Video of a ride accident in Japan?

I remember seeing this before. According to my Huss rep, it was a Chinese knockoff of a Huss tower.

They essentially take the prints for the Huss ride, cheapen it up, and make their own.

They were pretty adamant that it wasn't their ride, and that there are Chinese companies that do nothing but knock off others' rides so they can underbid them. This is the result.

Yeah, that's true. I didn't even think about it but S&S towers, at least, do slowly return to the home position when you press the E-Stop. Very slowly.

Fall Protection? Hah! Real men don't need it! ;)

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Keith2005 said:
Was this featured on the CB news at all?

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I did not submit this as news as I think this happened a while ago. I don't know how long ago this was. I would think if it happened a while ago someone would have brought it up. The website that I got this from is not the most up to date site there is (in terms of news).

Isn't S&S Towers stupid-proof? Because it's air-compression... isn't it near impossible for it to stop mid-air anyway? Even if power was cut or there was a malfunction... the air-compression will slowly have it return back to the ground no matter what.

I'm not surprised if this is a Chinese Huss-ripoff. Aren't the chinese doing the EXACT same thing with Chevy cars? Taking the blue-prints, maybe modifying it slightly & selling it under their own brand for thousands cheaper?

In today's world... there are still accidents, but the modern drop towers by Huss, Zamperla, Intamin, & S&S should probably have stupid-proof malfunctioning safety systems on them so even power-cut or ride-op error should prevent accidents from stopping at the top or mid-level.

No. I would assume an S&S Tower could stop. After all the vehicle is attached to cables. I would think that S&S would but a safety feature into it incase it would needed to be stopped.

If S&S towers were designed so that the vehicles could be stopped at will, then there would be no need for the clamps on the top of the drop-style towers that hold the vehicle in place. Given that Xander was an Operations Lead at a park with an S&S tower, I'd take his statement over that of a 15-year old kid who uses the sig "I rule the world."

Yeah...the chinese have done the 'cloning' in all sorts of industries. The problem is that China is still developing in some portions and solid electicity is something we tend to take for granted. Also, the quality of steel in some cases is sub-standard, but, isn't as regulated as it is here. Obviously a learning experience for several people....

UBRhino I hate those damn swing rides and never feel safe on them. Has anyone been on the one at Cliff's in Albuquerque? Oh man I was scared on that thing...
Both videos are horrible to watch, yikes!

When power is removed from the S&S towers (read: e-stop) the default position is down.

Granted, though, due to the towers' design the air tanks vent slowly, allowing the carraige to come down at a slow speed.

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Keith2005 said:
Was this featured on the CB news at all?

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http://coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=37205

I think there was another thread about this because I've definitely seen the video here before. It might have been a news thread.

*** Edited 1/8/2006 7:00:12 AM UTC by MrX***

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DBCP said:
I have a friend who speaks Japanese and translated what the reporter said, he said:
"4 deaths"
"6 injuries"
"unconfirmed reports of foul play reported"

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http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200403/kt2004032121392411950.htm

According to the Korean paper, and the video, it looks like your friend was wrong, and my wife (who is Japanese) was indeed right. ;)

Sorry. Had to rub that in! :):):) *** Edited 1/8/2006 8:16:16 AM UTC by nasai***

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nasai said:

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DBCP said:
I have a friend who speaks Japanese and translated what the reporter said, he said:
"4 deaths"
"6 injuries"
"unconfirmed reports of foul play reported"

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http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200403/kt2004032121392411950.htm

According to the Korean paper, and the video, it looks like your friend was wrong, and my wife (who is Japanese) was indeed right. ;)

Sorry. Had to rub that in! :):):) *** Edited 1/8/2006 8:16:16 AM UTC by nasai***

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What can I say, it's all Japanese to me! ;)

That was about a year and a half ago. It seems to me that this was an evacuation done by someone who (a) did not understand the ride, and (b) forgot the First Rule of Rescue: Don't become part of the incident.

When a drop tower fails, the way to get the people off is to go up to the catch car and manually release the gondola. The gondola falls into the brakes, and can be unloaded on the ground. If that isn't possible, then the gondola needs to be secured in place before anything else happens, to prevent it from falling while the unload is taking place. This is basic "Drop Tower 101" kind of stuff. But then, rescuers frequently have not taken Drop Tower 101 and all they know is that it's "stuck".

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/swings.html
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/rollercoastertragedy.html

The swings clip is really painful ("see the person get smoshed to pieces in slow-mo").
Wow, how much I never ever want to witness something like that, how terrible!
And then, some people simulate that stuff for films like "Final Destination 3"
Just crazy. *** Edited 1/9/2006 5:02:41 PM UTC by superman***

I know DBCP was wrong. Because it looked like only 2 people feel.

I don't think DBCP was being serious.

Woah!

Back off the Chevy in China thing... Those cars are made by General Motors (who is the best selling car manufacturer in China) No relaxing on anything... I do work for GM China (as well as other China auto companies) and a relative is the director of purchasing there. I feel (and this is unfortunate) that they're built better in China than here... sad.

That swing video is the only reason I do not ride them.. even with most parks spectacular safety history, I still refuse to ride those carnival swing types.

this was actually on yahoo news last week or two weeks ago i think, but the ride stopped at the very top for about an hour, then dropped halfway by the time the police had found a tall enough crane to get up there. they were in the process of pulling the first lady out of her seat when the ride dropped the rest of the way. both the lady they were trying to rescue and three police officers were killed.

i was talkin to my boss earlier about goin to cedar point last week and we started talking about how we'd never go on the power tower because of accidents like this happening all over the world with similar rides. i saw the forum and decided to drop my two cents in the mix :P

I can gaurentee that this would never happen on PT. For one, it's built by S&S and have you ever heard of an S&S Tower ride failing? Plus...it's CP...the only accidents they have are low speed coaster crashes.