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Son of Beast roller coaster to be removed


Guest KingsIslandPR

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And even steel coasters "wobble" a bit when those heavy trains go across their tracks, for example, here is a music video of our own B&M Hypercoaster, Diamondback...

Watch the track closely during the "yellow-ish" scene around the 1:30 mark...it isn't much, but it does "wobble" a bit there.

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Didn't a forensics investigator (Rick Schmizze) who looked over the ride after the 2006 incident find loose bolts he could unscrew by hand? I would think that would be a clear sign it swayed too much.

Well after the incident many bolts may have been loose. Many times in wood structures the bolts are tight when the structure is good, but when the structure fails, many other bolts will be come loose because of the lack of force on them.

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I tried to go to ki yesterday but was turned away.. I forgot it was closed for private event. So I drove around the back of great wolf lodge again there is a service road I believe Kings Island owns there. There are some buildings marked as "Kings Island green house" but any way from there you get a pretty good view of SOB. And I couldnt see anything happening yet.

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Didn't a forensics investigator (Rick Schmizze) who looked over the ride after the 2006 incident find loose bolts he could unscrew by hand? I would think that would be a clear sign it swayed too much.

A few loose bolts on any structure/ machine sounds dramatic, but is not that unusual due to the constant vibration. SoB had SEVERE vibration that not only caused loose bolts, but numerous issues, including contributing to the support failure that resulted in guest injuries.

It should be understood- loose bolts will not cause a structure to sway. They are engineered to sway. If there was no "give" in a structure, it would fall down like a house of cards. Even the Empire State building "gives" about 1.5 inches. The antenna on top of the CN Tower will sway 3.5'.

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Didn't a forensics investigator (Rick Schmizze) who looked over the ride after the 2006 incident find loose bolts he could unscrew by hand? I would think that would be a clear sign it swayed too much.

A few loose bolts on any structure/ machine sounds dramatic, but is not that unusual due to the constant vibration. SoB had SEVERE vibration that not only caused loose bolts, but numerous issues, including contributing to the support failure that resulted in guest injuries.

It should be understood- loose bolts will not cause a structure to sway. They are engineered to sway. If there was no "give" in a structure, it would fall down like a house of cards. Even the Empire State building "gives" about 1.5 inches. The antenna on top of the CN Tower will sway 3.5'.

I was referring to the fact that the over-swaying of the structure was the cause of the loose bolts. I realized coaster structures need to sway, but no coaster should sway enough to cause the ride to literally come apart. There has to be SOME sort of standard which SOB obviously didn't follow.

One thing I was told on The Beast tour from Don was the reason structures like Texas Giant, Mean Streak and SOB become rough. Those curves taken at altitudes topping 100 ft are things a wooden structure isn't made to really withstand long term. There's tremendous forces from a multi-ton train going at 60+ mph on curves that high. Its something John Allen believed in his design techniques. Notice on his rides, high curves are taken at slower speeds. Also, the 2nd tallest hills on his ride have small curves that bleed momentum leading up to them, also to reduce stress on the higher structures (like the humps you see on Racer). Look at how Voyage has needed all that re-tracking these past few years, and its less than 10 years old (not that its a bad ride, just that the structures might be flawed a tad with high altitude curves taken at high speeds). Simply put, wood coasters aren't made to do things steel coasters can do when it comes to curved drops or ascensions. GCI's seem to get away from it as most are only 100 ft tall or so, or have structures that don't go beyond those heights. I would even guess the Intamin pre-fab woodies like El Toro with the high curves it has might suffer eventually, though we have yet to see that since most still ride very well currently (I haven't heard anyone having a bad ride on one lately).

Add in the fact that RCCA' structures seem like they were randomly piling wood and the corner cutting Paramount did, and you get the disaster that was Son of Beast.

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I was referring to the fact that the over-swaying of the structure was the cause of the loose bolts. I realized coaster structures need to sway, but no coaster should sway enough to cause the ride to literally come apart. There has to be SOME sort of standard which SOB obviously didn't follow.

There were not "some" but "many" standards that were not followed.

I'm not sure if you know this: SoB's accident was not caused from swaying or loose bolts.

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