Posted
An axle on one of six roller coaster cars broke, causing the accident at Expoland in Osaka, 255 miles west of Tokyo, Kyodo News agency reported. Osaka police official Kaoru Tanaka said a woman was killed. Fire department official Naokazu Norigami said 34 people were taken to hospitals. He said one person sustained a head injury but others were apparently not seriously hurt.
Read more from AP via Fox News.
This is sad all around, though. Too sad.
The girl, Yoshino Kogawara, was 19. Her friend, a 20 year old, sitting directly behind her, is in critical condition with a head injury as well.
There are pics on Asahi.com of the wheel assembly from where it detached. This happened on the way down the hill towards the helix, right where the coaster gets most of its speed. The train was almost to the end of the ride, at the valley just after the upwards helix, and just prior to the final curve.
Fortunately, she was killed instantly, so there was no lying there, in pain. Again, it's all very sad.
You may not be able to read it, but here's the link to the Japanese paper, and its photos/drawings to help better explain the tragedy.
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0505/OSK200705050005.html
Makes me wonder what else happened that sent potentially 13 more people to the hospital?
All around awful though..
As ridemcoaster asks about the 13 more people sent to the hospital, these seem to be onlookers who witnessed the crash or just got sick from seeing what happened. (It could have been them on the ride when the accident happened).
Terrible trajedy.
I hope CF decides to remove both skyrider & shockwave from CW & KD as a result of this unfortunate accident...CF already has a poor relationship with togo as a result of the whole windjammer fiasco & shockwave has already seen one fatality so that's all the more reason to remove these rides & put something better,and more importantly safer in it's place.
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