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SFKK: Girl Injured in Accident


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A terrible tragedy. Hopefully, the girl has a speedy recovery and can lead a somewhat normal life. This is the last thing on anyone`s mind when they visit an amusement park for a day of fun in the sun. Especially hard since this park is right in our "own backyard" so to speak as it is just a short drive down the express way.

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So the cable from one snapped and then whipped around and severed the feet of a rider on a different section of the ride..? If that is so, then even if the cable would snap on DZ it would be above riders, but still I would not want a cable to snap when I was riding that... I never even thought of that today when I rode DZ. My prayers go out to the family and girl, God bless.

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I'm puzzled, it sounds as if cables broke and the car crashed to the ground cutting off her legs, yet I thought the ride used magnetic brakes and the cables wouldn't matter. Can the magnetic brakes fail? Were the cables supposed to be a fail-safe? It's almost as if cables and the breaks failed. I know how the witnesses feel, it is a terrible feeling and my prayers are with the girl. Its absolutely horrible to think about it.

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I can confirm that DZ was closed later on this evening at KI today. It was running when we arrived at the park around 5pm. We went back to AZ to try and catch a ride around 9ish, and DZ was shut down. The catch car was parked at the top. Sorry to hear about this very bad tragedy at SFKK, this year so far hasn't been very good with Theme Parks. My Prayers go out to the girl and her family.

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I too am very interested in knowing how this happened. Some of the videos on local news stations show people working around car three which faces the waterpark. The piece of blue hardware that attaches to the cable and lifts the car up can be seen clearly in the video for cars 2-4 at the top of the tower. The side of the tower with cars 1 and 5 cannot be seen.

If my memory serves me right there is only one cable attached to the blue piece of hardware. One would assume from these observations that the cable did not snap or atleast did not snap completely.

What are everyone thoughts?

Eye witnesses as well as pictures confirmed that a cable snapped in two.

Upstop, the rides brakes are magnetic and can only fail in the event of the Earth's magnetic poles switching. There are cables that bring the car up to the top of the tower, an most likely, the cable that snapped was on the same vehicle. Those cables are under intense tension and if it snapped, it is highly probable that the cable shot down underneath the car and unfortunately came in contact with the young girl. With regards to DZ at KI, if any of the cables did snap, the seats are far enough away to more than likely not come into contact with it. I don't remember if someone asked on this site if DZ's ride vehicle is further away because of this potential risk but that isn't the reason. It is like that to be able to hold more passengers. This is a true freak accident that was way beyond "worst case scenario". Even preparing for a cable snap during design cannot predict the violent behavior of something under such high tension. This is very tragic and the girl and her family, as well as the many witnesses including the ride operators, need our prayers.

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I too am very interested in knowing how this happened. Some of the videos on local news stations show people working around car three which faces the waterpark. The piece of blue hardware that attaches to the cable and lifts the car up can be seen clearly in the video for cars 2-4 at the top of the tower. The side of the tower with cars 1 and 5 cannot be seen.

If my memory serves me right there is only one cable attached to the blue piece of hardware. One would assume from these observations that the cable did not snap or atleast did not snap completely.

What are everyone thoughts?

Eye witnesses as well as pictures confirmed that a cable snapped in two.

Upstop, the rides brakes are magnetic and can only fail in the event of the Earth's magnetic poles switching. There are cables that bring the car up to the top of the tower, an most likely, the cable that snapped was on the same vehicle. Those cables are under intense tension and if it snapped, it is highly probable that the cable shot down underneath the car and unfortunately came in contact with the young girl. With regards to DZ at KI, if any of the cables did snap, the seats are far enough away to more than likely not come into contact with it. I don't remember if someone asked on this site if DZ's ride vehicle is further away because of this potential risk but that isn't the reason. It is like that to be able to hold more passengers. This is a true freak accident that was way beyond "worst case scenario". Even preparing for a cable snap during design cannot predict the violent behavior of something under such high tension. This is very tragic and the girl and her family, as well as the many witnesses including the ride operators, need our prayers.

Magnetic polarity isn't the only way for it to fail. What if one of the magnets weren't installed properly? What if something became detatched? Certainly the ride vehicle can't bypass the brakes, that's just nature, however if for some reason the brakes weren't present... or at least where they should be, it's plausable.

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I have never subscribed to the theory that magnetic brakes "cannot fail." That is exactly what was said of the magnetic brakes on Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England. And, in the "impossible" event that they did fail, we were told, they would fail in the ON position. And then, one day, years later, they DID fail, and they were NOT on, and the trains collided...

Any and every mechanical thing CAN fail. Anyone who tells you otherwise has way too much faith in things mechanical.

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The drop rides are still the ones that make my heart beat a little faster as well...

This is just a horrible situation. Other than instances where guests have been killed, this is the worst ride accident I can recall.

I was a CP several years ago in line for Demon Drop when the car missed the set of brakes where it normally stops, and was stopped by the back-up brakes out toward the end of the run. (The car stopped maybe 10ft. from the end of the structure.) The dust went flying and the entire structure shook, and you could have heard a pin drop in the line. The ops had to manually push the car back into place so that it could drop down into the unloading area. Demon Drop was closed for the rest of day, and I've never ridden a 1st gen freefall since then (and, considering how they're disappearing, probably never will again...)

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Are drop zone's brakes permanent magnets or electromagnets? If they are electromagnets, a loss of power to the breaks will render them useless.

They are permanent magnets. When looking at the tower its the white fins on the sides of the tower that go up to the top of the second color band.

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The drop rides are still the ones that make my heart beat a little faster as well...

This is just a horrible situation. Other than instances where guests have been killed, this is the worst ride accident I can recall.

I was a CP several years ago in line for Demon Drop when the car missed the set of brakes where it normally stops, and was stopped by the back-up brakes out toward the end of the run. (The car stopped maybe 10ft. from the end of the structure.) The dust went flying and the entire structure shook, and you could have heard a pin drop in the line. The ops had to manually push the car back into place so that it could drop down into the unloading area. Demon Drop was closed for the rest of day, and I've never ridden a 1st gen freefall since then (and, considering how they're disappearing, probably never will again...)

I agree, I've never ridden the first generation free falls as I just didn't see that there was a lot to stop the rides if they missed the breaks.

It's good that most of them are gone.

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^

He's talking about your original post directly above his, where you stated that in 2000, KI was unable to run DZ, FoF, and some other ride simultaneously due to lack of electricity required for the magnets, or some such nonsense.

You have since edited that part out of your post...but keep in mind some of us did read (and remember) the orginal. (Hey, it was a slow day at work...I read KIC several times today <g>)

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^

He's talking about your original post directly above his, where you stated that in 2000, KI was unable to run DZ, FoF, and some other ride simultaneously due to lack of electricity required for the magnets, or some such nonsense.

You have since edited that part out of your post...but keep in mind some of us did read (and remember) the orginal. (Hey, it was a slow day at work...I read KIC several times today <g>)

you caught me I herd This guy say it at my school last year

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