Kenban Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 I just saw this story and figured I would post it. I almost always comment on how coasters are designed so that a power outage will not leave you upside down but from reading the story and looking at the coaster on RCDB it appears I am wrong. HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - A dozen riders on a roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down - 150 feet above the ground - after a power outage shut down the attraction. It took about 30 minutes for the city Fire Department to rescue the riders using a ladder truck Saturday evening, said Aundrea Crary, spokeswoman for the Springs & Crystal Falls amusement park. Spectators cheered when the riders were brought to the ground from the highest point of a loop on the X-Coaster, but one passenger threw up after reaching safety. The X-Coaster was one of several rides brought to a halt by the outage that originated somewhere near the park. "You could tell who got off the (X-Coaster) because their faces were red," said Angela Salter. She was riding the Gauntlet, another coaster, and said park employees worked quickly to free her. The park resumed normal operations, although the X-Coaster remained closed. One X-Coaster passenger, Jay Plummer, 37, was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Medical Center in Hot Springs after complaining of neck pain and a headache. "It was very scary," said his girlfriend, Connie McBride. "I love the amusement park, but I will never get on the X-Coaster again." The park has experienced outages before, but usually they last only seconds, said Dan Aylward, Magic Springs president and general manager. Entergy Corp. (ETRPA) was investigating but crews found no faulty wiring. "The cause could be a (tree) limb or as simple as an animal (on the lines)," said Mark Hunt, general manager of customer service for Entergy. "We could find no faults, but we are going to continue to investigate until we find the cause." Source: My Way News (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070610/D8PM54SG0.html) You can check out the coaster on RCDB. From looking at the pictures it appears that the chain goes to a point where both cars are upside down. The article makes it sound like it stopped right at the top. Anyone ever been to Magic Springs & Crystal Falls or been on a similar ride? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOFirehawkFAN Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 That looks like a very interesting ride. Im so jelous though Ive always wanted to be one of those guests to got in the news for getting stuck or not majorly injured on a ride. Worst Ive ever experienced is a freeswing on TRTR and SkyHawk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 I have been to Magic Springs several times, but the last time I was there X-Coaster was within two weeks of opening, but had not yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOPGUN1993 Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 ^Did you ride "Big Bad John" while you were there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Yep, and everything else on the dry side.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubaman Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 ^How's that wooden coaster they've got in that there theme park? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kawana Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Looks like a cool coaster. Too bad those folks got stuck upside down. I hope no other parks get bad press because of this. I'm planning on going to KI on Saturday, so I hope my girlfriend doesn't freak out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenban Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share Posted June 11, 2007 I ran across another site with the story which has a picture you can check it out on CBS news. Looking at the photo the ride stopped at just the worst possible moment. While the ride design looks interesting I think the ride should go up the other side of the tower then instead of you going over the top upside down just have it be a little more traditional. In my view this is a design flaw. It should not be possible for a power outage to leave a coasters train upside down. No matter how unlikely a situation like this is if your going to design a ride like this there has to be some kind of backup system in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIBeast Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 I agree about not leaving the customer hanging... There should be some way it could just coast back down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasper Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Wow i think that is the first time i have saw a coaster that utilizes a chain lift to get you up into the loop. Htat is just asking for trouble right there. I have never really been stuck on a rid eexcept when The Beast did not have enough for a full car and we go stopped on the second lift for about a minute. Well actually now that i think about it i have gotten stcuk in Adventure Express's second lift hill where all the tiki things are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIVortex Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Yes they should have designed something in the safety system of the ride, if power is lost, that they could have either manually brought the train up or released the train somehow. That is crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOPGUN1993 Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Well actually now that i think about it i have gotten stcuk in Adventure Express's second lift hill where all the tiki things are. Thats a Block Brake there for you didn't get stuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubaman Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Shoot, somebody beat me to the posting a picture. Don't know how I'm going to explain the hole in the newspaper now... You know, I would think that something would be built into the design to prevent this from happening. Would it be withing the realm of possibility to have mantainence workers climb the structure and physically push the car up and over? Isn' that what had to be done when TTD got stuck at the top? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIVortex Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Well actually now that i think about it i have gotten stcuk in Adventure Express's second lift hill where all the tiki things are. Thats a Block Brake there for you didn't get stuck. Not a brake but it's a block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOB_TOM Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 Why would a block stop you from getting stuck? A block is designed so that two coasters do not hit each other. It would not prevent a train from getting stuck upside down. What they should have done is installed an emergency generator and had a separate chain up at that point, so that the generator could be turned on and the train released without having them stuck upside down for too long of a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIVortex Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 You could still get stuck in a block brake, for lots of reasons. A sensor failure, emergency stop, a block set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstrwomann Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 That coaster is fairly new also. I wonder what caused it to happen. I would hate to get stuck upside down. They should have some other way to get it moving backwards if it gets stuck. I have never seen TTD get stuck at the top of the hill. In the first year it rolled backwards and noone was hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubaman Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 ^TTD has been stuck at the top before. If I remember correctly, a maintainence worker just physically pushed the train on over. But for that to happen, it had to be a one in a million chance. Right launch speed, right track temperature etc etc. A rare occurence, yes. But it has happend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browntggrr Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 ^ http://www.xtremecoastin.com/videos/misc_v...dstuck_2005.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jzarley Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 This was already posted on Coasterbuzz, but I thought it was very funny: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_.../20070611.phtml David Letterman's Top 10 list of what was going through the people's minds on X-Coaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welchce Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 This was already posted on Coasterbuzz, but I thought it was very funny: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_.../20070611.phtml David Letterman's Top 10 list of what was going through the people's minds on X-Coaster Very nice. I probably would've been thinking "I hope I'm getting a life-time pass for this." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 ^How's that wooden coaster they've got in that there theme park? I love wood coasters, as many know. I'm really trying to be nice here. It's...uh....unremarkable. The Interpreter, trying really hard to be nice... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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