Fury 325 closed due to fractured support

I think most people are assuming a steel coaster is inspected like a wooden coaster daily.

This is set forth by the manufacturer, generally in my experience on a B&M the trains are visually inspected by maintenance staff, and generally the lift hill, as these both are where the mountain of issues arises, blocks checked, and rough visual glance, on a ride of this scale its tough.

A B&M having any type of failure on this level is unheard of, I'm sure the visual check maintenance of supports will be updated worldwide.

That being said the ride crew would have been my first stop as the team manager has the power to stop it immediately, and call maintenance.

A low-level guest services person is going to think you are making **** up, or a prank, by default, cause they deal with a pile of complaints like you would not believe.

This does make for an interesting What Would You Do? A few years ago I was standing in line for Steel Vengeance, and as I was looking up at the ride I noticed a board high up on the structure just flapping in the breeze. It wasn't near the track, nor was it hanging precariously above bystanders waiting in line below. Nonetheless, it was still a part of the structure that had completely failed, where one side of the board had detached from the mating member. Yet, I didn't report it to anyone, because I figured maintenance would catch it sooner or later, and one loose board out of several thousand didn't pose an immediate danger.

If I was in this guy's shoes, I probably would've reacted the same way he did, at least in the beginning. I would first get a video so that I had something compelling to show someone, and then I would go find the nearest person with any kind of authority to respond. If this is at Cedar Point, I'm going straight to Park Operations because a) I know where it is, and b) the people there include area managers that have greater responsibility and authority than the ride operators, and they would probably react quickly and more appropriately to the video. On the other hand, if I'm at a park where I don't know where Operations is, or if I'm really far away (Maverick, Steel Vengeance), then I'd probably go instead to the ride station, ask for the team leader, and show them the video. Now, if it's something as serious as the Fury fracture, and the ride op doesn't immediately E-Stop, how forcefully would I try to convince them that they should? I honestly don't know. I'd like to think I would stick around and at least see if someone calls maintenance or something. Given my background, I think I could convey that I'm not some random, hysterical wacko, and hopefully they wouldn't need much convincing, but you never know.

Where I get lost is how you come into contact with the media. Even if you post your video to YouTube, does that mean they can find you? I wouldn't think so, but I've never posted anything to YouTube. Regardless, my guess is, in this case you probably won't get media attention unless you are looking for it. How else would they know who the source of the video was? Or that there even was a video? Much like hiring a lawyer, my threshold for contacting the media in a situation like this is way higher than some people's.

Expect that the park will review its maintenance, inspection and incident reporting procedures as part of this. Those are all reviewed on a regular/continuing basis on some level in any event. That the person reporting the issue doesn't think he was taken seriously doesn't necessarily mean that was the case. He was outside the park at the time he noticed the problem and first reported the issue to a parking attendant and then to guest services. There is a certain level of elevation is required to get to someone who can shut down a ride I would expect.

I think, as with most "15 minutes of fame" things, you are naturally incentivized/almost forced to make some kind of conflict or overdramatize what happened. It's not very interesting TV for the guy to sit in front of a camera for the 18th time and say "I took a video. I showed it to someone. They didn't immediately stop the ride. I reiterated my point. They eventually stopped the ride. Things mostly worked the way they should have."

Much like Jerry Springer or unscripted TV, they're only going to keep you on the air if you make drama.

GoBucks89 and ApolloAndy,

You’re comments are very well stated.

From the park’s perspective, reacting too fast or too slow to various situations both have downfalls. Similar to a school responding to a threat.

From the guest’s perspective, his daughter may have been on Fury right then, and ANY response short of an immediate E-Stop would be too slow.

My trust in B&M and Cedar Fair is higher than probably 98% of the population, and yet because my son rode Fury all day just 2 weeks ago, it hits harder. If he was riding on that particular day I’d be even more critical.

My gut says that this was indeed a rare anomaly, and that all parties (engineers, manufacturers, park inspectors, and observant dad) acted more or less reasonably before and after.

The media on the other hand…doing what they do, excited to push a more substantial story than the typical overdramatized lift hill evac.

I wouldn't blame "the media" for anything. It did break the ride. The problem is that when you have expertise and responsibility in a situation like this, it's almost always better to be transparent. For all we know, either they didn't know about the crack, or they did, and experts felt it wasn't serious. The only thing that some underpaid reporter knows is that what that see isn't normal, and asking the nearest experts, the park, they only give a "we closed it, we're all good here." There's a lot for everyone else to imply or speculate, and here we are!

Bakeman31092:

Where I get lost is how you come into contact with the media. Even if you post your video to YouTube, does that mean they can find you?

Yeah, it's pretty easy.

However, in this case it was even easier, I imagine.

I mean, to just contact someone at the very least (on any social platform) would be virtually effortless, I would think.

Park released official statement on FB.

So what interstate should we camp out next to to possibly get a glimpse of a support driving by?

I would call that a very well executed statement.

Lord Gonchar:

Right here?

Good find. I don't know that it proves that the park did know or should have known about the crack since this photo showed what appears to be the crack. That could just as easily look like a crack in the paint to me.

So they're doing everything that we would expect, but it's good that they spelled it out for news agencies. I hope they say what their testing found. They kind of imply that the existing inspection process missed this, by talking about the higher frequency and drones. I still think this was an unlucky one-off problem. I also speculate that there was not a significant chance of catastrophic failure. Large inversions have no supports above them, and that box structure of the spine made up of triangles appears to be insanely robust.

That's a well-written statement. Covers all bases and easy to understand.

Folks at iROC are probably salivating to grow their business and contract to dictate/control ride maintenance at parks now. Safety policy will be for guests to watch rides run from a distance, not physically get on them, now deemed too risky.

But only after they do two visual scans and retrace their steps twice to stand in a little box.

I was surprised the drones call I made earlier made it to the press statement, but makes sense, good ones are cheap now, and resolution way better then standing on the ground.

A failed weld that big is prob down to a lot of things the day that weld was made at CSF, I find it interesting Clermont was not called out for the quick turn around on the new column, and being built in US, and not tech buy B&M, but probably for the better to save confusion in the public.

Sharpel007:

, I find it interesting Clermont was not called out for the quick turn around on the new column, and being built in US, and not tech buy B&M, but probably for the better to save confusion in the public.

Edit:

I misread how you wrote your reply... I see now (I think) that you mean the same thing as my initial reply below... But ill keep it there anyway.

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99.99% certain that "Fabricated by B&M" in this case = Clermont. Nobody else does the fabrications for the track, columns, etc... Only the trains get done elsewhere.

Highly doubt anybody else would be doing the new column, it would make no sense at all. It's just keeping things simple for "GP", as we say around these parts.

Jeff:

(...)I also speculate that there was not a significant chance of catastrophic failure. (...)

Technically that WAS a catastrophic failure. Destruction of the failed component.

But yes, we know what you mean. And I concur with your assessment.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

""It could have come unhinged and just went like a steamroller through the parking lot, plowing over pedestrians and cars and anything in its path," Wagner told the Post."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/...09635.html

What, like RCT?!?

SteveWoA:

99.99% certain that "Fabricated by B&M" in this case = Clermont. Nobody else does the fabrications for the track, columns, etc... Only the trains get done elsewhere.

Highly doubt anybody else would be doing the new column, it would make no sense at all. It's just keeping things simple for "GP", as we say around these parts.

I was wondering; is the only reason we know Clermont does work for B&M is because one day people saw track outside their plant, or did someone at some point in an announcement go "oh, by the way, the track is being manufactured by Clermont in Ohio"?