Finally I stumbled upon news stories from media day, true opening year videos. Again, most seemed to almost purposefully edit around the support, and though one did feature it the video was simply too low quality to make any judgment with confidence.

Remembering the obsessive hours spent following the Cedar Point webcam, I turned to construction photos. Curiously, none seemed to want to put the coaster’s premier element into full view. At least not close up enough to really see the questionable support.

If something was wrong with Cedar Point’s prize new attraction of 2000 they certainly would have been motivated to keep things quiet. Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts had been trying for years to achieve federal oversight of theme parks. Any examples of accidents at theme parks or design flaws in rides bolstered their case, and Millennium Force would have been about as high profile a target as one could get for a potential safety campaign.

No, if there had been any evidence of this original clearance failure, it must have been swept pretty neatly under the rug, left nowhere that it’d be neat and easy to find.

So the only method left was brute force.

Coaster enthusiasts have always been tight-knit and observant, and in 2000 and 2001 the online culture wasn’t as diverse as it is today. There were only a few places people were, even could, some to congregate and discuss these things.

If I could find message boards where enthusiasts gathered I could potentially find some enlightening discussion.

It was easy enough to know where to start. Millennium Force opened to the public in May 13 2000.

A google search turned up a thread on UltimateRollercoasters from Millennium Force’s first month of public operation.

Though I will not include images with every quote used in this story, and I encourage you to read the linked threads for yourselves, for the benefit of blind readers I will message transcribe text in provided images unabridged.

The thread is titled “Millennium Force dangerous!!!!!!! Keeps hands inside.” and is dated 3:58:58 PM on May 3, 2000

My name is Brian and I am a first year civil engineering student at the University of Dayton. I am a resident from outside cleveland. I also have been an ACE member for ten years and have been on 88 different roller coasters. I also have a season pass to Cedar Point and have been to the point more than four times this year. Never before have I written to this site becuase I had nothing important to tell. But on Friday, May 26, one ride would change my view on roller coaster safety forever. Before telling my terrifying true story, it must be noted that I stand only 5 feet, 11 inches tall. The consquences of this accident would be much greater to anyone taller than me. I consider myself lucky. It was about 8:45 when my little brother, his friend and I walked onto the station platform for millenium force. We then boarded the second last seat of the train. Being on the ride twice before and never being in the right hand seat, I forced my brother into the other side. As the train took off onto the lift hill, what was about to happen would be one of the most terrifying experiences in my life. The train plummeted down the first hill. It then coasted up the second hill and preceded to travel into the 120 degree turn. At this moment my hands were outside on the right of the train when suddenly I felt an incredible pain in my right hand. Immediately I knew what had happened. One of the support beams struck the fingertips of my hand. The rest of the ride was a blur to me. When the ride ended I was completely in hysterics. I did not know what to do. I could move my fingers but my hand felt as if it had just caught a 90 mile per hour fastball without a glove. My first mistake after leaving the ride was not to go immediately to first aid. I figured it was my own fault for having my hands outside the car and did not want to get into trouble. I headed for my car at the soak city parking lot. I suddenly was shaking uncontrollably and decided that I could not make it home without medical treatment.

Upon arriving to the first aid I was attacked with a numerous amount of questions. It seemed as if they were more worried about their 24 million dollar ride than my hand. The tips of my four fingertips began to swell, especially underneath my fingernails. I gave them my personal information, I was given an ice pack, and then i was cleared to drive home to a hospital. X-rays revealed luckily that only my right index finger was broken and the others badly bruised. Since this incident I have not heard from Cedar Point. They tried to claim that something other than the support hit my hand. I am positive it was a support beam around the top of the second hill. My other fingers are feeling better and I am now able to type this story to you. Anyhow, I figure that I will not pursue legal charges due to the fact that I am somewhat at fault. They have many other disclaimers too that they can use in court. Being a civil engineer though, I am am worried the safety of the ride. It seems to me that Cedar Point should have taken every possible precaution, hands inside or outside the car, to verify that this accident would never happen. With the trains so wide open it would not surprise me that this was bound to happen and that it might even happen again. I would also like to get peoples opinions on this story. As for now, I would like to warn people to keep their hands inside the train at all times.

Well hot damn. Searching through, I had found a number of news stories and threads regarding the safety of roller coasters- Markey’s campaign certainly had some believers. But this whole conversation occurred almost always in the context of brain injuries from excessive force.

Millennium Force itself had already been the subject of specious accusations of such, but this wasn’t that. This was a person claiming to have struck their hand exactly where the modified support now is.

And maybe most intriguing things were both his and the park’s responses.

Brian resisted reporting it, feeling responsible. He reports that the park representatives who questioned him were both extremely concerned about their investment while refusing to acknowledge that the injury had been caused by the ride.

It feels like how a large corporation in the tenuous first moments of a major investment’s debut would act should a glaring problem suddenly appear.

The mixed reaction in the comments gave me no clear answer either. “Magnum Allen” commented:

Well, that was some story. I can’t say that I don’t believe you, I really do, but I do NOT believe it was a support. It would have been noticed by somebody by now. It’s been open for almost three weeks!

Another user, “Alan Jacyszyn,” replied however that they fully believe this due to experiences on another coaster built by the same company, Intamin.

In fact, it was not just any coaster but one of Millennium Force’s prototype forebears- Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags Darien Lake. At the time this was posted, the third Intamin Megacoaster model was still a few weeks from opening. These were the only two.

I am very very sorry for what happened, but Intamin isnt very safe when it comes to supports…. THis exact same thing happened to me on S:ROS at SFDL (made by same company as MF)

Both this ride and its mirror image at Six Flags America now feature maximum heights of 72".

Others were less charitable in their assessments. A popular assertion is that he must have hit a bird, as Fabio had about a year prior on the inaugural ride of Apollo’s Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

If this support had demonstrated failed clearance now that it had opened, it wasn’t so egregious and obvious as to cause problems from opening day. At least not within a general public more concerned about something else, or enthusiasts already defensive about scrutiny of their pasttime.

My searches turned up a few unrelated threads from PointBuzz ,which then apparently operated as Guide to the Point.com.

Starting with Millennium Force’s media day opening I browsed through the topic subjects looking for clues of discussion about the coaster’s clearance or report of injury.

Only days after Brian posted his story, a thread popped up titled Ride ops giving safety directions.

Thread titled “Ride ops giving safety directions” by user “mf92mph” on June 3, 2000

I don’t recall the ride ops of MF, telling each individual as they are checking your seat belt, “Keep your hands down and your legs in the car”

This was yesterday for all 3 of our rides, up until then never heard that before. Also said “I don’t want to have to go searching for your hands”

An URBAN MYTH in the making?! LOL!

Some replies in the thread seemed to imply that this was both a recent development and that ride ops were being exceptionally pressured to assure that guests understood the policy.

EHemdo09:

When I was there Friday there was a sticker infront of each seat that said that and they ops did tell everyone. When the op checked me she said “did you read that?” and I said “yeah” then she covered it up and said “then what does it say?” so I looked at the one beside me and read it to her. Haha!

User S.B.Railway

That was quite funny. Telling a bunch of die-hard enthusiasts to “keep your hands down and inside the car at all times”! Right! I laughed the first time the op said it to me. Then he got kinda P.O.’ed, said it again, so I said “sure”. Then he says, in a very stern and strict voice, “That’s not ‘sure’, it’s ‘yes’”. I replied “yes” and he moved on. I laughed all the way up the lift! I know they’ve been instructed to say it, and the park is just looking out for our own good and to reduce their liability, but man did it sound like a joke.

CP_genius:

Yeah they said that individually at coastermania. When I put my hands up leaving the station someone told me again.

Raptor0137:

So why are they (ride op’s) being so strict about this? When I rode MF on Friday 6/16/00, it was mentioned three times before the train left the station. On all of the other coasters, the ride op mentions this only once in their normal spiel to: “…keeps hands and arms inside the train at all times…” But on MF, the op’s act like this is a serious, major safety issue. And they know many people are going to put their hands up anyway. So why bother?

User Majin Heero’s reply, the last in the thread, seems awfully auspicious for how soon this still is after we have the first confirmed online reports of injury from the support.

Raptor0137, I forget what post it was in, but we discussed why they say this before. It is mostly for insurance reasons, as one person stated, one of the ride ops said simply, “You don’t have to do it, you just have to hear it”. So just in case someone happens to have an injury from banging into a support on a banked turn or something, CP can say, we told you to keep your arms inside.

Later that month, user MagnumFAN posts a thread noting the persistence of the enforcement of the “hands down” rule by Millennium Force ride ops, which brings up more anecdotes as well as some prescience on behalf of some riders. The thread is dated June 16, still less than a month since the coaster’s opening.

The ride ops are telling all riders to keep hands down. They tell you as they come by to check the lap bar and on the microphone as you leave the station. About one half of the entire train, I’ve noticed, will still put their hands up for the first hill and after the fist hill nearly all riders hold their arms though the air. I think I’ve figured it out…Could it be that on the last turn on the island that the headchoper is too close to impact?? Could Intamin have designed it to suit the front lower part of the car and forgoten about the back of the car?? Or possible hands block faces during the photo? Also, I finally have found the best seat on MF, the VERY FRONT. If you sit anywhere else you can’t get the full view of just how steep and long that massasive hill really is. Besides that, it on of the best spots to get airtime. ENJOY YOUR RIDE!

User Dan:

Besides the head/arm chopper on the island I’m willing to bet that you could touch a support or two in the first banked turn. If they are making a point to tell people keep there hands down and inside the trains why don’t they do that on all the rides where a rider could injury themselves. When I say make a point I mean having the ride ops tell every single person in the train. On Mean Streak, Gemini, and Magnum I can name plenty of places where one could touch a support yet when a ride op checks my bar on one of those rides I don’t get a personal message to hold on. Telling people to hold on during a roller coaster ride is like telling people at a baseball game not to cheer when the home team hits a homerun. People get caught up in the moment and riding with your hands up is part of the experience. It was funny because the first time I saw the warning stickers in the train and ride ops were telling people to hold on I was sitting in the back of the train. Once the train crested the lift nearly the entire train had their hands up the entire ride. I just found it funny. I should also be noted that in the auto speil in the station it DOES tell people to hold on.

CP_genius:

On the last night ride I ever had, I remembered Jeff saying how to look under the track on the overbanks. I did, and Mean Streak and the Giant Wheel look cool. When I did on the first turn I swore my hands were within 6 in. from the supports, but I didn’t care I was having the time of my life.

Tyler:

When I heard my personal keep your hands inside the car message, I just said sure. Then the ride op stood there and read the the Ohio Revised Code to me, it was very very fun.

FunPhantom:

yeah i think i came pretty close to the overbank supprts too… exactly how close are they? and also how low are those “headchoppers” anyone know?

RideMan:

Look at it this way…

Cedar Point’s operations division is paranoid about this ride. I don’t know why, but they are scared out of their minds that something bad is going to happen on Millennium Force. To make things worse, there are lots of riders out there who, for some strange reason, will say all kinds of idiotic things about their ride experiences. It doesn’t take long for “It felt like the support was inches away from my fingers” to become “I hit a support with my fingers”, and the next thing you know, the park is trying to figure out how it happened. Truth is, it didn’t happen, but the park has no way of knowing that. All they know for sure is that whenever you try to make a system idiot-proof, somebody comes up with a better idiot. One of these days they’ll figure out that they’ve got themselves an outstanding ride, they’ll get to know it the way they know Magnum, and they’ll relax a bit. Maybe they’ll even drop the height restriction to 48" which is where it should have been from the beginning. But that is going to take a while, and a few seasons far more typical than last season was for the industry in general. — Dave Althoff, Jr.

Hurricane_6:

This weekend was the first time i’ve heard them say don’t raise your hands, last week they just said keep hands in the car.

Gooober:

When I rode in the front car for the first time, the ride-op looked me in the eye and told me, “keep your arms inside the train at all time, do you understand?” I gave him the thumbs up sign and he just said, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’”. Well, being in front car for the first time, how could I NOT hold my arms up as I experienced that train whooshing 300ft down the wonderful hill, lifting me out of my seat in pure amazement(sp?)!!!! That was my best ride ever.

Then the second time that day, the ride op came and asked me if I could reasd the sticker on the back of the seat in front of me. Of course I said yes, but I didn’t say I’d do what it said.

I understand the whole insurance thing, so I just cooperate with the ride-ops when they ask me a question, but I don’t always obey exactly hatr they say. Whatever, my hand are ALWAYS up during the entire ride. MF is THE best:o)

The webmaster, Jeff, weighed in on the controversy, this comment not proving to age well.

FunPhantom:

Jeff- Was the panel on the train during the pull through the size that anyone could reach from their seat, or just if they were sitting up? What about those guys that lean out on the overbanked turns? could they reach the supports without leaving thier seats?

Jeff:

The thing was huge (it’s on the official site somewhere) and would account for people leaning out. Keep in mind that Intamin’s field engineers would ride the thing without lap bars, so they could lean up and see the wheels. The safety envelope is more than adequate.

While by this time it seems to be clear that something is up with Millennium Force, some people had concerns before the ride was even complete. In my research I also came across this person, JeremyG, concerned about the clearance in January of 2000 only to be shutdown by Jeff

If you look at the pic at:

http://www.cedarpoint.com/thrill/millennium/mf000105a.htm

If you look at the footers on the island and see were the overbanked turn turns into the normal turn. Look how close the supports of the turn are to the track. One word amazing!

Jeff:

The normal turn is first, then the “over-banked” on the island. If you watch the POV in the promo you’ll see that it doesn’t get that close. In fact, the remarkable thing I found about the layout is how far apart the supports on this ride are.

This then went silent, or at least didn’t stick out from any flashy headlines, through the end of the season and the winter offseason.

Finally, as the park begins preparations to reopen on April 23 of 2001, we appear to get the first confirmation that Millennium Force underwent modification in a thread titled “Modifications Made”

Dan: I was around the park today and I noticed something very interesting on MF. Those who thought that a guest couldn’t hit the support in the first banked turn might want to think again. I saw that they cut out a peice of the support right by the track.

Rather than sample a bunch of posts from this one, I’ll advise you click the link to read for yourself, if only to see the tone of the conversation implying by this time the existence of an entire argument among enthusiasts whether or not it was possible to injure yourself on Millennium Force’s first overbanked turn.

A handful of people shared their own stories of hitting the pole, with a “told ya so” tone of someone who has been disbelieved a fatiguing number of times.

Finally, the timeline was totally settled. The only thing that was left was to find a picture. I clicked every dead link to a picture of Millennium Force in every thread from opening year until a Wayback Machine search finally turned up this:

I just wanted to see it. For the second time. But for the first time. Even still, this one picture dug up is the only concrete evidence I could find that Millennium Force operated with riders despite failed clearance.

It’s missing from the website now, strangely enough, but while I’m very much the conspiracy-minded type to think Cedar Point would go to efforts to at least keep knowledge of this to perceptive enthusiasts, that’s not really the point of this article.

But just to feed those flames for one moment, the Internet Archive has a suspicious lack of CedarPoint.com captures from the time Millennium Force was being built through its first operating year.

Cedar Fair is the only amusement company known to forbid employees from riding with their hands up, or images of riders with their hands up in park marketing.

Find one person with their hands up in this commercial. You can’t.

https://youtu.be/66e7_6ZAd74

It’s too tempting not to wonder how the knowledge of failed clearance leaving the realm of enthusiast discussion into the knowledge of the general public would impact the history of what is now the most famous roller coaster on the planet.

And yet, maybe if I could have known back then it might have taken my #1 spot from Wildcat at Hersheypark, which gave much more a sense of danger than the overly restrained Millennium Force. But that moment passed. Probably wasn’t possible. Now I can just be shocked that I had the chance to ride it at all.

To this day, I would still rather ride Wildcat in all its degraded glory over Millennium Force. Because Wildcat may be a rough ride these days, I’ll give you that. But at least it never failed the clearance envelope.

Here in 2019, we know the outcome. Eleven Golden Ticket awards later, Millennium Force is inarguably the most famous thrill coaster in the world. It has attained the level of success that you can no longer trust numbers to truly give a scale of.

And more importantly, Ed Markey never got what he wanted. There is still no federal oversight of roller coaster regulation.

But for one year, it appears, Cedar Point held its breath and reminded its riders of the golden rule:

Keep your arms down and legs inside the vehicle.