Woman dies from crash injuries at UK park

Posted | Contributed by colin mcwilliam

The 20-year old woman who was flown to a hospital following yesterday's crash on the Treetops Twister coaster (a Reverchon spinning mouse) at Lightwater Valley Theme Park, UK, has died from injuries sustained when the brakes failed, causing two cars to collide. Three others were injured when they were thrown against the safety barriers.

Read the original report from the BBC, and the follow up from The Yorkshire Post.

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Jeff's avatar
How can the brakes fail on one of these things? If the model is like the one at Kennywood I'm surprised it even had enough speed left to cause that kind of an impact.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
how could a cart going 20mph do that? i think there was something else that went wrong that needs to be looked at.

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CP is the best hands down even without a record
Jeff's avatar
Have you ever hit something at 20 mph? I have, and it isn't good. It doesn't take much speed to get hurt. I just don't understand how the brakes failed because I thought that under a lack of power they were closed.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
When will it end? I thought that brakes are always closed, and that is there usual position. Am I wrong?

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CDNSN
It will be interesting to see if other Reverchon's close for a few days.
This is NOT good. It sounds like something out of RCT. These are the type of accidents that I'm most afraid of.

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Don't fight it, Ride it, Raging Bull!
Webmaster:SFGAm 2001
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme/Coasterz
Brake failure usually closes them, maybe it had a problem where the air pressure, electricity, or whatever powers them was not cut when it should have been instead.

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Everybodys got something to hide except for me and my monkey!
If, for some reason, air can't get into the air chambers for the brakes, then they wouldn't close. But I would have thought the good ol' Bradleys would stop the ride.

Any bets on how long it takes Markey to get involved with some more legislation proposals?


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Jes
Webmaster, Jes's Roller Coasters
http://www.jesms.cjb.net *** This post was edited by Zero-G on 6/21/2001. ***
Yeah but its in the UK it really doesnt affect the U.S.
Yes it affects the US... Markey-fanatics just see this as another accident, and how 'unsafe' they are.

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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com
I hope they don't close Exterminator at Kennywood because of this accident, but I'd understand if they did until they figure out what happened. Doesn't Disney want to install two of these types of coasters? This can't be a good thing. No one should go to an amusement park and die who's in perfect health.
Let's see is that 2 deaths from coasters so far this season?
No, I count 3 so far.

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""Coaster riding is a disease and SFGAm is the cure!!!!!!!""
3???

The woman in the UK, I assume you are counting Goliath. That's 2. The maintenance guy a Compounce wasn't caused from riding, so you shouldn't blame that on the coaster. Regardless weather the blame is on him, or another employee, he should not have been where he was. Has there been another accident that I don't know about?
Now, I realize that a lot can happen at 20 mph, but it still seems like there were a lot of severe injuries, almost like something else was there. I had a car accident when I was 16 at 60 mph and my 2 friends and I, the worst injuries were a broken tooth(guy in front seat) and a concussion(guy in back seat, and I was the only one wearing a seat belt. Anyways, I agree with Jeff on the brake thing, how on earth did the brakes fail and NOT stop the cars? As far as I knew, brakes stay in the closed position when the aren't working as a safety precaution. I, too, hope our good friend Markey doesn't put a spin on this...


Randy, if we aren't going to count the worker getting hit b/c it wasn't caused by riding, why would we count the woman on Goliath? Coroner's found the ride was not at fault, so her death wasn't caused by riding. That's my thinking, anyway.

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UCSigep
"Did you make a copy? Because if you made a copy, we could watch the copy." *** This post was edited by ucsigep on 6/22/2001. ***
It depends on the nature of the failure. Where on the ride did the accident happen? In what way did the brake fail? Was it a brake failure, or a failure of the safety system? If one car was sitting on a brake, for instance, and the control system thought that train had moved on to the next block, a collision would be inevitable. There just aren't enough details at the moment too know what happened.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
If you hit something that is not moving at 20 MPH, that object will have some force, possibly making the collision one at 30 MPH. So it could have been worse than it seems. And how does a break fail. Aren't they always closed?
I don't know how Reverchon's brakes operate, but it is very possible that the brakes are pressure-applied (as are Arrow brakes) in which case brake pressure comes from a reserve tank, so if there is a loss of air pressure or electrical power, the brakes will still close. But if the hose between the valve and the caliper fails, or if the valve fails, brake pressure won't make it to the caliper and the brake will fail.

Regardless of how the brakes are closed, if the blocking system gets confused and forgets about a train, the brake may be left open for the train to pass. If the valve fails and sticks with the brake in the open position, the brake will "fail". There are lots of ways a collision can happen. What I want to know is, where did it happen on the ride, and why?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
That is so bad because Treetop Twister is a brand new ride at that park! I thought Wild Mouse coasters would be the safest! Eeek!

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BGW and PKD rock!

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