Mondial Top Scan strands 28 riders at Lagoon

Posted | Contributed by Icarus

A group of mostly teenagers spent two hours stuck in a malfunctioning Lagoon ride late Monday, which frustrated parents who watched their children dangling in the cold 10 feet above the ground. Park employees tried to correct the computerized error for two hours before using ladders and a bucket truck, similar to those used by electrical companies, to rescue the teenagers. No one was injured.

Read more from The Salt Lake Tribune.

Related parks

No one was hurt, some people just want to b****.
Um, you try hanging there for two hours and see how you like it. Yes, forunately nobody was hurt, however if the park really made no effort to comfort the teens or their parents, as the article states, then the people involved DO have legitimate complaints.

-----------------
--Greg
"For all we know, Stonehenge is just the ruined supports for an early roller coaster." -- RCT2 manual
My page

Sounds like Lagoon needs to do some serious work on their emergency procedures.
stoogemanmoe's avatar
I hope they call their lawyers. That park doesn't care about their customers. I was there last year and I have to say that it's the worse run park I have ever been to.

-----------------
Loyal fan of Nolimits.
------------------------
stoogemanmoe

There's zero reason why any guests should be stuck for two hours if they can get them out sooner. Obviously its a pain in the butt to unload guests if you can fix the problem in a timely manner, but after twenty minutes tops they should have figured that they needed to evac guests.

-----------------
Top 5 Steel: #1 Millenium Force #2 Phantom's Revenge #3 Ice Dragon #4 Incredible Hulk #5 Wild Thing
Top 5 Wood #1 Viper #2 Thunderbolt #3 Timberwolf #4 Outlaw #5 Screaming Eagle *** This post was edited by Feel the Strike on 10/17/2002. ***

CPLady's avatar

As a mother, I would have been in a panic if I expected to pick up my son when the park was closed, and he was no where to be seen. I would have been doubly upset if I discovered through my OWN means that my son was stuck on a ride.

The park officials should have had personnel near the front gates to provide information. If a parent is missing a child, and there are children in the park stuck on a ride, you'd think the employee could have put 2+2 together.

Although they were in no danger, I do think 2 hours is pushing it. They should have removed the riders with a ladder sooner.

-----------------
I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

Two hours is quite excessive. I'd think that if they could not within fifteen minutes correct the malfunction, then the ladders and emergency procedures such be put into action. The park is very lucky that no one was injured. This isn't like a typical (ie not hanging, flying, upside-down) coaster train stuck on the lead-in track just outside of the station.

Those things are a pain in the butt. My Top Scan (Shockwave) went down all the time, although granted not for 2 hours... (With people in it at least)

But I wouldn't criticize the park (for the long wait at least), it's very very tricky to evac from them, especially if it's a com error, as without turning the power off completely you never know if it will somehow reset itself and come back down to final position, potentially causing injuries to anyone who was getting out of a restraint or any rescuers. The way they handled it was very poor though.

-----------------
"I sold my soul to Viacom"

The park would not have had to worry about giving kids drinks or blankets had they just used the bucket truck to start out with. That they were more worried about fixing the computer than getting the kids on the ground is not acceptable.

-----------------
A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.

It sounds to me like the two large pistons that raise and lower the ride from load position were the problem. Vortexguy, would you agree?

Still - even if there was a computer error, don't the Top Scans have a manual override that can be used to bypass the computer?

Edit: Sorry, Chris.

-----------------
~~~ Maddy ~~~

*** This post was edited by Chernabog on 10/17/2002. *** *** This post was edited by Chernabog on 10/24/2002. ***

As a Crew Lead @ Lagoon, I'm embarrassed that this situation was handled in this way, it could have been handled more professionally. Mondial Top Scans, as Vortexguy said, can have some major issues, primarily Computer Errors. The decision making people (at Lagoon) felt it was better to try and fix the problem and bring the ride down, than risk people getting injured if the ride did something unexpected. There were numerous mistakes made on Lagoon's part, and I hope if this happens again, it is handled differently.

-----------------
Lagoon Park
New For 2003 - The Spider and the Fly

For some reason, the Manual Override still wouldn't lower the Boom. Samurai is a "Reject" ride, we've had so many problems with it, that's why Lagoon is suing Mondial Rides. If Lagoon is sued by some of these people, I bet the "Blame" game will start.

-----------------
Lagoon Park
New For 2003 - The Spider and the Fly

Like some others have said, i dont understand why they werent taken down from the ride earlier. I see no point in keeping them there for any longer than 45 mins. 2 hours is deffinately longer than needed.

I sure as hell couldnt imagine sitting on the lift of MF for 2hrs during a cold day...especially with the wind currents coming off the lake.

-----------------
#1-MF #2-Apollo's Chariot #3-S:RoS

-Why a car if i could have a coaster train on wheels??

With my infamous bladder, the last thing I'd want is water, especially in the cold.
-------------
If you want expensive rides, you're going to pay for them, in one way or another.

If they were concerned about the ride restarting itself, why did they not simply cut power to the ride. Most rides (at least fairly recent) are designed to handle power loss in a safe fashion, by gravity (and hydraulic lock/release) returning the ride to ground level, or locking in it's current position (coasters and such).

I know that doesn't work for all rides. The Fjord Fjarlane (Huss swing around) at WOF will continue motion if it loses power or you hit the motive prep button while the ride is in rotation. Maintanence gets really pissed when a ride op does it. I don't know if that is because of a ride design flaw or because of WOF's maintanence of it.

-----------------
Waiting for the CP announcement to be made so that about 1000+ posts will be made complaining about it.

kpjb's avatar
Nah, all Huss Swing Arounds do that. They just drift to a stop. If it was in full cycle that can take a while, too.

-----------------
"When I was growing up, we were taught something called manners. You'd understand that if you weren't such an idiot." - Jack Handey

Chernabog: no, if it were those cylinders, it would be a hydraulic problem, and the computer would tell them that. On the panel there is a little display and it will tell you what the problem is if the problem is with the hydraulics or computer (well, most of the time).

It's a Mondial... what can I say... they are notorious (at my park at least) for downtime. That's one of the big reasons the new ride will be Huss.

-----------------
"I sold my soul to Viacom"

Aren't the restraints incrediblytight on those rides? Man that would really suck being stuck on it for 2 hours with extra tight restraints... man...

-----------------
www.sfftnet.tk

Vortexguy, boy do you have it right about Mondial and their rides. Our Mondial Splashover, Cliffhanger, only operated problem free for ONE DAY! That's right, it operated one day out of the entire season without having to call maintenance to come fix it. Mondial also has breached their contracts with Lagoon, pertaining to fixing problems with the rides. We sent a 40' Container back to Mondial with parts from Cliffhanger (Both Motors and Misc. Parts which were not water proofed!). When Mondial reluctantly replaced the motors, they sent them back in crates, without securing them. When they arrived, they were damaged, and we again had to send them back. Samurai has issues all the time, it's just sad that such a great ride has so many problems.


-----------------
Lagoon Park
New For 2003 - The Spider and the Fly

You must be logged in to post

POP Forums - ©2024, POP World Media, LLC
Loading...