Blown Wheel...yikes

Last Tuesday the 24th I was on TTD, gold train, 3rd car, front row, left seat. When you sit in the front row of any car, you can see those big wheels rolling along the track. That being said, about 1 second into the launch, I hear this loud BANG and the ride went from smooth to rattling in a second. We barely crested the tophat, but while doing so I looked down to see that a good section of the rubber (or whatever material is used), was missing from the wheel. Bits of rubber were flying off, the trains fiberglass casing had a 1 foot chunk blown out and by the time we hit the finish line, I was covering up as were the passengers behind me due to the bits and pieces flying off. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it was say rather scary.

Has anyone else had this happen and is it common for a wheel to just break apart?

What time did this happen?

Theyneed to stop getting wheels from firestone. I didnt realize they were still manufacturing at all. :)

I think it's not unheard of for their nylon wheels to blow up, but I don't think they do it in that fashion very often?

Around 1:15

I hear a wheel break on Maverick last year while in line for Wave Swinger.

Wheels have several failure modes. One of the most common is a blow out, where an opening forms in the tread or at the edge of the rim and the molten plastic from the core of the tire literally squirts out, hardening quickly as it sprays and forming cool sculpture patterns that unfortunately do not ride very well.

It sounds like this was more of a catastrophic tread failure which may or may not include a delimitation of the tread, depending on how deep the gouge is. I understand this to be a less common failure.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.