Ride Collapses in Sweden

They took away the Dorney Joker, a similar ride. I was kinda bummed, but that thing used to go a lot faster, and they slowed it down. The one at Knoebel's HURTS. I think I did permanent damage to my bladder riding that thing. LOL

Ride manufacturer "Weber" was a former engineer at Huss, who practically designed the Ranger and the Rainbow by himself. In the early eighties he formed his own company to produce the 1001 Nacht rides and the "Dreamboat" which was very similar to a Huss Ranger.
He also build a gigantic, mobile suspended darkride for the german fair-circuit. The "Fantastische Reise" today resides at Gorki Park in Moscow.
He soon went out of business after that, but I don´t know if it was because of legal action by Huss or by poor sales.

Interesting. I rode a Dreamboat (Traumschiff?) at Circus World back in the day.

It will be interesting to see if all the Rainbow and 1001 Nacht rides BOTH close due to this accident. I mean, we're talking about a guy who went from the original manufacturer of the Rainbow to a company of his own designing similar rides. It's not a ridiculous leap in logic to think that perhaps all these rides should be reviewed.

^The Rainbows are all build by Huss and have people sitting sideways. The 1001 Nacht-ride has people facing each other.

I don´t know when the last one was built, but I guess that most of the Rainbows are now between 25 and 30 years old! The accident must have been caused by fatigued material, insufficient maintenance or faulty spare parts (or a combination of all this).
I can´t believe its a design flaw that appears after such a long time of operation.

I'm not sure if the press just hides the details, but it seems that both of the recent accidents in Scandinavia a measure of luck was involved as the personal damages could have ended up being much worse...
1001 Nacht rides are among my favourite flat rides - Rainbows are also great, but sitting sideways is not as enjoyable to me.
I hope they'll all be in action again soon.

BTW... I think the Rainbows should be around 15-20 years old now, maximum. I remember the transition from the "Flying Carpet" to the Ranger and then the Rainbow the year after.. it must have been around 1986, not much before. *** Edited 7/22/2008 9:29:28 PM UTC by superman***

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bunky666 said:
Funny how we all love these rides, yet we have these deep fears inside us about the very things we love the most.

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I don't think your "we" really applies to most people here, just guessing. I know I wouldn't be included in having any sort of "deep fears" when it comes to riding rides, especially not related to safety issues. None of my regular riding partners would feel the same way, either. *** Edited 7/20/2008 10:12:20 PM UTC by matt.***

It looks like Huss is at fault.

http://tinyurl.com/692lgk

Not entirely, who ever Huss buys their steel from may also be responsible. It's possible that the steel was not of the specification that it was supposed to be. Remember the graded fastner debaucle a number of years ago?

Well, can we also add the foundery that poured and made the steel? This problem cloud've been cause by any number of things. The truck that carried it could've hit a pothole and caused a microfracture in the metal. The guy who machiened the shaft may have grabbed stock number "5615" instead of "5165." Heck, it may have been an abnormally cold day when the metal was poured.

If all of those variables can lead to failure of a crucial part of the ride, and that singular crucial part is the only thing keeping the ride level, then it sounds like a bad design to me. There should have been some type of backup safety system to ensure the ride platform always stays level. Or, there should have been a way to inspect that crucial part to determine if any problems were developing.

What makes this whole thing somewhat of a surprise is that Huss rides have a history of exceeding the TUV standards that by German law they must meet. The TUV standards are some of the most stringent in the world. If the part was replaced in 2003, that raises into question some of the things that have been mentioned above. The metalurgy, the process used to produce the shaft, and last but not the least, the installation of the shaft. Yes there could have been impurities in the steel, but that should have detected not only by the steel producer, but I would have thought that Huss would have done their own check. The machining process, was it heat treated, and last but not least, the installation of the part. Was it done by a factory crew, an outside contractor or the parks staff? How was the ride winterized? If I had more time I could come up with some more variables. My gut says that Huss is not entirely to blame in this one.

Dutch, i'm sure that shaft will be bench tested within an inch of it's life.

Are all rainbows undergoing inspections and potential modifications over this incident? The one at Dixie Landin' was down with the entire ride carriage removed from the shaft and it looked like they were doing some welding work.

All Rainbows have been shut down to investigate.