Big dipper crash - 20 injured

Originally posted by Dirk_Ermen


From what i've heard was that this rollercoaster still operates manually and from the rumors, that i've heard, is that the operator didn't notice a train stalling and that it did dispatch a train.
But yeah. That's just some rumors i've heard, I'm not sure if it's true.

This is correct. It's a shame but fingers crossed Blackpool get the ride up & running again soon - personally I'm a massive fan of the dipper!

[gouldy]

it is a good ride, I especially liked the big long flat turn-around giving a nicely sized lat all the way around and the dips towards the end through other structures. But really, you can't accept manually operated brakes and such running on rides in tourist attractions as large as BPB, stuff like this should be in museums. The ride should have been modified long ago, but as usual because of the general scumminess of the area the park itself is in, the park is also allowed to be very scummy and poo.

I can see both points of the argument.
On one hand I love the manual operations. BPB is one of the last parks where operations are 'done by hand' and it's one of the big reasons I choose to visit. I love the feel of the trains bending as they travel the track, the lack of air-gates, and the gallons of grease! In particular I like the way Blackpool can offer the feeling of 'risk/danger'. E.g. being perched on top of a Steeplechase horse, or almost decapitated on the Wild Mouse. This is fine as long as people use common sense and that risk remains a perception, rather than a reality.

Unfortunately, in this instance, the danger was all too real. There needs to be (working) sensors on the track which prevent a train being dispatched before the previous has completed the circuit. Operators on the Big Dipper have this year been breaking protocol by dispatching trains before the previous had entered the final straight, in an attempt to minimise queues. This simply should not *ever* happen.

Let's just hope if any modifications are made they're not done by Kumbak...and result in a ridiculous situation like the Grand National, where the trains take literally 30 seconds to park when coming from unload to load.

The Big Dipper is a registered landmark? As far as I know the only listed Rollercoaster in the UK is The Scenic Railway at Dreamland Margate, which has currently recieved a grant from English Heritage to rebuild due to its listed status. Sometimes some of the attractions in Blackpool have been thought to be listed because they contain plaques in their stations and especially on the older rides titled 'National Historical Marker', usually containing some information about their past. However, they are not officially registered but have been put there by the Pleasure Beach. Here's an example of one http://rcdb.com/792.htm?p=9354. The rides can only be listed if they retain most of their original features. When the Cyclone at Pleasureland Southport was due to be demolished there were attempts to get the ride listed so that it could not be destroyed. The result was that the ride could not be listed because the station was not original as it had burnt down in the 70's, and also didn't have the original trains. Pretty stupid regulation really because trains, unless very well maintained, aren't likely to last 80 years or retain health and safety standards. But meh.

The crash itself happened at the far turnaround near the South Entrance and Big Blue Hotel, just as the Big One passes above. The first train stalled suddenly at the top of the dip and the other collided into the back of it. I still can't understand how it managed to become jammed at that portion of the ride as it still has a fair bit of speed going by then. The ride does operate using fully manual systems and DOES have a block system which has been satisfactory for 80+ years. In it's past it operated three trains at once without accident! When the train reaches the turnaround a sensor sets a buzzer off in the station which signals that the next train can be released as the other is approaching the final stretch. This is usually adequate, however in this situation the ride stalled after it passed the buzzer. You would have thought that the operators would have noticed that the train hadn't come back for a while and they could still have stopped the train which would have been on the lift hil but obviously not. Probably becomes an unconscious loading and unloading when you're operating a ride for hours so could go unmissed. The second train which was luckily empty collided with the next train.

The reason that it was empty was likely due to the fact that they were about to take a train off the track. For those that don't know the Pleasure Beach or Dipper the transfer track is also fully manual, and requires two operators to push the track in the station to take it off. Kind of hard to explain without showing it. Anyway, to do this they have to send an empty train around and stop it on the lift, then unloading the next train and sliding it onto the trasfer track. Presumably the empty train didn't stop, allowing it to collide into the next loaded train.

Just a theory there and it's probably a loada crap but sounds plausible. It at least explains why there was an empty train, just not why it was allowed to enter the next block on the ride???

Also, it's actually another safety feature to let the train leave the station just before the other one arrives. This prevents any collision in the station if the brakes fail. This is what the buzzer is for to signal that the train can be released, so in theroy the operators did nothing wrong, it was simply a failure of procedure.

so... do we get a picture of it? i'm kinda planning to go in october, i want to see how the track looked before it was repaired and where it crashed and say OMG THIS IS WHERE IT CRASHED to my family

^

This was the best photo I could find that showed the two trains. Just shows how strong they are 'cause the back one doesn't look damaged at all?!