Featured Image Courtesy: Rutherford Source
Sevier County, Tennessee, where Dollywood is located, is reporting an interesting problem with Dollywood roller coasters. It turns out that certain roller coasters are triggering automated 911 calls from certain smartphone apps designed to automatically call for help in the event of a crash. It’s gotten so bad that Emergency Management in the area is reporting that fully sixty percent of all 911 calls are coming from roller coaster riders unaware their phones are making the call! In thinking about Dollywood’s roller coasters, we suspect this is happening more on rides like Mystery Mine, in which riders experience quick and unorthodox turns.
Dispatch Director Todd Spence has encouraged people to ride roller coasters at Dollywood, but also requests that guests be aware they should put their phones into Airplane Mode while riding turbulent attractions. This will continue to be a point of need considering Dollywood is continuing to add new roller coasters at a “lightning rod” pace. In fact, this off-season may be seeing a new family coaster added to the northwest area of the park in a new 20 acre plot previously unused. The Pigeon Forge City Council has already approved the plans.
So the lesson here may be that we all need to consider putting our phones into Airplane Mode while riding attractions at theme parks around the country. If this is happening in Tennessee, surely it’s happened before around the country without coverage. And after all, we certainly don’t want to tax Emergency Services’ ability to respond to real crisis.
