Serious accident on Xcelerator caputerd on Video

Craig the Coaster Freak said:
^I was curious about the train stopping as well. I imagine most of us have seen a rollback, and, in normal operation the train crawls back down the launch track until it hits one of the tires. I have only seen Dragster and Stealth rollback, so I can't speak for Xcelerator, but I assume it's the same. As such, I'm still wondering what caused the train to come to its final and sudden stop.

I know that on Top Thrill Dragster, an E-Stop at launch, which this apparently was, will cause the ride to stop as soon as possible. That's what happened.

Is this the only Intamin Rocket with on-ride video? If not, I think it's safe to say any others may find their cameras gradually and quietly disappearing.....

It almost looked to me like they were being burned, like they had gotten fluid on them. Towards the end of the video they are waving their arms and panicking like they have something burning them.

Burned? Really? I don't see that at all. I do see a father struggling to release his son's restraint after he noticed that his son's leg is injured, probably bleeding. I see that after he assesses that his son is hurt, he panics and tries to get the attention of park staff to hurry up and help his kid.

Some parents find protecting their children as one of their main duties in life.

That was my take, too, LK. That would be my reaction, too. I'd be yelling for anyone to get my son off that ride and get him some help. That is precisely what he was doing. The smoke towards the end might be some debris caught up in a wheel? Could a cable sheering part of the car cause enough heat that it would still be smoking at that point?

I also find it odd that we don't have any reports about the ride since it occurred. Hasn't anyone been there since then???

RideMan said:
I expect this is probably fragments of the haul rope, but I would sure like to know what causes the broken rope to disintegrate into fine pieces, and furthermore why does that shrapnel go airborne for the train to go blowing through it.

Does this wire rope have a core? Watching the video I suspect that the fragments you mention may be propelled upwards by the sheaves that guide the cable into the motor room. They are located in the spot where you see that happen in the video.

Some wire rope does have a core of a smaller, indipendant wire rope, while otherths have a a core similar to a spectre fiber.

I spent the evening at Hershey tonight and Storm Runner was running. They were only running one side, though. I guess they figured they would be 1/2 as likely to have a problem that way. ;)

Oh cool..I was there too. Trip report forthcoming...

Was at Hershey today. Storm Runner was closed, and no explanation was given. I am sure it had to do with the accident at KBF.

Uh, take a look above. I was there, too, and rode Storm Runner. It was operating one train while I was there this evening.

For a second I was tempted to go to Hershey as I thought that Carrie had special "only rider" treatment there. Thats definitely some coat-tails to ride on ;)

Nah, there were others with me. :) It must have been down earlier in the day. I'm guessing the reason is not the accident at KBF, though, since they started running it later on. All the better that Stormy should be having his own problems, eh? ;)

I can't remember for certain, but when KK had it's cable snap, was SR, TTD and XL8R closed temporarily?

FreezeCoaster said:

In the design of a system with high stresses, especially ones that "wear n tear" this consistently, these risks are calculated. We all understand how these systems work, and with that understanding, we tend to gain an interest in general mechanics, physics, engineering. And in time learn how simple systems work. Knowing that, One would easily understand, this is technically a 'common' error. Timing in this case was just a misfortune. These type of events even happen on machinery as complex as Aircraft Carriers, and take into account the amount of thrust + accelerating mass is riding on that pusher car, that would increase the odds of stress overload far greater than any simple system in the rocket coasters.

To Keep it simple: A Calculated risk happened with bad timing.

Can you really agree with me saying that yes technically this is a "common" error yet go on to say that it was just timing that was misfortune? Why was the timing bad? Is it possibly because there were guests on the ride? I am not sure what coasters you are familiar with but the ones I am familiar with spend the majority of their time running with people on them. I would guess that 95% of a rides life cycle has guests on it. Given that this is an Intamin, and whether you like to admit it or not, the reliability of this companies rides can probably bring that percentage down between 85% and 90%. These are just guesses too, I am sure that a coaster spends it life time running nearly 100% of the time with guests when all is said and done, but its difficult to prove and depends on the ride. So really if you are saying that it was a calculated risk that they know this will happen (which I'm positive they know that fact), but believe that more than likely it will only happen during the small window that there are no riders, then I feel they majorly miscalculated.

To keep it simple: a calculated risk happened with expected timing.

And at the point you can sum it up with that line, this incident goes from being an accident, to something that will happening in a matter of time. Which in reality sums it up pretty well. We know (or at least I know of) only three occurrences that this has happened (likely more than that). Two of them caused minor injuries this specific case, and TTD in 2004 http://www.wlky.com/travelgetaways/3528643/detail.html
Another one is rumored to have occurred at KK during that small window where there are no riders. Lucky for everyone involved this one seemed to be the most severe. What this shows is that yes this is a common thing that is known will happen, and there isn't a whole lot done about it.

This is exactly why I hate the company Intamin. I know a person with my name doesn't get much credibility when it comes to this specific company, as I may be somewhat biased, but I really feel that Intamin is not living up to our industries safety standards. The reason I hate Intamin is because of their incidents that they have. I understand if an accident may occur, fine, but from what I see these accidents happen multiple times before anything is done. This is a good example. Another one is the the SFKK incident. That wasn't the first time that a cable has snapped on that style ride. I am sure that there are several instances, but of the 3 that I know 1 happened before SFKK and one happened after. In all 3 cases the cable snapped in the same location on the cable, during the same part of the ride. Intamin can blame the operating company all they want, but when you have common patterns I start to blame the designer. Perilous plunge was another incident that happened after the same incident happened elsewhere. I feel that my feelings on this company relate to the saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" which is why I do not understand why people keep buying them...There is a reason why Intamin is the only major manufacturer that can be used as one of 7 search techniques on rideaccidents.com

Major/Minor

I am with Carrie on this one it has to be a major incident. I don't care that the injuries are minor, when you have a catastrophic failure, as this ride did, to me it is major no matter what the outcome. When it happened at KK and there was no one ride, there were no injuries, but I would still consider theirs a major incident. Take the incident of cable snaps on drop towers. Sure the SFKK incident was a major thing, and those on the minor side would probably consider the other snaps as minor. The same exact thing happened in both cases and how the ride behaved is exactly the same thing. I feel that those minor sayers are replacing the words minor and major with lucky and tragic.

Here is a news stations footage of the incident that gives a little more information. It does in fact say that he suffered from cuts and probably burns on the ride. The funny part is at the end of the segment they talk about previous incidents at Knott's, all of which were Intamin rides...

The fact that the seat was jarred loose makes me want to shut down all rocket coasters. That should NEVER happen. Cables snaps are one thing, but never should the integrity of the train be diminished due to something maintenance may call 'routine'. If this can happen to a rocket with a top speed of 80-something mph, what are the potential dangers in TTD and KK? It's shoddy engineering. Why is the cable not inset in something? Intamin is known for their low price (for new technology), and it's clear that cut some corners in safety. My personal opinion is that these launch systems (cable housing in particular) need to be overhauled. It's only a matter of time before something more serious happens.

Yeah like when Kingda Ka's train imploded some time ago. I rode it after it was fixed and I was sweating like a ho in church!

IntaminHater: Just so you know, Sandor Kernacs keeps sending me harassing e-mail and wants to know who you are. He says you're libeling the company. I told him he'd have to get a court order to reveal any personal information about you, per our privacy policy.

I think he'd be pretty stupid to try a defamation suit that he would likely not win, and in the process put his company's entire safety history on public record in one place in the process, but you know, stranger things could happen.

If you're curious about legal issues surrounding defamation, check out this page from the EFF.

Wow.

Sandor Kernacs = Class Act