Ninja partially derails at Six Flags Magic Mountain
Posted
Ed. note: At the time of publication, the LA station was reporting four injuries. The site was streaming live helicopter video at 7:30 p.m. local time. What I saw was that the front bogie of the first car had derailed, and the car was loaded. Workers were securing the train's position with chains between the second bogie and the track. I saw the four people in the first car having a laugh about something as the workers were climbing above the track. It was difficult to see if the entire train was loaded, but I make the assumption that they would not attempt to evacuate the train without its position secured. -Jeff
Read more and possibly see video from KNBC/Los Angeles.
UPDATE: 7/9/14 More details of the derailment, caused by a fallen tree, from The LA Times.
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John Knotts said:
I'll give Six Flags a pass on this one.
Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the condition of the tree. It looks sort of dead in the pic above. If the tree was a healthy tree, then they get a pass.
When I went to SF Great America a few weeks ago, landscaping is pretty much non-existant and there were dead trees throughout the park. Dead trees are a liability. They don't spring back in the wind.
Six Flags parks are contradictory these days. Good rides, clean parks (that costs $ to pay people to clean all day, security (that costs $) but the parks overall are looking run down with peeling paint and neglected landscaping.
With the NTG incident last year and this, this doesn't make Six Flags look very good. It makes me not want to go to their parks anytime soon. Cedar Point's safety record and maintenance is unbeatable.
Well these kinds of accidents never look good to the public, whether it's the park's fault or not. But let's not pretend that these sorts of freak accidents only happen at SF parks either... I'll leave it at that.
Thabto said:
With the NTG incident last year and this, this doesn't make Six Flags look very good. It makes me not want to go to their parks anytime soon. Cedar Point's safety record and maintenance is unbeatable.
Except for all the issues with Dragster...like the tire falling off the train. And you're comparing a whole chain to one park. For apples to apples include all of Cedar Fair which would count the Perilous Plunge ejection and the Xcelerator incident.
Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."
There was also an incident at Cedar Point the same day as the NTG incident on their new water ride. Parks do a great job at keeping us safe, but as I also said, there is no such thing as a "no risk" day at any park.
As enthusiasts, we really should know better. But some of the comments here are very GP-ish...
These comments are mostly fanboy posts. "My park is better than your park" or in this case " My park kills less people compared to your park".
It is pointless!
Let's be thankfull this turned out to be a minor accident.
At the end, you are still 36 times more likely to be killed on your way to the park vs any coaster. The safety records of U.S. Parks are quite outstanding, no matter what company the owner is.
I don't fault SF one bit in this freak accident and the best possible outcome from it. Yeah, it derailed but didn't fall and none of the injuries are life threatening. This was a Act of God/Mother Nature deal and Im not sure even checking the trees around it would have prevented it. Other than removing all the trees around it. Thats the only thing.
When I was at Lake Compounce in 2001 the park was supposed to be open till 8. We got a T storm rolled through about 530. Most people by this point in the day were riding Boulderdash, Ghost Hunt and Wildcat. Really wasn't many people in the park that day. They said, We're closing the park at 6. Ghost hunt is the only open ride until then. Said it would take them too long to rewalk the tracks of BD to be worth the effort.
I also remember after Paramount bought KI and during the re staining project they cut the trees over the second drop back about 20ft on each side, Daylighting it. Hasn't been until recent years that it got its *Tunneled Effect* back.
Also Remember Paramount running a test run while a boom truck was still leaning on the track of Top Gun destroying three of the six car train. Yikes. Lucky that wasn't operations :)
I agree, Intamin slipped in 30 years ago and planted that *SPECIAL TREE*
Am I the only one that noticed that big half dead in the center of the POV pic? I guess I should have pointed that out in my first post.
So, when that big half dead tree that's leaning toward Ninja falls, will that be a freakish act of nature or a preventable act of nature. Cut it down!
I guess it's a good thing that I didn't have my enthusiast goggles on.
Raven-Phile said:
This is the problem with "Trees of exceptional size".
So Ninja was derailed by TOES? Eww...
Besides, I don't think they exist.
I'm going to be visiting Magic Mountain and need to know if my brother, who's a 50-foot tree -- mostly trunk -- will be able to fit on Ninja.
How can we blame this on Intamin?
But in all seriousness, I don't think you could have predict that tree falling. It's not really anyone's to blame. I wonder if they'll invest in a new train system. Seeing as how Arrow is defunct, I don't see it happening.
I think I remember someone on PointBuzz saying that the reason Iron Dragon discontinued 3 train operation was because they needed to strip it down for parts on the other 2 trains due to parts being hard to find. Don't know if that's true or not. But I think I also heard that the transfer process was time consuming and resulted in a long downtime.
birdhombre said:
I'm going to be visiting Magic Mountain and need to know if my brother, who's a 50-foot tree -- mostly trunk -- will be able to fit on Ninja.
Looks like he's gonna have to lay on top.
birdhombre said:
I'm going to be visiting Magic Mountain and need to know if my brother, who's a 50-foot tree -- mostly trunk -- will be able to fit on Ninja.
As long as I'm getting paid, I don't care if he jumps out mid-ride.
Vater said:
I'm pretty sure that was an Intamin tree.
Funniest post of all time!
-Travis
www.youtube.com/TSVisits
This is why power companies do routine tree trimming near their power lines and ask land owners to do the same. Trees can die, and dead trees fall.
What other reason could a tree of that size fall into the path of Ninja? Was there bad weather prior to the train being dispatched?
-Travis
www.youtube.com/TSVisits
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