Girl loses feet on drop tower accident at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom

The cable snaps on the way up, you hit E-Stop, and the car doesn't fall in to the path of the cable. I don't see what was so stupid about that comment.

Hold up, I worked a ride just like that, It's real easy. You push the e-stop. If your watching and listening to the ride you pick up on things that don't sound/move correctly really quickly. If your not like I have watched alot of people do you miss things that are really wrong with the ride.

While I, like everyone, am pretty much just speculating at this point, I get the distinct impression the cable "snap" alone was not what caused the injury, but more that in combination with the drop of the ride vehicle.

I do, however, agree with the idea that the cable snapped when the vehicle was extremely close to the top of the tower, and that the vehicle was released from the catch car mere seconds (if that) after the cable snap. Because of that, I highly doubt that even the best human operator would have the reaction time to hit the e-stop, but sadly the e-stop would probably have prevented the severe injury (assuming the drop is mainly what caused it). My question is why the ride itself didn't know that the cable had snapped or e-stopped the ride on its own.

It all depends on when and how the cable snapped. Most likely when the cable snapped the section haning off the catch car got her. the other end should have fallen inside the tower.

Does anybody know if the catch cars came down? Or did the stay up after the accident? If the stayed up how far is the cable hanging down the tower?

Here is a new article:

Six Flags shuts ride at four parks after accident
Free-fall attractions are closed around U.S. after a girl's feet are severed.
From Times Wire Services
June 23, 2007

Six Flags Inc., the second-biggest U.S. theme-park operator, closed a free-fall ride at four of its parks after a cable snapped on the attraction at its Louisville, Ky., park and severed the feet of a 13-year-old girl.

Cedar Fair, operator of amusement parks including Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, said it temporarily shut down five similar rides at its locations.

Rides at Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags' Magic Mountain in Valencia were not affected.

Intamin, a Swiss company, made all the rides that were closed by both companies, Craig Ross, a spokesman for Cedar Fair, told the Associated Press.

"We're going to keep these things down until we're certain it's safe," Ross said. "We'll wait and see."

Intamin made the rides but did not supply all the parts, said Sandor Kernacs, president of the company's American operations, Intamin Ltd. in Glen Burnie, Md.

The accident occurred Thursday at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom park, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The girl was taken to a hospital, Six Flags said, without elaborating.

On Friday, the company shut down the Superman Tower of Power ride in Louisville and three other parks until an investigation into the accident is completed.

"We have had no issues with any of those rides. As with Kentucky Kingdom, millions of people have safely ridden this ride," spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg said.

Investigators at Kentucky's Department of Agriculture, which regulates the parks, are trying to determine why the cable snapped.

The ride, at the park since 1995, takes passengers in a car up the tower 177 feet, then they plummet, gaining a speed of 54 mph, according to Six Flags' website.

"When something like this happens, it has a ripple effect throughout the industry," Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc., a Cincinnati-based consultant, told Bloomberg News. "It's a very sad day. Nobody wants anybody hurt."

Shares of Six Flags, based in New York, fell 25 cents to $6.26. Before Friday, the shares had risen 24% this year.

There are 20 to 25 similar types of rides worldwide, Speigel estimated. After an accident, there's a small decrease in attendance to parks, he said.

The footage that I saw on the news showed the cable hanging alongside the tower so the end that's attatched to the lift motor did not simply retract into the tower. Now the problem I'm having is trying to visualize the other end forming any sort of loop around the rider's legs as it should been just one open ended line hanging from it's connection point on the catch car.

In response to the poster who's identity is non existent: on both the 2nd gen,as well as 3rd gen freefall towers the cables attatch to the catch car above & are reeled in by drive motors located on the top of the tower so if a cable were to snap on DZ @ KI or KD then the potential is there to cause a similar type of injury.

Does anyone know how these rides pull the ropes up the tower? Are the ropes wound on winding drums in the top of the tower, or is there a counterweight on the back end of the rope that drops inside the tower? That could make a difference in the amount of rope that can come out of the tower, along with the likelihood of a rope failure at any particular location along the rope. It seems to me that there had to be a significant amount of exposed rope between the break and the top of the catchwagon for that rope to be able to droop over the top of the catchwagon cover, over the passenger gondola, and into a position to injure a rider's legs. The break probably happened at the point where the rope goes over the sheave at the top of the tower.

Also, to clear up an inaccuracy...the magnets are on the gondolas, not on the tower or on the catch car. The tower has conductive non-magnetic (probably copper) fins which interact with the magnets on the car to create a braking action. Presumably when the ride was designed, the manufactuer took into account the braking action when pulling through the brakes and sized the hoist and the lifting ropes accordingly.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

This horrible tragedy has most definitely sent a shock through the industry. I'm not jumping conclusions like alot of others would, however, it was on the news when I was excercising at the gym yesterday morning. The guy from SRoS at SFNE never even made it to canadian news. To tell you the truth, I have never seen anything on our news dealing with amusement park accidents or safety ever.

I also want to add this even though I'm coming in a little late. To talk about a little girl who just lost her feet on a ride and wonder were they landed or what happened to them is beyond me. Maybe this is stepping over the line a bit, but you guys must have something wrong with your head to even ingest an answer or question of that sort. I think a head examination is a good idea.

There's a counterwaight on the inside of the tower.

First, like everyone else I want to send my best wishes to the girl and her family, friends, and witnesses.

I don't know much about drop towers at all, the only one I ride regularly is Dominator at Dorney. Is this comparable to the one that this disaster happened on?

^No. Dorney's is an S&S tower, and was not even closed due to this incident.

Dave, the wire ropes attatch to the top of the catch car, go around a spool with limit switches on it to sense a misspool or jump, and then attatch to counterweights that run on tracks inside the tube. The counterweights are heavier than the car, unless it's fully loaded.

Rideman: I'm assuming STOP uses the same fins that the Giant Drop at SFGAm uses. In which case they are copper fins. This is according to the Physics Day materials that SFGAm releases.

Discern: The accident was the lead story on the 4 o'clock news in Chicago yesterday as well. It was kind of surprising because I can't ever recall hearing an amusement park accident on the local news let alone the lead story. Of course the reporters made it seem that Giant Drop at SFGAm was an unsafe ride. I think it's way too early to make that call.

Local media reports that the girl has been transferred to a Nashville area hospital now. Still no word on her condition yet.

Just to let everyone know that KD's Drop Zone tower opened to the public yesterday afternoon. I saw everyone from teens to kids to older folks riding it. It had a full queue line during the times I passed by it.

As far as the picture with the frayed cable from SFKK's drop tower, wasn't the frayed end pointing up to the sky? I saw no catch car anywhere near it nor the cable drooped over. Just the short frayed end barely sticking from the tower. If that is the bottom portion of the cable, then what in the heck is holding the cable upright that far up the tower. You would think it would colapse down from its own weight.

If the cable was from the counterweight portion, then that cable must be external as well on a 2nd gen drop tower. You don't see any other cables on a 3rd gen other than the 4 attached to the catch car. If they use a counter weight on a 3rd gen drop tower, then ALL components of that are enclosed within the tower and not exposed.

As far as the video is concerned, MSNBC stated that it was from youtube and it was of the drop tower at SFKK. If anyone has been to SFKK and has seen the ride in person, go to MSNBC and play the video to see if it is their drop tower. What I saw was 2 seats per section.

^The cables run internally from the top of the tower down to the catch car.Now what I saw appeared to be the bottom end of the cable just hanging freely showing a massive break in it which must've been from the section still attached to the counterweight.

Now what I want to know,and it hasn't been asked yet is this: Did anyone in the queue waiting for the ride just before the accident report hearing any strange sounds from the ride as it was cycling?I assume that,since the queue wraps around the tower's perimeter it would give oncoming riders plenty of time to observe the ride in operation & listen for as well as watch for anything out of the ordinary that just didn't sound or look right.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/13553151/detail.html?rss=char&psp=news

if anyone didn't already know. During safety checking after the incident, Carowinds Drop Zone Tower (2nd Gen) was found with a frayed cable. The article states: "NCDOL inspectors had inspected the same ride in March and found no problems at the time. Brooks said cables normally are replaced yearly."

^ That's good to know.

While her physical scars will heal in time the emotional trauma she suffered will no doubt be much more difficult to contend with & I wish her the best of luck in her physical & emotional recovery.

so, most likely, they were on their way up, the cable snapped and cut off her feet on the way up, and she was screaming, and only the people who saw it happened knew why she was screaming.

basically this is one of those "right place and the right time things" or wrong time, and wrong place. if it were me, i would not ride that ride ever again.

if you go to the CNN news coverage of this they show the broken cable and you can kind of figure out how it happened.

I was at the park that day on my way to HW during Coaster con. I remember watching it test from 10:30 until the park opened at 11. The only thing I noticed was one of the cars was not running, but I watched it run all day and there was no problems. I was shocked to hear about it at HW that night as I left just before the accident at about 3:30pm.