Roller coaster riders left dangling upside down 50ft for 20 minutes

20 minutes? How long were riders stuck on Invertigo last year? (or was it the year before?)

Still, I'd hate to be upside down that long.

How does a poncho get stuck in the wheels?

Yikes... a few things about this...

First, this is the "slightly steeper" clone of Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach. I can tell you from experience that these restraints are not comfortable during the inversions. I can't imagine how it felt hanging there for 20 minutes. This is a slower portion of the ride (most of it is slow), so it doesn't surprise me that something as simple as a poncho could bring the ride to a stop.

In the article they state that 5 riders were stuck upside down... How is this possible when the cars only have 4 seats? Hmmm...

They were counting the poncho? ;)

Maybe we're thinking about it all wrong. Perhaps THIS is what brought the ride to a stop.

This is why you can never say never. Anything is possible.

The article starts with "Five unlucky thrillseekers" on a ride that fits only 4. Media, gotta love it. Any chance to make it more of a tragedy.

Yeah, we covered that a couple of posts ago. :)

Intresting....I witnessed a plastic grocery bag get caught on Mavericks left rear wheel assembly before the Camel back last year. The bag remained there throught the horseshoe into the tunnel...To my amazement it was still there on the next lap. Didn't seem to affect the ride though.
I'd imagine a poncho is a heavier grade material than a grocery bag. I figured either of them would melt before causing enough friction to stop a ride, but I've never seen this ride to speculate.

Maybe one of the riders had a dual personality? Or maybe they're counting the guy in the bucket thinking he's part of the ride too?

Conjoined twin, perhaps? A two-headed shim?

Raven-Phile said:
Maybe we're thinking about it all wrong. Perhaps THIS is what brought the ride to a stop.

I have no idea why, but that just sent me into a ten minute giggle fit. And yes, this seems like one of the strangest stories we've seen in a while. Yay for the media making mountains out of molehills. How many times has the Demon at SFGaM been stuck upside down? Twice, now? Three times? Hell it's like a right of passage if you grow up in the area. ;)

Rokuchan said:

Raven-Phile said:
Maybe we're thinking about it all wrong. Perhaps THIS is what brought the ride to a stop.

I have no idea why, but that just sent me into a ten minute giggle fit. And yes, this seems like one of the strangest stories we've seen in a while. Yay for the media making mountains out of molehills. How many times has the Demon at SFGaM been stuck upside down? Twice, now? Three times? Hell it's like a right of passage if you grow up in the area. ;)

Once - I remember my old boss from Arrow insisting it could never happen.

Once - I remember my old boss from Arrow insisting it could never happen.

The first time I got stuck on the Demon I was torn between laughing my butt off and cheering because it finally happened to me, and feeling sorry for a young lady a few seats in front of me. It was on the lift hill but I was JUST out of the 'cave' and it was raining like a you know what. This poor girl had never been on a coaster in her life and was screaming and crying in hysterics. We spent the better part of the fifteen minutes on the lift just trying to calm her down.

Rokuchan said:

Raven-Phile said:
Maybe we're thinking about it all wrong. Perhaps THIS is what brought the ride to a stop.

I have no idea why, but that just sent me into a ten minute giggle fit. And yes, this seems like one of the strangest stories we've seen in a while. Yay for the media making mountains out of molehills. How many times has the Demon at SFGaM been stuck upside down? Twice, now? Three times? Hell it's like a right of passage if you grow up in the area. ;)

Has Demon really been stuck upside-down more than once?

I also remember when it happened - someone told me and I INSISTED that it was impossible. I was suprised :)

I thought that only happened to Demon once. And after it happened, Arrow modified the last axle of all the Corkscrew-style trains to avoid having it ever happen again.

P&C-- There is no way it could possibly happen. The only way it could happen is if the wheels were to fall off.

Oh... :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Mumbo Jumbo was a really good ride (the diff. in drop-angle over Hawg was minimally noticeable at best, but I'm becoming a bigger fan of compact steel with every new incarnation). Capacity was a serious problem though...

The real "attraction" at Flamingo Land was the motocoaster.

If it was a poncho stuck in the wheels, why didn't they just remove the poncho and push the car to get it to the next drop instead of doing an evacuation? It seems that would be much easier than extracting upside down riders.

I wondered the same thing. Doing an evac in that position hardly seems like the safest thing to do.