Dragster shut down after riders injured by debris

Posted | Contributed by D.J. Niecestro

Four people are recovering after shards of metal allegedly started flying Monday while they were riding Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. Witnesses say metal shavings cut into riders causing a great deal of bleeding.

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Wow! A lift and a drop. I can't wait to ride that. ;)
Markieb, according to your description, most coasters then (other than clones) are prototypes... because very few have the same ride specifications...*** This post was edited by redman822 7/13/2004 4:56:06 PM ***
Why would anyone in their right mind ride that when Power Tower is next door and does 80% of the same thing! There's no way you could even support the weight of the mechanics for a lift on that tower - it wasn't designed to ever handle that weight, let alone the increased wind load. You'd have MUCH bigger problems than a frayed cable if they tried that (not to mention a sucky "ride" if you could even call it that)
Jeff's avatar

Yea, I'm sure Intamin warned CP of all the problems they might encounter.
No, I'm sure the conversation went, "$25 million? Yeah, we can build it for that and it will be great."

It's weird how only a few years ago we praised Intamin for rides like Millennium Force and Superman at SFNE. It appears you can fall just as fast as you can rise.

Are we looking for a candidate for a future "Drachen Fire Award" winner(SBNO for years until the park can figure out what to do with it)?

Or are we looking at another "Steel Phantom Award" winner (Good idea, bad execution... removed / revamped to get a better ride)

Or possibly a future "Hercules Award" Winner (A coaster that CF will keep running as long as the maintenance cost does not get too big... and when the maintenance cost does get pretty large, out it comes)

Ironic that the west coast's 400ft one trick pony, Superman the Escape, is now sitting SBNO for most of this year. It doesn't take all that long for the hype and glitz to wear off... and no ride, no matter how large or how much it is hyped is immuned from this sort of treatment. If TTD can be fixed, it will be... but if not... or if the costs are too great... it is no guarentee on how long its lifespan may be. (and before anyone points out about the "restraint" issue on Superman The Escape... as the RCDB states, it was closed before that issue came up).

*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 7/13/2004 4:51:51 PM ****** This post was edited by SLFAKE 7/13/2004 4:52:56 PM ***

Markieb, most coasters then (other than clones) are prototypes... because very few have the same ride specifications...

Yes I know, that is what I am explaining to Dutchman, whom says it's not a prototype!

Wow! A lift and a drop. I can't wait to ride that.

Thats not much less than it is now, and look at the line. Not any old drop , The worlds Tallest!


as soon as Intamin fixes this problem (and nothing bad happens after) and comes out with another prototype, there WILL be another buyer.

Who? Six Flags with a downed S:TE and no money? Or CF with a post-death-modified PP, three Impulses modified due to design inadequacies and a troubled TTD?

The only huge check in their future is labeled "Pay to: REALITY."

-CO

DawgByte II's avatar
Uhh... maybe the folks at Paramount don't know about it?

They're gullible... they like to buy rides yearly for all their parks... why not buy a set of hypers from Intamin & install at Carowinds, Wonderland, & Great America?

Intamin: Realitively unknown until their breakout in 1999... peaked in 2002, died in 2005.

coasterqueenTRN's avatar
Oh man. At first I thought this was a joke. :-(

-Tina

janfrederick's avatar
Actually, if they do get the kinks worked out, I'd much rather buy from them having had the experience...just so long as it doesn't turn out that they knew something but covered it up ala Ford.
DawgByte II - Actually Intamin had quite an active life in the 80's as well. CP rides like Demon Drop, Disaster Transport and many others at various parks. They recovered from several failures back then and I'm sure they'll recover again.*** This post was edited by JamesB 7/13/2004 5:31:29 PM ***
Markieb, please don't shout. Xcellerator was the first to use the hydraulic winch launch system, thus making it the prototype for any ride after it that uses that same launch system.

prototype-def. An original type,form,or instance that serves as a model on which later stages are based.

Well lets see

Knott's is getting Silver Bullet

Dorney is getting Hydra's Revenge

Cedar Point is getting ????????

Not that hard to guess

And we all know what we expect at CP from B&M

Amazingly the the GP are used to TTD, but the rest of the park has to make up for that lost customer satisfaction, that B&M cant arrive too soon. Plus it will releave a huge amount of stress on TTD. \

TTD will stay because no other chain is going to beat it for forseeable future, and the amount of faith in CP that will be lost will be inmeasurable.

P.S. enjoy certain parts of frontier town as much as possible this season

*** This post was edited by Sharpel007 7/13/2004 6:52:34 PM ***

I have complete, and total faith that Cedar Point along with Intamin will repair TTD. I don't see the coaster being removed. It's just not logical.
Markieb, you forgot one small part on your arguement. That would be the launch. Yeah, a lot of people come for the massive hill and stuff, but not nearly as many for the launch. The lift would kill it.
Out of curiousity, I wonder how much money CF could get from selling all the steel from TTD.

According to the video, one of the riders has a huge piece of metal in his chest? Terrible news.*** This post was edited by thrillerman1 7/13/2004 6:59:44 PM ***

B&M DOES have a launching, The Hulk
Markieb - you also forget that the reason TTD can have so many cars on the track is the ride takes 17 seconds or so. Add a lift and you now have the capacity of a 1-train X.

All CP has to do is enclose the trains in bulletproof glass and let the cable snap all it wants.

B&M only built the Hulk coaster, someone else built the launch system. B&M did not want any part of that.

Bulletproof glass is heavy and would only cause more problems with stress and strain. It would not protect the guests standing next to the launch track who didn't, but could get hurt by flying debis. 120 mph wind in your face is one of the things that makes this ride so good.

There is no "quick fix" here.

I think the only way they can reduce stress on the cable is with a shorter train. Hypersonic and Dodonpa have quicker acceleration, but a smaller train than TTD. From what I have been reading, the good news is the injuries were really minor, but this is still pretty bad.

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