Cedar Point's VertiGo suffers partial collapse

Thanks! I wonder how this might have played out with folks on or near the ride? This is big stuff!
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"I'll bet that thing hits 5 Gs going through that loop.....faaar ooouut!"

How strong are the towers? Did it have something to do with the weather related?
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8Years working with Cedar Fair and Valleyfair!

OH MY GOSH!!!  I bet people from SFMM sabotaged it to get back for building the same ride!!!!!111 ;)
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"When I come to a town I would love to see a children’s festival and children’s choirs singing my songs - maybe create a children’s day! A Holiday! With parades and songs - oh, I would love that!" - I swear to god its a Michael Jackson quote

Ah yes, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  The classic engineering example of "resonate frequency".

--Greg, who's gotten stopped in traffic on the replacement bridge and could feel the whole damn thing move up and down...

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--Greg
"The questions ticket agents ask at airports are useless, but give an illusion of security to the GP. Much like seatbelts on roller coasters...
My page

n/m..hehe... *edit*... yikes... i hope they or somone gets some close up pics up soon ;) *** This post was edited by Funkytones on 1/15/2002. ***

But again is wasn't that windy monday, It aws a lot windier during the summer when there was some t-storms.
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

Cedar Point did'nt have an accident, There just toying with the idea of making VertiGo even more exciting..!!!!  *sarcastic*

Nice detective work probie!  Looks like it failed at a stiffening ring or flange that is at about that height.  That location doesn't say much though about the cause since most of the likely causes could have made it fail there.

GregLeg:  The analogy to the Tocoma Narrows is apt.  The thing about this kind of failure is that a particularly high wind isn't necessary.  It's having just the right wind velocity for a period of time that causes it.

I'm with Jim Fisher on this.  Very nice work, probie.  Now did anyone else notice the time on that picture?  Reportedly the collapse occured around 3:30pm.  The webcam says 8:30am.  Could it be that no one noticed a missing 260' tower for seven hours?  Could a system clock be wrong on the server?

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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Tim, did you notice that that picture is from yesterday and that it collapsed on monday.

Hey, if no one was around until it got dark out that day, I can see why they missed the tower...
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Mayday - Memorial Day Weekend - Nonpoint, Nickelback, Oleander, Staind
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*** This post was edited by CPgenius on 1/16/2002. ***

...but we got to SEE the Tacoma Narrows disaster, this "tree" fell when no one was in the forest to get pics!  I gotta believe the freezing had something to do with the collapse, meaning it wouldn't have happened in the summer.  But seriously, the steel fabrication company that constructed the towers would be responsible instead of S&S, no?
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PoTP acolyte - remove fear to reply
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

Two good articles in the Sandusky Register today regarding the incident. 

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=51117?frontpage

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=51098?localnewsdaily

and this has a picture of the ride, sans the NW tower

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$sch=localnewsdaily?localnewsdaily

-Seth

After looking at that photo, I'd say the break was closer to 38-45 feet on the tower than 65.

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Jes
Webmaster, Jes's Roller Coasters
"Thank You Jeff Putz"

I find it a little hard to believe that Cedar Point did not know who the firm was that put Vertigo up.  Could it be it is the same firm that is putting up WT and they don't want to add fuel to the fire?

Perhaps Janice didn't know but someone in Maintenance does.  That would seem a little more realistic.

I'm sure it was the PR people that didn't know who erected the towers.  Obviously someone knows.  They paid for it and most likely have record of that. ;)  Its just a case of the newspaper failing to clarify something and making something look stupid.
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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I have also noticed that the steel erection is on pause.
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a href="aim:goim?screenname=BPSY2I"BPSY2I/a

Ah, resonance i just had a test on that in physics.  This one is really out there.  I hope they discover what went wrong so this does not happen again.  This does not seem like Cedar Point to build something that might collapse like this.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.  Anyway, if this collapsed due to resonance, a video of it would have been interesting, because i saw the home movie of the Tacoma bridge collapsing and it looked like a movie scene, but it was real!

rollergator:  S&S as the prime contractor would be responsible for any work done by subcontractors.  S&S could of course turn around and sue their sub who did the steel fabrication.  Assuming of course that it was a fabrication problem which is something that we don't know yet.

Does anyone happen to have a picture off of that webcam saved before Monday? I am making something and it would help very much.

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Kara
403 Laps