Cable shavings hit 4 riders

http://www.newsnet5.com/entertainment/3523436/detail.html

So the ride is shut down INDEFINITELY and there is absolutly no mention of it anywhere and the CP website. I think thhats pretty deceitful and just flat out wrong. Keep the public informed.

It hasn't even been 12 hours. This is brand new news. Relax on the "deceitful" comments, OK?

Wow! This is a terrible thing to happen to anyone that came to Cedar Point to enjoy a fun day.

What time did this happen? My brother (in from Kansas) and I had ridden the front at about 5:30pm after waiting about 4 hours for it on the day of the incident. There was some extensive downtime while waiting in line, but nothing that I thought to be worried about.

I hope everyone involved is okay and that the investigation pending will correct the problem.

~Rob Willi

What are the odds that Xcelerator or Storm Runner won't open today either??

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HeyIsntThatRob? said:
What time did this happen? ~Rob Willi

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In one of the other threads,

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Just to let you guys know, 7/12 I was at the park and the ride went down around 8:30, and they said they were expecting VERY lengthy delays. Instantly I saw about 6 or 7 people going down towards the engine bay, and later saw them with the crane near the end of the launch. Just figured I'd let you guys know.

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This is just after it seemed like they got through the problems that had been plagueing the ride for the last few weeks.

Good point Tim... Is there any kind of coating on the cable? I know it's a much larger scale, but the winch on my Jeep has a plastic coating on the cable so you don't get shrapnel in your hands when handling it. I know plastic would melt off but is there something else? Also, doesn't it seem that they are having an awful lot of problems with the cable lately (assuming that's what shredded and started flying)? Second cable snapped this year, now this?

I am a HUGE dragster fan and have put in lots of time against that fence and the ques waiting for it to open. I can honestly say though, I am starting to feel discouraged about dragster. Starting to think there must be limits on what we can build for entertainment. It is such a great ride however, it just has way too many issues. When is the point at which they may say, Dismantle it and use the space for something else. I know CP does a great job and I am one of their "RAVING FANS" but, this is starting to be a little much. I know i'll get yelled at on here for saying this. Yes it has been running good lately but, Look at what the park has gone through since day one. I dont think that one or two months of good running cuts it. It should be better by now. Let's all hope them four riders are ok.

We were there yesterday morning, so that's kinda scary. If our trip was planned one day later, we could've been there. They probably will close Xcelerator and Storm Runner for a while too. But that word indefinitely does seem kinda drastic, they don't really mean that do they? I mean someone DIED on Superman: Ride of Steel and it's back up now. This is bad publicity for CP though, a death on the beach and now this... I can see them closing it for the rest of the year though just to fix all the problems. Wow, last year I had such bad luck with it being closed just on my trip, and this year I was lucky to finally ride it right before it closed! *** Edited 7/13/2004 1:22:39 PM UTC by Erikjc***

Indefinite: Not definite, especially: Unclear; vague. Lacking precise limits: an indefinite leave of absence. Uncertain; undecided: indefinite about their plans.

Yeah, I would say they really do mean indefinite.

Yeah, I was about to edit that before you replied. I thought they meant forever (indefinite=never-ending?).

Time to officially label Dragster a LEMON.

A year and a half of unending problems. Can't run for even a single day without issues. Isn't there some rule on how long you can beat a dead horse? (Po!ntBuzz posters exempt, of course. LOL!)

The drowning has nothing to do with CP, the sail boaters could have anchored anywhere on the lake and drowned. CP is not responsible for people in boats on the lake.

The Dragster problem doesn't sound like the launch cable was coming apart and throwing metal, it sounds more like something with the groove the catch car runs in, or maybe the sheeves the cable runs on before the engine building.

Whatever the cause is, it's something that will get fixe and probably inspected more often. It's still a new machine, and they are probably still figuring out the preventative maintenance intervals.

Oh my gosh! I hope that everyone is ok! The one guy has a piece of metal stuck in his chest? Let's pray that he makes it! Cedar Point has never had a fatal accident, and with their saftey record, it would be devestating. Even more so for the familes involved. I am thinking of them. For all of us who have been fortunate enough to ride it, just think: it could have happened to any one of us.

:(

Lets get one thing clear people, MANY rides have closed for long periods of time, and other have had problems for a while after they are launched (no pun intended.) Two great examples are Test Track at Epcot and Hypersonic at PKD.

I'm the first to admit that Dragster's had more than it's fair share of problems. Heaven knows I've spent an awful lot of time sitting against that black fence myself.

But that doesn't make Dragster a lemon. Poorly designed in some respects? Yep. Is there probably some stubbornness on Intamin's side for making design changes that would help increase capacity and correct the existing flaws? I'm guessing so. Has CP done it's darnedest to keep Dragster open for all of us to ride? Yeah, I think so.

Unfortunately, accidents happen with mechanical things, no matter how well or how poorly they are designed. Thankfully, no one was killed or seriously/permanently injured. It should be interesting to see what is determined as the cause of the shards and how they choose to remedy the problem.

It's frustrating to have Dragster down again. But I'm hoping that while it's down, Intamin and CP will finally get around to taking advantage of the down time and look into making other needed changes as well. Maybe, just maybe we could end up with a much better (new or at least improved) Dragster.

But I can't help wondering if we'll ever see any other Intamins at any CF parks after this.

Just my $0.02. And a heartfelt "Hang in there guys!" to the crew.

Laura

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needless quotation removed. -J

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Well said Laura. This is my first time using the quote botton and I still havent quite figured it out.

I think future Intamins at CP is solely in the hands of Intamin and how they respond(ed) to this and all the other situations. If Intamin demonstrates the same level of customer service that CP does, then I think it is safe to assume there will be more Intamins at CP (MF is a huge hit with the GP and has only had minor issues compared to TTD). Furthermore, Intamin gave CP a much bigger bang for their buck ($25m) than Morgan gave its customer with SD2000 (and I believe that ride is still closed).

I too hope this down time will solve all the other issues with TTD, but we said (hoped) that last year. Time will tell for sure.

Tom *** Edited 7/13/2004 3:58:28 PM UTC by Jeff***

The ride is a great ride, I will admit but I think its way ahead of its time in technology. To what I know this is the most serious injury the ride has ever caused let alone any CP ride. But hearing this story on top of all other issues this ride has certainly left a bad taste in my mouth any time I hear about Top Thrill Dragster. I am sure and hopefully the injuries are not as bad as they seem, do to the media seems to over do it sometimes, I mean the riders didn’t even know they where injured until people pointed it out to them. My point is, In all the years of visiting the park I never can recall issues like this with any ride until now. I never thought I would have to plan my vacation to the park according to if a ride is working or not, Now I just assume the ride will not work and only go to CP for Raptor and MF and of course the others too. I will miss Dragster like I miss Vertigo.

P.S. I hope the injured will not blame CP for there Injuries and delay a new coaster in the near future from being built. In other words I hope they recover 100% and are not greedy.

WE are not even sure if they they are going to take TTD out anyway so you cant miss TTD yet untill they say they are.

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Pete said:
It's still a new machine, and they are probably still figuring out the preventative maintenance intervals.

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Sorry, Pete but I have to disagree with your positive approach to this. Figuring out preventative maintenance *after* incidents happen is unacceptable. When you have a machine that you entrust with the lives and well-being of so many people to you need to make sure it's always running in the safest manner possible. There's no room for error and no room for figuring out stuff on the fly.

Somewhere along the lines, whether it's Intamin, Cedar Point, or the company that made the cable, something went wrong. Inspections, maintenence, planning... something along the line broke down that could have prevented this incident. People were hurt needlessly. Minor injuries, yes, but it could have been much, much worse.