Woman dies from crash injuries at UK park

ApolloAndVolcano, I have a frightening statistic for you. Of the four riders killed since 1996 on U-S roller coasters, three were riding single-car Wild Mouse-style coasters. Of all the mechanical failures that happened on U-S coasters during that time, the only ones that resulted in fatalities were on the single-car coasters. The fourth fatality was a man who jumped from the train and got himself killed.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Britain seems to have problems with brakes failing. Not so long ago the Big One, an Arrow Hypercoaster had a crash as a result of failed brakes. The park now only runs one train to be on the safe side.

But why June, why now have there been so many accidents and deaths realted to coasters compared to other months. A safety commision in 1999 said that Amusement Park Accidents had increased by 95% since 1995. Is this something to do with the far greater amount of extreme coasters around. I just hope that these politicians dont use this as a reason to impose legislation on coasters, as Britain has strict zoning laws which prevent tall rides.

Isn't this the third death from this style coaster in the last year? I remeber hearing a mother and duaghter wear killed on this spinning wild mouse back in sept I think.

Oh, I dont think this was put on CoasterBuzz, but it was BIG news in the UK.
A woman Sued the BIG ONE at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, because she lost her tooth when the rides hit the brakes and she hit her head on the lap bar. It was printed in detail in the Sun Newspaper, mostly critiscising her for her actions!! The Big One, incase you didnt know is an Arrow Hypercoaster.

When I was on Avalanche at PKD, the train ahead of us had broken and stopped at the bottom of the track. We were just one car away from being released from the brake part, but thank God we did stop or it could have been as fatal as this incident.

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BGW and PKD rock!

Keep in mind that the CPSC later said the report on injury statistics was flawed, resulting in an error margin that could be as high as 50%, essentially negating any increase.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first serious incident on a Reverchon Spinning Mouse coaster. The fatal accident in 2000 was on a Zamperla Wild Mouse, and the 1997 accident was on a Schwarzkopf Wildcat. Both of those accidents involved a premature release from the lift hill and a failed anti-rollback device. New Jersey now requires that Pinfari single-car coasters be equipped with a second anti-rollback device (don't know about other manufacturers).

I don't think any correlation can be made to the increase in the huge, wild, extreme coasters because if you look at the incidents...it isn't the huge, wild, extreme coasters that are having incidents. For the most part, it's these little 50' things.

The facts do not agree with the hype! Conventional wisdom loses again!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Here's another thought -- the brakes could have failed to open, thus stranding a car on the brakes for the following car to hit.

If they are standard calipered brakes, though, they've got a spring or weight-based auto-close mechanism with pneumatic open. I've never heard of a spring or weight failure, but imagine it could happen.

There's been 5 brake failures that I know of in the UK in the last couple of years, this one, the Big One-which has crashed twice, once where the train stalled on the trim brakes, and the one mentioned above where the train hit a loading train in the station, the avalanche at BPB- when the first car derailed as a result of a fault on the brakes, and 2 trains on the Rollercoaster at BPB collided when the brakes failed........all of these resulted in casualties.....I think its time someone at HSE should investigate.