Investigators say axles never replaced on Expoland coaster

^^Well, at least it wasn't in all CAPS.

^^^Word soup for lunch?

Sorry about that I was just typing wierd.

I agree that the park should have been looking for fractures in the axles but metal fatigue is often hard to detect. I'm not saying the park isn't ultimately at fault- in the end someone has to be blamed and that happens to be the park because it was their coaster and their responsibility to make sure it was safe- but I don't buy into the mentality that the park simply neglected to take care of the ride. I doubt they said, "f*ck it, we don't need to check the axles because we're sure they're fine."

I thought Steel Dragon 2000 was SBNO because Japana was waiting for the service contract with Morgan to expire so they could allow someone they "trusted" to repair the ride.

in the end someone has to be blamed

This line of thinking indeed mirrors current reality. I simply and whole-heartedly disagree with the basis. Accidents can and do happen. Often it is nobody’s fault regardless of how society rigs the process. Living life has inherent risks…

In this particular case the attempts to assign guilt seem fruitless until somebody qualified/knowledgeable can answer these simple questions…Do roller coaster train axels need to be replaced at a known interval AND was the park made aware of this known interval from the manufacturer?

We’ve got good discussion of the difficulties inherent to inspecting axels for micro-fractures. Seems safe to say that the inspection process is “iffy” in determining need for replacement… There would be some deniability for the park if such accusation comes to fruition…

We get the answer to the questions above…and guilt could be obvious. Otherwise we’re left at the mercy of various opinions and imperfect judicial systems to assign ultimate blame to one party among multiple candidates. Such process seems to satisfy a sociological need for condemnation. But at what cost to society as a whole?

*** This post was edited by Jeffrey R Smith 5/8/2007 1:37:01 PM ***

in the end someone has to be blamed

I can't say that I disagree ENTIRELY. Yes, that is a real problem with modern culture, and I *hate* the phrasing. But I think more than someone being "blamed", the real issue is figuring out WHAT went wrong, and then deciding if this TYPE of incident could be prevented from happening again.

In a sense, it KINDA is like figuring out where to "point the finger". But I tend to think of these kinds of incidents as being either an "accident", or a failure somewhere in the PROCESS. When a part has lasted 15 years on a coaster train, it *probably* wasn't completely unforeseeable.

Only a couple years after King Cobra opened at KI they had a derailment injuring at least 4 people *Back and Neck* do you think axel replacement was a recomendation from the manufacurure?

I love the speculation without investigation to the cause of everything.

They can take these axels and the remainging ones on the train and check for stress fractures then determine if that was the cause.

Chuck

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070508a4.html

The latest from the riders themselves.

^The incident on King Cobra happened in the very first year of operation.

The latest I've heard was that the axle may have fallen off much earlier in the course of the ride & that scratch marks found on the rails near the station/lift seem to indicate that the axle failed during the first part of the ride,yet somehow the train managed to keep going until it finally derailed closer to the end of the circuit.

Thanks Jeffrey

I think that all blame is not valid until the entire story is brought to light, the fact that the axels were not changed doesn't mean that they were not tested according to specifications of the manufacturer. If all proceedures were followed as per the engineers and manufacturers guidlines such as daily, weekly and monthly inspections the blame is hard to place on the park or even it's mechanics. There all several ways to test axels including x-ray.