Serious accident on Xcelerator caputerd on Video

I take that back. The NBC affiliate must have got a nasty take-down notice as well. The park obviously owns the copyright to the video, but I often wonder at what point the law favors the media as covering a bona fide news story in the public interest. There is case law out there to support that notion, but I doubt it's something you'd find in the latest version of the AP Stylebook.

Should have DL'd it from YouTube when I had the chance. I always forget to do that.

I hope the kid is okay. I wonder how much the lawsuit is gonna be on this one.

Jeff said:
I've never been comfortable with this system, and this doesn't help.

Agreed

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2116 :)

Coaster Attacks Two? Come on NBC.

The NBC station put the video back up, probably because all of the other stations did.

They get a -1 for the amateur and non-journalistic moron headline, however.

Release from the park

Buena Park, Calif. (September 16, 2009) – Two guests were transported to the hospital today when a cable came loose from the Xcelerator roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm. The incident caused lacerations to one 12 year old guest who came in contact with the cable. A male adult guest complained of back pain. All other guests were asked for a statement and released.

Knott’s officials immediately suspended operation of Xcelerator. The ride is being inspected by Knott's Berry Farm and DOSH. The ride will remain closed until a full investigation can be performed.

I don't have time to read all the posts right now but I am sorry and surprised to hear about this. I hope everyone will be ok. I don't hear about accidents at KBF very often. On a lighter note, my KBF trip which was going to be last week and then was moved to this week will be postponed again. With GhostRider and Xcelerator closed there are not enough good coasters open right now for me to want to go. I saw on their website that Xcelerator is closed at least from Sept 17-30. Now I know why.

Btw Jeff, I just forwarded the link to the youtube video onto Coasterbuzz. Did not put the actual video ON You tube, so think I should be fine, legally speaking that is(At least I hope, dont scare me)

Sorry, I thought you were implying you put it up. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it. It says the YouTube user pulled the video themselves, and I suppose if the park wanted to go after the person for copyright infringement, they could if YouTube were to play ball. But YouTube itself, and any site posting or embedding the video is quite isolated by the safe harbor provisions of the CDA and DMCA.

What's interesting is what happens when the video gets out into the world and documents a newsworthy event that is of public interest. I suspect that changes the nature of it, and probably gives a free pass for those TV stations to continue having it up on their sites.

Already happend, it is still on the nbc website via there own server, not the you tube video they linked before.

If nbc has it in there database, you know others will have aswell. Taking it down from you tube will do nothing(and you know there will be plenty of people reposting it thruout the day)

But thanks to reassure me that I did not do anything wrong by posting it here(was not really scared, but for a split second thought that I dont need any lawyers knocking on my door)

Knowing the launch system rather well, I seem to get confused by a few things.

1. It's hard to tell if the cable shards are coming from. They hit the riders just as they go over the section of track with the cable guides that run into the hydraulic building. The trains are very hefty and the floor is made up of a steel plate, so it isn't coming out from the bottom. You can confirm this since the second row of passengers seem fine at the end.

2. Not really based on this video, but I know there have been other occurrences of the the cables snapping on these rides and S&S drop towers and no shards of cable come flying at the vehicles. I really wonder what the differences are.

3. The biggest thing I noticed and the thing that concerns me way more than cable snapping is what happened to the kids seat at the very end of the video. Seems to move forward and that is really puzzling. Can anybody explain what I am seeing here? If that seat was really able to move, I'm wondering what would have happened if the train made it over the top hat and hit the brakes going forward?

Jeff said:
I take that back. The NBC affiliate must have got a nasty take-down notice as well. The park obviously owns the copyright to the video, but I often wonder at what point the law favors the media as covering a bona fide news story in the public interest. There is case law out there to support that notion, but I doubt it's something you'd find in the latest version of the AP Stylebook.

Depends if the park SOLD the vid or not. It it was taken then there may be suit.

The video is also up on liveleak where you can easily download it.

This is a terrifying mishap that will hopefully never be allowed to occur again. That boy could have very easily lost his legs / face if the cable had snapped up further than it did.

I for one will be riding Intamin launchers in the back row from now on, which is ridiculous in itself that I should have to make that consideration.

Intamin needs to get this stuff figured out before they kill another person. This is the worst PR event I've seen for a park, as the video is already all over twitter and facebook.

According to the article he recieved lacerations to the legs. Can you imagine how much worse those lacerations would be on a 128 mph launch?? Terrifying. Not to mention the seperation of his seat from the car itself. Notice as the car is coming to a stop backwards the kid's seat pops up and over to the left, off the frame. WTF could cause a seat to literally disconnect like that.

DejaVuNitro said:
I have not visited in years past and they may have re-opened the original line and observation area but it was a no-go in 2005 after said accident.

The old line and observation area are still closed. I don't think it will ever be used again. I have seen the old line from aerial photos of the park and it looks a lot better than the current line but since it is for safety, I'm glad the park isn't taking any chances.

I'm kind of hesitant to ride Kingda Ka and Storm Runner after seeing the video. I know the odds of it happening are rare but considering that Kingda Ka has so much downtime and the major incident in 2005, I am really going to have to think about whether or not I feel safe riding those coasters.

gomez said:
It's hard to tell if the cable shards are coming from.

I don't think you can assume those are cable bits. If the cable struck the front of the train, and it's made of fibreglass, then that's probably what it is.

Have any of the other hydraulic launch coasters been closed as a precaution? If the same flaw exists on Top Thrill Dragster or Kingda Ka, you can only imagine how much worse the damage could be if a similar incident occurred while going 40-50 mph faster. Parks were pretty quick to close their Intamin drop towers after the Kentucky Kingdom accident.

I seriously hope the others are closed... I wouldn't step foot on one until they ensure this doesn't occur ever ever again.

I guess we will know tomorrow if they are open or not since I think CP is the only park open tonight (of the US parks with these rides)

Sudden catastrophic failure, or fatigue failure, or is there no way at all to try to figure that one out? Any idea if cables are replaced periodically based on the knowledge of past incidents with them?