Three people hurt in Tivoli Orbiter fire at South Florida Fair

This is the same fair where the guy broke his arm on the coaster last week... http://www.coasterbuzz.com/2004-26-218550.htm

Here's picture of the ride:

http://www.flatrides.com/Ride%20Index%20Pages/orbiter.html

I had to look because the Orleans Orbit (Enterprise) sprung a huge hydraulic leak (the hose burst) while I was operating it many years ago. The wheel was already several feet above the ground and came crashing down. Guests were sprayed with fluid. Good thing there wasn't a spark. The hydraulic fluid gushed out, and also formed a fine mist.*** This post was edited by janfrederick 2/3/2004 10:49:04 AM ***

Dosent busch gardens tampa have a ride identical to the orbiter? I thought it is/was called something like sandstorm.

yup, The Sand Storm by the Scorpion roller coaster in Timbucktu. But I am not too sure if they are exactly the same. I know the ones at the fairs usually have higher rotating arms that send guests further above the ground then the Sand Storm, but the sand storm still rotated its people higher than a scrambler would. So, I am not sure how identical they are, but it's close enough. I love that ride! That is scarey.

If I'm looking at this thing right, it's very similar to a Remix, which has issues of it's own.

Re: the prior *incident*...."During the opening weekend, a man broke his arm on a roller-coaster ride, but state inspectors determined he failed to follow safety rules."

There goes his lawsuit....;)

Anyhow, I see that the fair is currently run by Conklin, which AFAIK is a reputable operator and hasn't had many safety issues...the broken arm, regardless of all our idle speculation, was caused by failure to follow posted rules. This one however, IS on Conklin....have to see how this pans out, and even whether Conklin gets this gig next year....