Wild Thing @ Valleyfair Crash

A quick Google search didn't provide much information. All that I could find was this page, which may or may not be reliable.

By the way, it's spelled Schwarzkopf :).

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SVLFever said:Second, does anyone know, has Mamba or Steel Force been closed?

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No it was open all day Saturday including ERT at night for Coaster Mayhem. It was also open all day Sunday. I do not know, however, if it will be open tomorrow (Monday).

Hope everyone injured recovers quickly...

I'm sure the parks with these *similar* Morgan trains have all been notified and will take appropriate action to ensure the safety of their guests. Without help or interference from any federal governmental agency oversight...

Very strange, thank goodness nobody was hurt. Dorney won't be open tomorrow so I suppose we'll have to wait until next weekend to see if Steel Force is operating.

Oh god Bill, your statement there at the end of your post sent chills down my spine. I hope Markey doesn't think that he needs to do something about all these "accidents" agan. :(

Swoosh, dont you just expect it by now? Markey will spread his malarchy and no one will care because the amsument industry can police itself and the public knows that. Besides there are more important things the public needs to worry about now, not the least of which is finding the money to put gas in the tank for the trip to the amusement park in the first place ;).

Shapiro has that covered already Touchdown. :)

I just commented on this over on PointBuzz...

My GUESS is that the lead axle (roll control axle) of the last car somehow detached from the car center beam. The loss of roll control would cause the car to tip as shown in the available photos, and that's as far as it would go regardless of which direction it went...it would stop when the car body came into contact with the rear wheel assembly. So I think what we see looks worse than it probably really is.

Again, it's only a guess. Follow the link above for more complete commentary from me based only on my knowledge of the ride system and the media reports referenced in the PointBuzz thread.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

http://kstp.com/kstpimages/valleyfair10.jpg

Is it just me or does that look like a bad episode of CSI?

The car is actually derailed.

Good thing it happened on the brake run.

Could this be the same thing that made Steel Dragon 2000 close?

Same company and same designer.

I do wonder why it derailed. I did notice something. There is not much of a wheel underneath:
http://www.rcdb.com/ig137.htm?picture=5

Sounds like RCT:
Wild Thing 1 has crashed, 18 people hurt *** Edited 5/23/2006 2:32:59 AM UTC by Keith2005***

There isn't much of a wheel on Magnum either.

Very sad to hear this news.

I think Rideman has described it well enough on Pointbuzz to indicate how this could happen. I suppose a 'flat tire' could cause the brake fin to lean far enough to hit the caliper, and then go into the situation Dave has described.

I am curious to see what the official cause is.

two short videos taken within minutes of the incident here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WS6zaQc0Hbw&search=valleyfair

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5XNvN1gJXyM&search=valleyfair

It's interesting to compare the sensationalistic coverage from the TV stations to the more reasonable coverage from the newspapers. Here's a story from local news station KARE 11: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=125374

And here's a story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/448960.html

The difference is stunning. *** Edited 5/23/2006 4:03:52 AM UTC by vondork***

My son was at VF last week and noticed the brakes were grabbing really hard at the end. I've noticed this too in the past, but for the most part WT has a pretty smooth braking system. Any ideas on why there are two different braking routines/methods?

Mamba reportedly opened late on Monday but did run for 90% of the day.

In some of the pictures I've seen, it looks like both wheel assemblies came off the car and are sitting on the track behind the car. Could it be that a brake caliper became misaligned, which cause the brake fine to twist the car and break the axle attachment fasteners?

Does anyone know if Steel force or Mamba have been closed down?

Heck, how about Steel Eel, too?

I read that Mamba ran yesterday and that Steel force had just or is still in rehab? Anyone know?

If you look in the 2nd post above Mamba was closed early in the morning yesterday for this reason. It was opened yesterday as soon as the inspection was done and the ride was deemed safe.