Alton Towers Corkscrew stalls, strands riders

This is really turning out to be one of the worst years for coasters.

I have a feeling that its not that the accident rate has increased (well it has a little), its just that with the internet and increased media attention, all of these occurances are much more visible now. *** This post was edited by ravenguy98 on 6/25/2001. ***

1 1/2 hours? Geez!

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BGW and PKD rock!

Yeah, I agree ravenguy98 -- a couple of bad incidents (Goliath comes to mind) and the media crawls all over amusement parks and coasters. There really has been a lot of attention since the coasters are bigger/faster if they're really safe.

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Po!nt of View: A different look at Roller Coasters.
http://www.crosswinds.net/~justmayntz/thrills/index.html

I love that "28 people exit the hard way."

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Jes
Webmaster, Jes's Roller Coasters
http://www.jesms.cjb.net

ravenguy98: I wouldn't lump this in with "accidents," this is more of an inconvenience than anything else. It happens.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

I was going to go to Alton Towers on the same day but I went to Drayton Manor Park instead - thankfully.

Also, the news report is incorrect, since when does the Corcksrew have a "triple loop"!

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Parks done 2001: BPB, PKI, SFWOA, CP, KW, HP, DP, Knoebels, Astroland, SFGAdv, SFNE, SFA, LC, Moreys Pier, PKD, PCW, BGW, DMP.

Accidents Incidents Fires Inconveniences whatever, its all bad news, it does seem a particularly bad season though.

If any of you think that it is only this month that has seen accidents in high numbers, your wrong. Check out the Rides911 page and you'll realise that accidents AND minor incidents/inconveniences happen nealry ever week, sometimes every day. They just arnt brought into attention.
If we wernt obsessed with coaster "accidents" this month, then NONE of us would probably know about the corkscrew incident, and probably never would!

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Webmaster - Coaster Force
http://www.coasterforce.com

This kind of thing is more normal than rider deaths and such. I do agree that with increased media attention everything seems worse than it really is.

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CDNSN

Grant, the triple loop means it goes in 3 circles, so it's a triple out & back. They do word it bad though. I had to think about what i meant. I didn't think they would screw it up that bad when they even quote someone saying it has 2 corkscrews.

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Everybodys got something to hide except for me and my monkey!

Y2k showed up for coasters this year.

That really bites! :(
The same thing happened on the King Cobra at PKI a couple years ago. Thats Odd?

I was at the park at the time, and saw the train on the section of track between the corkscrews, and at first thought that it had just stuck there.

But I spoke to a ride op, and he said that the train had partially derailed; though it looked OK so maybe just one wheel had come off. This activated the emergency brakes and the coaster initially stopped upside down in the middle of the second corkscrew! The train had to be dragged backwards to the (relatively) flat section so the riders could be taken off.

No-one was hurt, and the only reason it made the news is because of last weeks accident at Lightwater Valley. I just hope AT finally remove the Corkscrew now and put up something decent!

Stalls and valleying aren't even newsworthy.

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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com

Emergency brakes stop the ride upside down? Are these brakes on the track or the train?

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A bad day at Cedar Point is better than a good day at work.

Jmstuckman,
all rollercoasters are run be computers and the inventores had to think of a way to stop the ride if anything went wrong. If the train is going through some technical diffuculties or something, then the computers stop the ride where it was when the difficulties started. This can be very painful flying through a loop at 65mph and then have the ride just fly to a dead stop. WHIPLASH! I've never heard of an emergency brake, but i have heard of the comps stopping the train.

On a break-run, not on the ride, they don't have brakes on the actual cars. It must have just stalled, it cannot be stopped in an inversion.

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"Villain-Once You Drop, The Fun Don't Stop!"~SFWoA Rules In 2001~X Marks The Spot In 2001(SFWoA)~With SFWoA ANYTHING Is Possible!

If the rides computer system discovers an inaccurancy during the flat section between the 2 corkscrews, if there is a trim/emergency break there (which i'm sure there is), then it could activate it as the train started to go into the inversion, thus stopping the ride in mid-inversion. I believe that's what he's trying to say.

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CoasterTal

Flying over metal is a beautiful thing!