SilverArrow
Certified Ride Geek
It looks similar to some of the pieces here: It's hard to articulate how horrible this all is. What an absolute nightmare scenario. Hope the injured guest pulls through.
Cedar Point | Top Thrill 2 | Triple Launch Renovation | 2024
- Thread starter Wazzupnerds
- Start date
i305_zack
Mega Poster
Going to Knotts today. Will let you know if Xcelerator is down. Does not say anywhere on Knotts app that it is closed, so I am guessing it is open.
i305_zack
Mega Poster
Xcelerator is open!
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
Ooof. Hope that guest is ok.
I must admit and I know this is a bit gross... I'm sort of relieved it was part of the ride and thus the parks fault and not a phone or something as originally rumored. I don't know if I could tolerate Cedar Fair doing a Universal.
I must admit and I know this is a bit gross... I'm sort of relieved it was part of the ride and thus the parks fault and not a phone or something as originally rumored. I don't know if I could tolerate Cedar Fair doing a Universal.
I'm completely the opposite - I'd much rather it be a result of an individual being a **** than the park being potentially reckless with maintenance.
In my country, amusement parks are the responsibility of the railroad commission, so I didn't find it that weird.
JochemvdMeulen
Roller Poster
Family of woman injured by ride at Cedar Point releases statement
The family of 44-year-old Rachel Hawes, the woman who was injured while waiting in line for the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point on August 15th, released the following statement regarding the accident.
www.cleveland19.com
According to this statement the victim is stil fighting for her life in the ICU.
nadroJ
CF Legend
Family of woman injured by ride at Cedar Point releases statement
The family of 44-year-old Rachel Hawes, the woman who was injured while waiting in line for the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point on August 15th, released the following statement regarding the accident.
According to this statement the victim is stil fighting for her life in the ICU.
So awful, I really hope she pulls through
That is very interesting, thanks. Summarising, it appears that the piece that detached from the ride was a bracket used to determine which block zone the train is in.
I thought it was particularly interesting that the ride was last inspected in May and that, apparently, half of the bolts that kept the bracket in place were still attached to the train.
I’m being completely speculative, but to me that infers that some of the bolts and/or the bracket itself shattered, as if the material itself was inherently brittle or had become brittle over time, to the point where the sheer strength of material was then exceeded. Was the structural integrity of the part inherently defective, via design or manufacture? Who knows, but from the information provided it strikes me as a problem that wasn’t obvious to the park nor the authorities, which as an enthusiast would be a ‘best’ outcome (rather than it being a case of reckless negligence via poor maintenance), but we will have to wait for the full outcome to know for sure.
Family of woman injured by ride at Cedar Point releases statement
The family of 44-year-old Rachel Hawes, the woman who was injured while waiting in line for the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point on August 15th, released the following statement regarding the accident.
According to this statement the victim is stil fighting for her life in the ICU.
Terrible
Snoo
The Legend
The DoA in Ohio covers all amusement attractions in the state as it first handled State, County and Local Fairs and their equipment. As the state was primarily agricultural (and still is in many respects), it makes sense for big parks to be folded into the state department already doing that.
It is different per state but many states that are/have been major agricultural centers typically have a plethora of fairs which, again, makes sense for the DoA to cover.
Wow, that's shocking. When I first heard this story I assumed a bolt or washer or something had bumped into her with enough force to break the skin, requiring a stitch or two, but it turns out she's still in ICU a week after the incident. That's rough. She must have received a real blow to the head.
Also, from what I can gather, the piece didn't fly off during the launch, but as the train was hitting the brakes? At least that's a different sort of issue from the ones they've had before ...
Wazzupnerds
Mega Poster
Oh boy, looks like the Sandusky Register (local newspaper) has their sights set on the park. They just published an article called "Cedar Point above the law?" From the articles perspective, the park looks pretty bad.
Link to article.
Link to article.
Rupert
Mega Poster
Yikes, agree this approach makes it look like they’re hiding something, even if that’s not the case. On a related note, I find the concept of a ‘private police force’ completely mad. Private security sure, but a private organisation that can make arrests, hand out fines, put people in custody?! So alien to me, let alone one that also withholds incident reports.
I’d echo everyone’s thoughts from this thread - awful for the lady involved and her family (and witnesses to the incident), hope she recovers as much as possible. This is absolutely something that should not happen at a park, and shakes me a bit more than something like the Smiler incident. That was an incident largely caused by human error, where the ride operated as expected and shut down when it realised something was not as expected (train didn’t pass a sensor), but got overrode by staff. This though, appears to be a mechanical failure where it was operated as normal but still went wrong and has almost killed someone. I guess it’s certainly possible this was a maintenance issue/oversight, but certainly raises questions about all accelerators worldwide (and of course isn’t the first incident on one).
I’d echo everyone’s thoughts from this thread - awful for the lady involved and her family (and witnesses to the incident), hope she recovers as much as possible. This is absolutely something that should not happen at a park, and shakes me a bit more than something like the Smiler incident. That was an incident largely caused by human error, where the ride operated as expected and shut down when it realised something was not as expected (train didn’t pass a sensor), but got overrode by staff. This though, appears to be a mechanical failure where it was operated as normal but still went wrong and has almost killed someone. I guess it’s certainly possible this was a maintenance issue/oversight, but certainly raises questions about all accelerators worldwide (and of course isn’t the first incident on one).
Wazzupnerds
Mega Poster
What amazes me is how seemingly all the maintenance issues on accelerators seemingly only happen on TTD. You would think that Kingda Ka would have almost the same amount, but no, they don't. Makes me question what Cedar Point's maintenance team is doing.