Potential Accident seen at SFWOA

A group of us were at SFWOA two days ago (I'm posting now b/c I just got home). We were standing in front of SUE when we saw that one of the cars on the ferris wheel was turned completly upsidedown! At first I thought it was kinda funny, but soon realized that if somebody is in there, they aren't going to be for very long. Just then, the car gave loose and began swinging very violently back and forth. We then saw something fall out of the car and hit the bars and cables of the ferris wheel structure. Since we were kinda far away from it, we didn't know if it was a person or not. Turns out that it was just the floormat and nobody was in the car.

The ferris wheel is now closed and I hope it doesn't reopen for a while (and get this issue fixed). Even though nobody was on it, it was still very disturbing for us to witness such an act.

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"...they came like a winged curse. A twin plague of demonic dragons!" - Dueling Dragons

That is the reason the Ferris wheel at Geauga has secondary door latches which are inaccessible to passengers...the most likely reason for a tub to flip over on that wheel is if the door comes open and catches on a support strut.

Don't know if that's what happened, but that is, unfortunately, a very possible scenario. And it is possible on ANY Ferris wheel with doors that open outward.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

*** This post was edited by RideMan on 6/10/2002. ***

Interesting...

Here is my story about SFWOA. Saturday June 8th, I was in line for S:UE and was the next person up for the front seat.

The train Launched forward up the front spike. As the train was passing back through the station and up the back spike a loud, repeat LOUD, noise could be heard coming from somewhere on the top of the train or up in the track on the rear bend. Kind of like something metal was bend, stressed, and then finally Snapped.

It was kind of like Bang, bang, a heavy friction scraping sound, then BAM. All in about 1 second or so. The train went up the back spike and on it's way back through the staion they Emergency stopped the train.

No one could tell what happened as everything looked fine visually on the ride. Of course they closed the ride for the day.

Anyone else hear of this or know if Superman is open now?

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I fool so feelish....

*** This post was edited by James K on 6/10/2002. ***

I was working at the park and witnessed this "accident", or so you call it. Intially, it scared me, because I thought I had just seen someone fall out, but it turned out to just be the floormat as you had mentioned. This, however, In my opinion was not an accident, because the reason why the ride did this is common with all sorts amusement park rides. Unfortunetly, I cannot discuss it with you because I am an employee.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes MCS Please, Feel Free To Call Me Jes!
"Thank You Jeff Putz"

James K,

SUE was closed the morning of the 9th...they said that a part was being overnighted to them and once they had it, they would run it. At about 2:30, the ride opened. I don't know what part it was, or what it went to.

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Interesting, do you think that this would also happen on V2??

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X Looks Awesome! Oh Yea!!
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Ahh Jes. Don't bait us like that! It hurts! ;-)

Now you've really got me curious as to what exactly was wrong with the wheel, and why this is considered "normal" Any former employees, or anonymous ones, want to help fill in on the details?

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Sometimes it's up. Sometimes it's down.
But with God, life is one thrill ride that you'll never regret being on.

Maybe it overshot the spike and hit the plunger...just a guess.

I witnessed my own little accident at SFWoA...when boarding X-Flight we were standing on the last car and the lady says..."station *2* all clear" (we were in station1) and she pressed the wrong button and started to recline our train when people were standing on it, once it moved a little she noticed the mistake and stopped it.

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"Tea & Cake Or Death?-Eddie Izzard"~My No Limits Designs...http://coastergames.net/author.php?author=BKF%20Master

I wouldn't say it was "Normal", but these things do happen.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes MCS Please, Feel Free To Call Me Jes!
"Thank You Jeff Putz"

I used to run an Ely 16 wheel, cable driven, hard to run sometimes. We had a problem for a while with the lap doors not closing right, due to rust and yes the doors would come open. We closed the ride down and after a week we had pins just like on the Ely made Scramblers that hold the laps closed. It worked pretty good. Those wheels are kinda dangerous though. I had the one I was running unbalanced when I was 1st learning how to run it and I had it running backwards. That kinda freaked me out. the newest wheels are rim drive. Am I correct Rideman?

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Beer, my soon to be wife, coasters, and the FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Is this a great country or what!!
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stoogemanmoe and places to get discount Six Flags Great America tickets!

B&M Tycoon, and that mistake caused the whole X-Flight crew to be trained over again. Hopefully something like that doesn't happen again!

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Six Flags Worlds of Adventure Online

I was at SFWoA on the 8th as well and just as my friends and I reached the boarding platform, we noticed that SUE's train was stopped just outside of the loading area. Then they brought it back in and said the ride would be down for the rest of the evening.

I went yesterday and SUE was down the whole day. Hopefully it won't be idle long.

X Factor

I do not think the S:UE problem was an overshot. The noise came about as the train was passing through the bend up the back spike.

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I fool so feelish....

*** This post was edited by James K on 6/10/2002. ***

I have heard some weird sounds on SUE too. It wasn't the same sound as you heard but ever time the traincomes backwards through the station i think the second time it makes a weird sound coming from right near the little room where the control panel is. I didn't think it was anything too bad since the worst that could happen is that the brakes don't work and it this case its good if i was on the ride cause i'd get to go back and forth a couple more times. Plus I've heard it just about everytime this year so its probably normal.

Another thing I saw that was kinda freaky was last time I was there on May 18th. After the train was loaded the employee put the height pole that they check people with in the small space in the support. After the train launched it came backwards thru the station. When it did that the vibrations must've knocked the pole over. It leaned over a little bit and got stuck in the metal wire case on the support. It was leaning over right near where the train goes by. Luckily it wasn't over far enough for the train to hit it but it looked like it was going to. The employee saw it and just looked at it for a little bit before he went over and moved it. At first I was ready to jump over the air gate and move it myself.

Why can't CP be my homepark instead?