After 35 years, First Evac!

Well I have been riding coasters for some time at dozens of parks and today was my first evac while riding Maverick! They were very apologetic and gave us all front of the line passes but to me life is about experiences and this is one my daughter, her friend and I will never forget!

It’s another great day at the park, weather is perfect and the crowds are a bit less than I expected for today.

What is an 'evac' ?

Anytime one must be removed from the ride outside of the normal unloading zone. In our case today we had to be released from the final brake run prior to the station on Maverick.

In all our years of roller-coasting this has been experienced by us only once; mid-course on Firechaser Express at Dollywood. Very underwhelming. :) But...front of line passes for the ride later which is nice because that line is one of the hairier ones in the park.

This brings up a good question. What ride would terrify you most of having to evac? Windseeker is at the top of my list (no pun intended).

For me it would be trying to maneuver out of the steep first backward lift on a Vekoma Boomerang.

Evac from the train bridge might freak me out a bit. Not that the train stops much but we were on it once when it came to a stop just past the frontier station. Magnum would be my other most scary evac if I ever had to.

My last evacuation was for my colonoscopy.

Hey! Same

Cartwright:

For me it would be trying to maneuver out of the steep first backward lift on a Vekoma Boomerang.

I've climbed all over a lot of coasters/rides in my time in the industry and a boomerang is still by the far the scariest climb, especially considering you don't need any kind of PPE to make it happen. I love heights and climbing, but when I willingly climbed one once, all the way up, I regretted it as soon as I had to go back down.

Jordan_Vanichek:

Windseeker is at the top of my list (no pun intended).

Without any other experience to go on, this is the first thing that crossed my mind.

I guess I've had a bunch, and I can't remember what they all were.

• Superman, Six Flags America (chain broke on lift)
• Wild Mouse, Cedar Point
• Wildcat, Cedar Point
• Maverick, Cedar Point
• Ratatouille, Epcot
• Expedition Everest, Disney's Animal Kingdom (from the reverse lift)
• A flume ride I can't place
• Tomb Raider, Kings Island (if that even counts, but it took a long time to come to a stop)

Heights don't even bother me that much, and the thought of being stuck at the top of TTD/TT2 makes my palms sweaty.

Last Thursday around 11:00am Mrs. jimmyburke experienced a "medical" evac. She was feeling the onset of a diabetic situation as we exited the CPLE RR near Iron Dragon. She was determined to try to walk slowly to our car but as we reached the stage area she stopped and asked me to call for help. I interrupted a CP employee who was getting a high school choir organized there and he immediately called it in. They dispatched the small Medical golf cart and took her to the First-Aid behind Auntie-Ann's where she stabilized after 30 minutes or so. Scary.

Much thanks to the chain of people who were involved; the worker who stopped what he was doing to call it in, the Operations person who dispatched the cart, the two women who stood by and comforted my wife while waiting and gave her a mint, the medics on the cart and in the First-Aid facility, and anyone else I am not aware of.

Something new we learned; we usually keep her medical supplies in a cooler in the car. The staff told her that guests can bring in the medication and it can be stored in a refrigerator at the First-Aid facility.

I believe I was the last group to ride the double ferris wheel (Sky Wheel?) at CP. Not a true evac since they were able to get it to spin us back to the station. We were stuck at the top rotating for over an hour. Ride was closed and later removed.

WindSeeker will never require an evac from the top of the ride. If all else fails, it can be manually lowered, with passengers being let out as they normally are..

I would think so, but why did they build contraptions for them all that are intended for an aerial rescue? Has anyone ever seen one attached to a tower?

Indeed, "never" seems like a stretch given the below from the OC Register regarding Knott's ride (emphasis mine):

An evacuation system is being installed on Knott’s Berry Farm’s Windseeker ride, which was shut down in September after twice stranding riders 300 feet in the air.

The new system, designed by the ride’s manufacturer, Netherlands-based Mondial, includes a metal cage that mechanically ascends the ride’s shaft in the event that riders are stranded in the air...

Also from the article regarding the first stranding of guests:

On Sept. 7, 15 riders were stuck in the air for three hours as employees worked to manually lower the swings. Almost two weeks later, on Sept. 19, another 20 riders were stranded for nearly four hours.

I don't know the details, so maybe whatever caused these events has been corrected, but it at least was a problem at some point that required the creation of the below rig (credit to TPR) Jeff mentioned.