Titan stalls at top of lift, riders evacuated

I was on the ride with Coaster Jim (see above). He was using my cell phone. The helicopter was in the area apparently scouting locations for a new football stadium for the Cowboys. The pilot must have seen that the ride had stalled and moved in. We had a feeling we were on TV since the helicopter was continually circling the ride. We thought it would be fun to talk to the reporter.

I agree that it must have been a slow news day. In the end, there were no fewer than four helicopters in the air and at least 2 news crews on the ground. One guy even hopped out of a taxi and started filming from the side of the freeway exit ramp.

It wasn't scary in the least. There was a moderate (cooling) breeze and absolutely no swaying of the tower. The park quickly dispatched an employee to the top of the tower. I'm sure he was looking for any panic stricken passengers, but there were none. The walk down the hill was not really any big deal. The escorts were very aware that this MAY have been an unnerving experience for riders. Before we started the descent, they told us to proceed slowly, hold the handrail and that if we wanted to stop for any reason (fatigue, dizziness, whatever) we should simply speak up and we'd all take a break. From my viewpoint, the Six Flags Over Texas employees did a great job and were obviously well trained!

In my opinion, the safety system worked exactly as designed -- all trains were stopped and held in safe locations. Why did we spend almost an hour locked in the train? One of the attendants who 'visited' us at the top said that clearly the safest way for us to get down was by completing the ride. When they couldn't resolve the problem in a timely manner, they decided to have us walk down. Again, I believe safety was the park employee's primary concern.

In my opinion, a story like this should attest to the safety of rides like Titan. To view this as a mark against rollercoaster safety is nonsense.

The posting that touched on the point that the park tried to keep the riders from talking with the media is somewhat accurate. I won't go into any details, however.

In closing, hat's off to SFOT for their politeness and attention to safety (and also for having a great park).

I have ridden Titan about 120 times so far and not once have I been stuck on the lift hill. I would love for that to happen.

Thank you, Jim and Tom, for your eyewitness account. Great to see a little perspective from someone who "lived to tell about it." Your comments make e-mail I got from one guy even more ridiculous when he ranted on and on about how "cold hearted and sadistic" we all were in our treatment of the story (and this is before I even responded, mind you).

My experience walking down from SFA's Superman was similarly orderly and uneventful, though they got us off the ride immediately, since obviously they weren't going to restart it with several tons of chain at the base of the lift. ;)

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"

Coaster Tom and Coaster Jim, I sense that a good letter to the editor of local newspapers is in order. Don't help the GP buy into the myth that coasters and rides are a danger!

I think they should cage those steps in and put an escalator!

Don't they have an elavator like platform on Mil. Force because the lift is so large? I thought I saw it on that CP show a couple days ago.

I think the news covered it because it was stuck at the very top. To the gp that's a big deal when really its not. It was kind of funny that one of the top stories on the 6 O clock news back St.Louis, MO was that.

There is a little mantinance cart that rides on a track up to the top of M-Force.

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"Villain-Once You Drop, The Fun Don't Stop!"~SFWoA Rules In 2001~X Marks The Spot In 2001(SFWoA)~With SFWoA ANYTHING Is Possible!

Coaster Tom said:
The helicopter was in the area apparently scouting locations for a new football stadium for the Cowboys.The pilot must have seen that the ride had stalled and moved in.

This is what caused the incident to become so over-publicized. They just happened to be there and, like has been mentioned before, it gave them something to report. The fact that it got picked up on national TV amazes me.

And the fact that these morons don't even know what they're reporting. The byline should have been "Texas roller coaster demonstrates how well today's safety systems function".

This is obviously a fail safe system that did what it was supposed to - failed safe.

That's why you have to take much of what the media says with a grain of salt. They're trying to get you to watch the show. The truth is secondary.

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So many coasters - so little time.

What's more, this incident made the evening news here in Sydney, Australia! Which goes to show you the news is full of it.

Everytime something happens at SFMM, wether it's an incident/accident or ride opening, it's always on the news Down Under. Like STE & Goliath opening. I guess they love the publicity & what with being so close to one of the busiest cities in the world. I can't wait to see X on the news here!

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The Taipan, Australia's most venomous snake - also the name of my model coaster in personal photo.

i remember last year when i was watching the 10 o clock news out of Los Angeles (it was 1 AM at my house)and they had a big news piece about son of beast getting stuck half way up the lift hill and they had to walk them down. the media was acting like it was a big deal and all this and completely blowing out of proportions. and this was with the los angeles news. i wonder what it was like with the cincinnati news?

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Son of Beast was really an sob.

I passed by SFOT today and noticed that Titan appeared to be closed. I'm not sure why, but I will be heading out to the park tomorrow and I will try to find out the latest on this.


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TITAN RULES! *** This post was edited by DAN-EL on 7/21/2001. ***

I Think it is crazy how one show will have coverage on it and then twenty minutes later every freaking news station will have a " New Breakthrough". I think what is so funny about it is after they showed how the ride was stranded they had like and hour of how safe are rollercoasters. They also did a thing on new types of designs

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The day simulators replace rollercoaster will
be the day I check myself into a mental hospital

I don't know about other news stations, but the local news (Oklahoma City CBS) was very light-hearted and straight forward with this story. They stated only what was at the top of this thread-the Titan stopped, and riders had to walk back down the lift. They even pointed out that it was a demonstration of safety (not in those exact words, but that was the general implication) They had fun with the story and even made a few jokes about how the riders had to come back down in an unconventional manner. Heck, I've just made a bigger stir than the news did. lol

I can't believe this, my Grampa in New Hampshire heard about this. These news people are taking it too far.

I am sure EVERY coaster has stalled one time or another, so why is this such a big deal? No one got hurt, they weren't upside down, nothing. Just at the top of the hill.

Geesh
-Nate

I don't think that this was much of a big deal!! I live here in Dallas and I totally think that the media made to much of a BIG deal outta the whole thing! I agree with some of the others, I was upset that it wasn't me stuck up there!! This does happen all the time, I recall a time being stuck on The Grizzly at Paramount's Kings's Dominion for more than 20 minutes!!No big deal! The sensors did there job, and no one was hurt!! I will be at Six Flags Wed, Titan will be the first ride I will I be on, stall or no stall!! And the Titan really is 255 ft.high,the only reason people speculate about the height and say it is 245 is because it is 245 ft off the actual level ground itself, but the 10 ft. makes it self up because it drops that extra 10 ft. into an under ground 120 ft.long tunnel!!! *** This post was edited by Frizbee1975 on 7/21/2001. ***

rollercoasters are just like most things in life, they can be un-predictable. the computer was designed so it would stop the train if something went wrong, and thats what it did. the ride operaters couldnt get the train to move agan because the computer wouldnt let them because the computer was designed not to. and as for the riders if any of them are complaining, you take a risk whenever you step into the line for a rollercoaster. and the media blows almost everything out of porportion. its like their jobs or something. but honestly i think there has to be something more important in the world that a rollercoaster train getting stuck going up the lift hill. I mean no one was injured or no one died. so there really isnt any 'breaking news' on this topic. just another reason for the media to make another big deal out of another thing ~

Yeah, the media did have the worng angle on this story. It should have been a "look at how safe coasters can be" story. But I disagree with the "it isn't a big deal" story. If I were one of the ones stuck, I would have been the panicking fainting one. I don't know if I could have walked down those steps with out being scared to death. Last time I was at SFDL the guy behind me on SROS was talking about how he had to walk down the lift hill as we were riding up it and the idea was enough to make me feel sick.
I know I am in the minority here but having to walk down the hill is not cool to me. I hope it never happens.

this should be a mark for how safe they are, the sensors must have detected a problem elsewhere on the ride and stopped it safely, if it had not stopped the train, there might have been a bad accident

I am a ride-op at PKI on FoF we had the same thing happen(of corse we don't have a lift). We had a photo-eye sensor malfunction and it wouldn't let us bring a loaded train into the unload station, because the system thought the train was still in the station. After a half hour mantinance finally relized it was broke and replaced it. FoF always has something going wrong with it anymore.