One thing that occurred to me when looking at how they chopped the roof off-
I'll bet they didn't know about the manual door release!
Of course, they could have other considerations, as has been said above. But that manual release just popped to mind first thing. Could be wrong, could be wrong..
Oddly enough, the manual door release has some parallel to my trade, in the elevator industry.
Often when someone gets stuck in an elevator, they begin to become irrational. Women, (and some types of men) frequently start screaming and crying, and still other men sometimes get threatening, or pound on the walls furiously, like they were dying for lack of oxygen. Fear of falling goes through their minds, as they remember all those Hollywood movies! (All this drama plays out while they are stuck in a box!) I've heard it all, during my career as an elevator contractor. So the building management thinks they are gonna get sued, and sometimes they call the fire dept first, and the elevator company secondly. If the fire dept shows up first, they break the elevator's doors down with machetes, axes, jaws of life, implements of destruction and/or gardening, and get the people out that way. This necessitates thousands of dollars of uneeded repairs.
One time, I got there just seconds after the fire dept had busted the doors all to h*ll, but they still couldn't get the passenger out, because the doors had fallen into the elevator shaft at an odd angle, and still obstructing the egress of the passenger. (and also endangering the passenger, because they could have fallen into the elevator, and landed on the occupant). While they were standing there wondering what to do, I showed up, (on my white stallion)(everybody clap now)(sounds of thundering applause)(no, DEAFENING applause), picked the remaining mechanical release that they had not broken yet for the good door, and got the person out with no stress or damage, in a few seconds. I was the hero of the fire dept that day! Its always funny to me, the damage the fire dept does trying to get the people out as quick as possible. Most of the time, there is no real emergency, (I have seen "0" real emergencies in my 17 years in this trade), just someone merely acting hysterical, and the building management also becoming hysterical, who then calls the fire dept, who then busts everything up vigorously, as if someone had a real emergency. Of course, they act with all good intentions, that is well understood.
I guess I only mentioned my experiences, because the Viper's manual door release has some parallel to my industry.
In deference to Scott, I'll add that my perspective on the fire dept possibly has no corollation to the Viper with the roof cut off. I just can't say that, because I don't know what was happening there. Just sharing a funny story. I'll crawl back into my hole now, and get back to my steady regimen of cookies and web surfing......call me if you need an essay on elevators.....
