Two Coaster Accidents Ring in the New Year

SIXTEEN tourists in eastern China's Anhui Province wrapped up 2007 in terror as they were suspended upside-down in the air for almost half an hour when their roller coaster suddenly stopped.

None of the tourists was injured in the mishap in Fangte Amusement Park in Wuhu City yesterday, the local Xin'an Evening News reported today.

The accident happened around 3pm as the roller coaster suddenly lost power it was approaching the top of the moon-shaped track, the report said. At that point, all the cars were upside-down and passengers were screaming.

Staff at the amusement park used a manual control system and landed all the riders right-side up in about 30 minutes, the report said.

There were no physical injuries, but six people were sent for medical checks as they reported dizziness and heart problems while the other 10 said they were fine and went home, the report said.

Park workers speculated that yesterday's severe gale and low temperatures may have been a factor in the mishap as high wind resistance hampered the roller coaster from reaching the top of its track, the report said.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article ... 343521.htm

Passengers of the mountain-Russian of the multithematic park Beto World Path, located in the city of Penha (SC), had been removed of the structure in this sunday with the aid of the Body of Firemen later whom the toy presented a problem. Nobody was wounded in the incident. According to assessorship of the press of the park, the toy presented a mechanical problem, that set in motion the system of security brakes. The passengers had been imprisoned in a plain part of the tracks and he did not have tumult in the rescue procedure.

http://noticias.terra.com.br/brasil/int ... 39,00.html

Discuss!

I hate reading stuff like this, but it's always interesting anyway. These were two coasters that stalled in places that may have been inconvenient for evacuating people, but everyone got off fairly quickly and obviously no one got hurt. I can see why people like to make a big deal out of these kinds of stories, but the tone that news stories on coaster incidents are written in always bugs me.

I just thought these stories deserved notice because all though nobody got inured, stuff like this should NOT be hapenning in the world we live in today.

[Oscar]

[:(] Roller coasters are off to a bad start this year!!!

I was reading that second one and I was like "...toy?"

No I didn't mean that this shouldn't be posted here, I just don't like the way reporters jump on this stuff and make it sound like these people were in real danger. As long as people keep building coasters, stuff like this is going to happen, there's no way to avoid it.

Oh no, I see what you're saying, I just wanted to say what I thought about these events.

^^Good ole' Portugese to English translation, eh?

That would not be fun being stuck upside down. Can you say X-Car at Magic Springs? That was also pretty bad, because they were stranded for more than an hour.

"it was approaching the top of the moon-shaped track"

^This made me laugh.

That would suck being upside down for half an hour. Especially for the people who were sitting in the front, pushing up against the restraint for that long would freak me out.

Reminds me of the double inverter at the fair. Bad times bad times.

bad start for coasters, more like bad start for vekoma.

this happens all over the world and will continue as there is no way any coaster or ride can be 100% safe, all companys can do is preven accidnet happening as best they can

ohh and Sunfire, if you mean stuck upside down on the lift hill they did think of that and have a failsafe to bring the cars backwards to vertical. thats unless you mean after the lift hill

I understand that Gazag, but in the first case the park should know that the ride may not be able to perform in the cold and windy weather, and therefore it shouldn't be run.

Whilst the second accident sounds like an e-stop failure, there is no excuse for a train to become seperated.

Here in Brazil, Beto Carrero World have the best ride maintance. The park changed all the car-to-car ligations overnight, and re-open the coaster by the morning again.

Here in brazil, we call the rides "brinquedo", that means "toy", but not necessarely in the main sense of the word.

Originally posted by Jakizle

I understand that Gazag, but in the first case the park should know that the ride may not be able to perform in the cold and windy weather, and therefore it shouldn't be run.

Whilst the second accident sounds like an e-stop failure, there is no excuse for a train to become seperated.

remember that hese are diffrent continents and our rules dont apply over there in most intances, plus highwinds and cold weather do close rides in both the uk and america so it was the parks fault to open the ride not that it isnt safe to opperat in the conditions. and if the wind was that strong in anycase it would of pushed the train off its perch and unless it was cold enough to freeze the track that wouldent of affacted that either

trains are only connected via a single bolt at either end of a bar. its acctually very easy to detach cars. remember these are just like alot of machines and a single point of weakness makes a big diffrence. there are many things that can go wrong especially on the 2nd one which looks to me like an old vekoma superwieble

the park should know that the ride may not be able to perform in the cold and windy weather, and therefore it shouldn't be run.

But if that were the case, rides in certain areas would never be open. The UK has pretty bad weather nearly all the time, and our rides manage to run fine. Other countries are the same.

Rides stall from time to time, and theres very little you can do about it. You just have to make sure its as safe as possible when they do...

[TheArchitect]

i really feel for the people who were inverted for half an hour. I was on Air once and we were held in the block for about 20mins and i had black bruising on my shoulders the next day.
Let alone those people, all off thier weight on thier shoulders for that long. It can put people off rides for life.
I find it odd they would get stuck like that, you'd think the ride would roll back central of the cobra.

I agree with the architect it is odd that it just stoped like that.

Its weirder when it happened to TTD - looks like fun though

Originally posted by gazag

bad start for coasters, more like bad start for vekoma.

The second coaster definitely is not a Vekoma, the first I'm not sure about. It could very well be a Beijing Shibaolai Amusement Equipment coaster, who have already build a very SLC'ish coaster before (Not to mention where the station and track colors came from..)

On the brighter side, it proves the restrains are sae, all the people were safe where they were. On the other hand, things like this shouldn?????????t happen at all.

Yeah, I thought of that too. I can't really figure how that could've happened...

man, ive always wanted to get stuck on a ride, just so i could say ive have been. maybe with season passes to CP this year, and going once a week, maybe be ill have a chance.
lol., it just sounds fun. just as long as no one gets hurt. oh, and i almost got stuck at the top of TTD. Almost

[TheArchitect]

thought of being stuck at the top of TTP sends shivers down my spine, im barley cool with a roll back

Originally posted by TheArchitect

i really feel for the people who were inverted for half an hour. I was on Air once and we were held in the block for about 20mins and i had black bruising on my shoulders the next day.
Let alone those people, all off thier weight on thier shoulders for that long. It can put people off rides for life.
I find it odd they would get stuck like that, you'd think the ride would roll back central of the cobra.

i agree. i got stuck on superman: ultimate flight for like 45 min. on the chain lift. first, it stopped right @ the beginning. then it went halfway up and stopped. then 20 min later it went almost to the top but stopped and started to slide downward, luckily it only went like 5 ft. down before it got caught on the chain. then everything--the track AND supports started to shake! [:O] finally they ran the motor at like 20 mph so we would get over the hill quickly before it stopped again. they took the other train off the track while we were stuck so that no other accident would occur, then they shut superman down for the next week![:O]

it was the worst experience of my life. i actually thought that i would die, and i also started praying when we got stuck and then got laughed at by the people behind us-- who were cracking jokes about their crotches hurting the ENTIRE TIME... and they also had to have a staff member come up the stairs and calm me down, and also my grandma was their (not my parents) and she frieked out too. she claims she was more scared then me, but everyone knew that it was TOTALLY NOT TRUE!

and worse, what six flags gave us for all of that-- a free small soda! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?! thats all we get for almost dying?!?! A FREE SODA?!?! (in my opinion) we should have gotten our season passes for free the next year for all of the crap we had to deal with. and they wouldn't even let my grandma get close to us or tell her that we were ok, even though she was freaking out!!!!! anyway, im done complaining now.

at least that was the only time ive ever been stuck on a ride *knock on wood*[;)]

well, thats pretty much all i have to say except that i hope those are the only accidents that happen in a LONGG time[;)]

but ya thats good that the restraints worked properly.

o and to jpecool: ARE U CRAZY?!?! how would being stuck over 400 feet in the air be "FUN"?!?! that would be 1000x worse than my little 'superman' incident!!!!!!!!!!