Stinger @ Dorney Park Closed

That is the question many people are asking themselves. The ride was originally moved to Dorney Park from a Cedar Fair LLP sister park called California's Great America just a few years ago and now it looks like the ride is down for the count. On Dorney Park's first operating day of the 2014 season the ride "stung" and while I dont have the exact knowledge of the incident, it has yet to re-open. The issue has also closed the Zepher train which passes behind Stinger for safety reasons. Rumors are suggesting a rollercoaster in 2015 for Dorney so if both of these thoughts are correct and the ride is removed, the coaster count will remain the same.

There is no time line for Stinger's re-opening if it even happens.

More to be posted as the story develops.

My family was pulling into the parking lot as it was stuck, if it doesn't re open then its one credit I wont mind not having honestly

[TTD03]

Yea, it looked like they weren't even trying to fix it at all. It was just stuck with 2 cars out of the station starting to go up into the cobra roll.

[TTD03]

Update about the incident.
http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/two-injured-on-dorney-parks-stinger-coaster/25822034

[Coasterkidmwm]

Did Vekoma ever get the inverted boomerangs to work right?

[TTD03]

Nope, and I don't think their regular sit-down corkscrew models are any better. The one at knotts killed me, Stinger was 500% better than that garbage of a coaster.

[mkingy]

Vekoma Boomerangs worked fine - they were just a bit rough. I don't really remember The Missile at American Adventure ever being broken down and that park was slowly descending into disrepair! That said the family boomerangs are smooth as butter!

[TTD03]

The keyword is "family", that's why it's smooth

Looking like Stinger will re-open later this season. Down time is expected to be several months until it is though. No word on weather the Zepher train will be running or not during that down-time.

[TTD03]

Any info about what the mechanical issue is? No one has any info and that's a bit concerning the park won't say what it is. Leads me to believe it's pretty bad.

I have a good idea as to what happened but I cant talk about it for obvious reasons.

[TTD03]

Ok, once last Q, if you can't answer, just say it, was it machine error, or human error?

It was a mechanical issue. Stinger's train has been removed from the ride although, I dont know if that was to show it is closed or if they need to look at it to. On that story you posted though, WFMZ (In my opinion) is over-blowing this. To my knowledge no body was injured when the ride did its "oops". Yes, two people went to the hospital but I think that was more for safety concerns rather then injury.

[Mikey]

From reading the article it reads like the two that were transported was at their request and not the parks insisting. Sounds like they are on a fishing expedition for an easy lawsuit.

I would imagine that the error faced with this ride is the catch car letting go too soon because something failed in the mechanism or the points that attach it. I have seen cases on the regular boomers where the catch car releases due to a surge in the hydraulics which causes the release bar to lift up and release the train. If it's not to far up it usually rolls into the station and the brakes stop it since they do not open until the catch car hits a proxy switch at the top of lift A. If it opens much later during the cycle it usually gets stuck in the saddle which is where that walkway is between the cobra roll.

These rides do not seem to have a great reputation for the number of small incidents involved with them over the years. Weather that is the operators fault or the designers fault is hard to say.

[TTD03]

I'd agree, what much else can go wrong with the ride beside the catch cars and station stuff?

Well, I talked with my friend who knows what happened today and according to him the ride is ............ up. It not on the operational department nor our maintance department. It seems this is an issue with the design of the ride and its a big issue.

IE: Dont expect Stinger open for some time and expect others like it to close for inspections.

[TTD03]

Oh s*it, this is serious.
I realize you made an IE in your post, but can you give any more info on what "the ride is ............ up" means