Deja Vu and burns?

My paper here in Florida has a section today written by high school kids that reviewed various amusement parks. Busch Gardens Tampa, Dollywood, Canada's Wonderland and IOA were among those parks reviewed.

What I found strange was one kids explanation of an incident she had on Deja Vu at SFoG. She was seated next to her dad and had a great ride. When she looked over at her father he asked, "Did you feel sparks on your way down?" When she looked over at him he had tiny burn marks on his shirt, face and eyelids. They smelled smoke and next thing they knew the PA announced the ride was closed.

Apparently Six Flags attended to the father with medical assistants and PR folks and they ultimately had their money refunded.

What I am wondering is what in the world might have caused this man to get burned by sparks? They were told it had something to do with a "statewide power outage".

Anyone know what might have caused this?
*** This post was edited by wahoo skipper 5/14/2003 10:19:47 AM ***

wahoo, that "statewide power outage"....is there a reason WE were unaffected...;) Additionally, DV doesn't have LIMs, so I'm finding that *explanation* extremely hard to swallow...

Sounds more like a mechanical issue to me....COULD be related to why ALL the DVs are down though, if something malfunctioned and left steel rubbing directly against steel...esp. considreing that all three lost their trains.....weird that we never heard of this before (or did we and I just missed it)...
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Contents sold by humor, not volume. Some settling of contents may occur during translation...

If that happened to me, I would have assumed it was some idiot trying to smoke while riding...

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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.

Stunt Fall is still openend, so I don't think that the closing of all DV's has gotten anything to do with this.

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Dutch Coastin' :: European coasters, thrills and theming!

At the moment Stunt Fall is closed again. They are testing it like mad, but no one is sure when it is going to open

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"In the summer I wear my tube-top and Eddie takes me to the drag-strip."

That coaster has been trouble since day 1. Tear it down. Sell the scrap to the local junk yard!

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YOUNGSTOWN 2010

Meh. I say the ride is worth the trouble, and I'm sure that others agree... :)

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Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.

Maybe I would agree if I ever got to ride. I have watched SFGAM's valley in front of me and then sitting vallied the second time I was there. And then down completely at SFoG when I was there. Ugh

They make nice statues......

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God bless Intamin, Company that I love. Stand beside her, and ride her, from the opening to the closing of the day.

MagnumForce, i think you would... its a great ride, (only ridden once) but its usually a terrible line and the maintenence issues make it worse. but i seriously dont regret waiting the 2.5 hours i did for the first ride. now that i've had it i probably wouldnt wait that long again.... but i'd definetly ride again.

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"It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone"

I just want to ride it!

I feel you, MagnumForce. I've been to SFGAm three times, only to find the thing down. I did finally ride one - at SFMM.

I'd agree that they're good rides. But they sure do have problems.

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Without the chaindog, you'd never get up the lifthill...

Yea you would probably change your mind I have been on the one at Great America twice and it is AWESOME in the front row!!

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Check Out My WebSite: http://www.sfgreatamerica.com/

Yes, I agree it is worth the trouble. If you have ridden it you know what im talking about...

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Shockwave @ SFGAm R.I.P 1988-2002
Top 5 Coasters at SFGAm 1)S:UF 2)RB 3) DV 4)V2 5)Viper
Total number of coasters ridden=43

Let me give my $0.02:

I worked at SFOG for two season in the rides department, and at some point worked on just about each ride at the park. I trained for a short time at Deja Vu as an operator.

Deja Vu is the only ride I can day this about:

I have NO CONFIDENCE in it.

I was nervous every moment operating it and never felt like I could get into a 'rhythm' working it. I didn't like it, and didn't trust it... and I still don't.

The DV is one of the only rides that I have not ridden at SFOG so far. Each time we have been there, either something wrong, it was closed, or the lines were sooo darn long that we just didn't feel like standing for 2-3 hrs., in the hot Ga sun!

I have been told that it is fantastic, definitely worth the time you wait, but I HADN'T heard anything about more serious troubles, or the lack of Confidence that a person who has worked there feels. As much as I love to ride, as daring as I am most of the time, seriously, I sure DO NOT want to die, just to ride on something.

Should I, or any other customer, be truly worried about this? We are heading off to SFOG this weekend actually, and I have been soo looking forward to finally gettin on the DV and riding. I hadn't heard it was closed down. Is it? If anyone has the heads-up on rides with current problems there, or big dangers/troubles, could you please let me know. I would appreciate it.

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"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising up each time we fall!"
*** This post was edited by Susie Q 5/21/2003 3:20:17 AM ***

They installed the train last weekend. We hope to have it open sometime this week. They were wiring the train's computers up as of Sunday. Just about every mechanic in the park was stationed over there trying to get everything done by Memorial Day weekend.

Press down, pull up, enjoy the rest of your day here at Six Flags over Georgia as we celebrate 30 years of operation at the Great American Scream Machine."
*** This post was edited by Chris the Coaster Freak 5/21/2003 8:02:49 AM ***

Hopefully the one at SFGAm willl be open soon too. There still isnt a train or anything going on.

Also, if you're gonna wait 2-3 hours for it, shopuld you just wait for the front?

I heard they were going to remove it by the end of this year.
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YOUNGSTOWN 2010

He might have got burned from sparks from the mechanic elevator lift. It has a whole bunch of electrical stuff on it so thats probably what happened to the guest. I thought I still saw the train cars in the warehouse when I left on Sunday. Hopefully they did put the trains on but I doubt they'll have it safely ready by this week.

A-Rod (Cyclone operator)

I rode the Deja Vu at SFMM in November of 2001. I was in the 2nd row and thought the backwards drop was cool, but the ride itself wasn't that great. Many others told me the ride is much better in the back row, but I've attempted 3 times to ride it at SFOG, and each time it has been down. One time it opened at 4pm, then closed at 5:30. The 2nd time it just cycled all day but nobody was allowed to ride. The last time I was there there wasn't even a train on site.

It's just a matter of time before there is a serious accident on one of these rides (if they ever reopen). They didn't call it Deja Vu for nothing!

As far as burns go, if you waited 2 1/2 hours for this ride, you did get burned!

-Matt
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TTD: the most exciting & intense moments of every coaster rolled into 17 seconds of pure sensory overload!
*** This post was edited by Matt D 5/21/2003 3:03:08 PM ***