Riders stuck for 20mins on coaster at SFGaV

I saw this on the CBS news affiliate in Philly on Friday night (the 11pm news) - the aerial footage they showed had the Robin train valleyed at the bottom of the Cobra Roll. It said nothing about anyone being stuck upside down and mentioned that it was only 20 minutes until everyone was off.

Not saying it's 100% accurate, but there's a ton of speculation in this thread.

The best part was after the quick footage and blurb, the reporter ended the story with a seriously spoken, "No word yet on what went wrong" - that irked me. Nothing "went wrong" in the sense that they tried to convey. It looked like it valleyed.

Gotta love how they sensationalize those stories.

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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park Visits in 2003: 15

*** This post was edited by Lord Gonchar 7/27/2003 5:44:52 PM ***

From what I heard, the train was stuck partially upside down after the corkscrew and then pushed to the bottom of the cobra roll. They did this because they couldn't evacuate from where the train stopped, but they could in its low position.

My apologies. I was refering to the earlier post regarding Two-Face. Half of the people on that ride were facing the ground held up only by a Vekoma OTSR.

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I am the TickTockMan

People don't realize how often this happens at amusement parks and nobody knows about it. My guess would be it doesn't make the news about 95% of the time it happens cause they get the people down so quick. They may not always be upside down, but they are still stuck and nobody ever knows.

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"Here's my ten cence, my two cence is free"-Eminem

I agree RubberDucky. People get stuck on coasters all the time. I was stuck on Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags Darien Lake for 30 minutes before, but I didn't get any news footage! ;)

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Whenever you can ride a roller coaster and experience 15 spots of intense airtime, you know you're on a good coaster. (see: Phoenix)

But LG, something *did* "go wrong". While not *unsafe*, there definitely was a screw up somewhere. *Likely* it was just a misfire of the LIMs, but there could be other causes. Point being, the coaster did something that it *should not* have done therefore something *did* "go wrong".

lata, jeremy

--asterisks brought to you by RGW's "Swampland Themeing"

Jeremy, you *definitely* need to stop by and visit more often...;)

The LIMs misfiring on Chiller is so NOT *new* that the Batman side (the "good side") will be down all year since it was cannibalized to get enough LIMs to make The Boy Wonder feasible for this season....unfortunately, it looks like they are *still* having LIM problems based on this latest evidence....:)
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A few notes:

I know that the Chiller was shut down in its early days for some reason. Was this due to severe head banging, which it certainly suffered from with the OTSRs, or was it due to operating (LIM?) problems?

The news articles said "stuck upside down". Does anyone know if this is true? Looking at the possible valleying locations and the short length of the 5 car trains, it seems unlikely that anyone would be turned farther than being on their sides if the train valleyed. (Still not a real comfortable position, but a lot better than upside down.)

Hitting their heads on metal parts.. at average of 65 mph... wow, it's a wonder that machine of death is still in operation. For pity's sakes. Does one have to leave their brain at the door when reporting on coaster malfunctions?

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"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." e.e.cummings

For your viewing pleasure, the last 3 cars were upside down for 28 minutes before the train was pushed down imbetween the cobra roll and the 0g, then rocked back and fourth for 9 minutes before coming to a stop. The helicopters arrived about 45 minutes after it saddled, and were there just in time to catch afew riders being evacuated.

Both Chiller Red and Blue have saddled in the OS area before, but I believe that only Red has saddled there while loaded. The ride probably just had a low launch speed error, which is actually fairly common with both sides of Chiller.

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Corey
"Afterward, services resumed for about 20 minutes until the congregation realized the church was on fire." - www.channel3000.com