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Ride Accidents


pluk

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  • 2 weeks later...

Roundup...

Firstly, a nasty incident in Guatamala leaving two dead and two injured. No clue as to the ride type, but with mention of car leaving track and Russian Mountain being the name of early roller coasters it is likely to be a coaster type ride.

The American swing ride malfunction of last month has got everyone involved on the defensive with Chance rides asserting it was caused by poor maintenance while the operator seems to think the part should not need to be part of such checks and adjustments. Either way it seems the cause was a worn out drive shaft disengaging with the gears and a bulletin has been posted to owners to check the part which should prevent it happening again.

Away from theme parks a little, a recent account of a horrific incident on a Swiss toboggan run, or Alpine Coaster. I presume it'll be this one...

No doubt that these things have an inherent danger that is in part managed by the rider, being more of an extreme experience than a theme park type ride, but it is still something I'm determined to try some time soon.

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A fairly serious incident over in America, where they seem to have had a pretty rough season for ride safety.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/10/24/3309994/injuries-reported-as-ride-malfunctions.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2476336/Five-injured-carnival-ride-accident-North-Carolina-State-Fair.html

http://www.wbtv.com/story/23785335/report-at-least-5-injured-at-nc-state-fair-after-ride-accident

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The ride is named as 'Vortex' and looks to me like Technical Park Vortex, I'm pretty sure from the art this is the same one in action...

Initial reports suggest the ride started in error while guests were disembarking. I'd be very surprised if that was possible under normal circumstances, so whether this was operator error or hardware malfunction isn't clear.

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That sounds quite nasty, here's a slightly better written account from the telegraph with a witness quote

"accompanied by his father, lost his balance when the boat was arriving at the end of the ride".

There's no way out of the boats without standing so it seems he's gone over the side while standing to disembark. I suppose whether he stood too early or if this accident was possible under normal off load procedure will determine if they have to make adjustments to the ride before re opening and if they might be held liable.

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My first thoughts from reading that were that it sounds as if he was sat up on the back rests. Just from where it says about him falling backwards when the boats jolted. I'll be interested to hear if they confirm/release a sequence events.

Doubt it though, not on their Facebook page at least. Just out of respect for the family if anything.

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  • 2 months later...

The Vortex incident from above is still rumbling on, one of the injured remains in hospital with spine and brain injuries. The owners have been indicted for over riding the safety systems allowing this to happen, and for some reason the ride is still sitting in situ for evidence to be gathered.

On Christmas Eve in Illinois a Zamperla Demolition Derby (teacups) malfunctioned causing minor injuries to 7, can only presume it stopped rather suddenly.

And a very interesting article covering incidents on the rides of Southern California.

Top ten theme park rides by injuries

Based on a study of more than 2,000 accident reports, Space Mountain at Disneyland had the most injuries from 2007 to 2012.

120Space Mountain
92GhostRider
76California Screamin'
60Splash Mountain
59Matterhorn Bobsleds
58Pirates of the Caribbean
53Indiana Jones Adventure
42Disneyland Railroad
42Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
41Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Sources: State of California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health

Kedi Xia/Los Angeles Times

Things aren't really that bad as they count people complaining of nausea and motion sickness as injury, but it still gives a good idea of what goes on. They even have the actual incident reports for each individual occurrence, there's tonnes of it but it is fascinating.

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Read some of the Space Mountain ones, hardly accidents are they!
Me and my Dad were on the water ride Niagra at Mirabilandia (Same style as Tidal Wave), only buggers with our arms up, boat slowed down in the water much faster than other water rides, both got winded and when we got home Dad turned out to have bruised ribs.

Accident? No just stupid for not following the pictured/written instructions to hold on.

Tom.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/3-Hurt-in-Accident-at-Amusement-Park/2014/01/16/article2001738.ece

An Enterprise, stuck on high speed for 15 minutes because of a fault? Sounds amazing!

:o are you insane?! :blink: 15 mins on high speed?! I won't even try Zodiac or Enterprise at Towers due to my sister riding it years ago and coming off green

Well I would have spew'd and then some!

Lol - Yep - me too - I don't think any amount of anti-sickness meds could stop that :bad:

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Mumbai coaster derailment, two injured. http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-mumbai-two-injured-as-roller-coaster-ride-tilts-at-adlabs-imagica-1959603

Tis this ride, a fairly large kiddie coaster

http://youtu.be/_u0gPnRlLNo

Made by Italian manufacturer 'I E Park' who I can't say I've ever heard of but they have a few rides in the UK.

For some reason I was eagerly anticipating a sudden CRASH BANG in the video.... Then realised it was just showing what the ride does... *oops*

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  • 1 month later...

A 64 year old man has fallen out of the "Opa" indoor roller coaster at Mt. Olympus Theme Park in Wisconsin yesterday. "Opa" is a spinning Wild Mouse coaster in the indoor section of the park. He fell roughly 20 feet and his condition is currently unknown, hope he's alright though...

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3352493.shtml?cat=12196

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  • 3 weeks later...

A few more details from the Opa incident...

http://www.channel3000.com/news/faulty-lap-bar-being-blamed-for-man-falling-from-roller-coaster/25181978

Sounds a lot like things not being put back together properly after maintenance, or maybe that's just a coincidence. Either way it seems the lap bar was able to fail for some reason or another. Zamperla spinning mouse by the way. No update on the mans condition sadly.

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Amazingly, they don't seem to have got to the bottom of the Cedar Point Rapids incident last summer. Some other details here I didn't hear at the time, it went back 187 feet and with enough force to damage the concrete trough. Amazing no one was hurt really. and also shows the importance of well maintained fully working anti roll back systems.

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/cedar-point/5473601

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