Chaos Collapse Report

TV13 in Grand Rapids, MI at 6 PM.
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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

Mech Faliure

Loose bolts due to weight on the ride

too much load

daily inspection was only visual

no fine, the ride is still shut down and will be moved out of MA

more at 11 pm....

 

MrScott

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

The report did NOT paint a pretty picture of documentation.  Cedar Fair will be all over this at MA in 2002.  IMO, they inherited a "Fly by Night" operation and will fix it. 

They know better.

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

coasterbuzz
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...That was Schwabinchen' awesome!!

Paul

Here's the actual report:

http://www.coasterbuzz.com/news/news.asp?NewsID=3494

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Now if only CP would do something about their Chaos  I hope they don't take it out if they do then I will only be stuck with Troika and Super Himalayia and that would suck.

"Chaos Flipping ya every which way but loose since 1997"

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Well Since Cedar Fair is taking out Chaos, even though it was kinda their fault, this brings me to wonder what the future will hold for Vertigo then>>>????

Nobody got hurt on Vertigo, (thank God) and the actual report has not been reported as of yet.  Let's hope that is just faulty metal as opposed to negligence on CP's part.  But I would have to guess that if they are taking it out at one park, the others will follow, unfortunatly. 
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...I will be more than happy to give you a cigarette...

I certainly hope they don't remove it from CP.  It seems pretty clear to me that the maintenance staff did not properly check the ride, and as far as I know, CP's maintenance staff DOES check their rides often.

One thing I'd noticed on my first and only trip to MA last season was at least one ride maintenance person "clowning around" with a coaster ride op...something I've NEVER seen at CP while a ride is in operation.  This same maintenance fella insisted that Mean Streak was a CCI coaster.  I think some changes in MA's maintenance staff is in order.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

I have a good feeling that CF won't be removeing the Chaos rides from CP and valleyfair this season.  I get the impression that CF had plans to remove it since shortly after the incident and the moving of the dodgems from CP to MA....  I don't know if anyone else that too...  I found it peculiar.  If they do remove Choas at CP and VF, then I hope they get something in it's place or figure something out since some people have already been assigned to work Chaos.  ALthough if they do remove it I will be really shocked.  It'll be interesting to see what this upcoming season presents for MA....

I don't see Cedar Fair's removing the Chaos at MIA as any indication that they will remove others.  MIA's was an older model if I remember and who knows how much it would have cost to repair the damages to that particular one.  The ones at CP an Valleyfair have been checked and are in operating condition.  Although the on at CP seems to have a ton of downtime probably accounting for a good part of CP's 4% downtime! :) 

It hurts me to think that possibly the maintenance at MIA which had just been taken over by Cedar Fair was lacking to be honest.  I've never thought twice about jumping on a ride because of maintenance issues - even at Six Flags parks! :)  I know there are all sorts of inspections going on daily at CP on pretty much every ride.  To me it looks like most of it is visual inspection, but I wasn't there all night to watch exactly what goes on, I just saw the beginning of the process.  The only thing I can say is disturbing is that they don't always seem to fix things right away.  For example, there was an axle on the back of Magnum's red train that the crew kept noticing was wobbling quite a bit.  It went on like that for a good long time presumably because it would have been a fairly difficult fix.  I know towards the end of the season one of the axles on that ride completely bent or broke (wasn't there for it), but I'm not sure it was the same one.  Another thing was their consistent inability to fix certain lapbars that would stick.  They'd "fix" them, they'd sign off on them, they'd work for a while, but by the afternoon, we had the seats roped off again.  My guess is that something needed to be replaced which would have involved pulling the cover off the car, so instead they just hit it with a hammer and got it working temperarily.  Other than that, maintenance usually seemed very responsive to our calls to fix things such as bad wheels and stuff like that.  One thing that is great about CP is that if a ride goes down, maintenance is there within minutes to fix the situation, not like other places where a ride will sit down for hours because of something simple.  I have no doubt that the maintenance staff at CP and pretty much all parks is probably competent and does a good job, but things like the Chaos incident serve as a wake up call to them if nothing else.

    

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I think Cedar Fair will definitely 'tighten up' on ride inspection for the 2002 season.

(Bad jokes aside, seriously, they will!)

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Tommy Penner -
http://coolforce.tycoonplanet.com - http://vx3k.cjb.net
"Yes. The Force is strong in that one."

They had better.  MA is in my backyard and many are watrching.  MA Maintanence is not equal to CP's standards, IMO.

I don't think CP has had a ride failure like Chaos.  There is a reason for that.  Aside from Vertigo, that is.

Think about it....

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

Re: Mean Streak as CCI:

This is a partially justified argument, as Charlie Dinn built Mean Streak. Denise Dinn-Larrick, the president of CCI, is Charlie Dinn's daughter. While the companies are not the same, I believe she inherited part of Dinn's workforce when Charlie retired. The difference was that CCI didn't let Curt Summers design anything.

Re mechanics -- the mechanic's break room is right around the Timber's block brakes. He may have been on lunch.

CP Maintanance does a pretty good job at making sure the rides are really safe at night.  I've seen them replace bolts, and tighten bolts while I've worked my third shift job. Also, on occassion they replace parts that need replaced.  They appear to do an excellent job with their 3d shift inspections.  And for those who may have doubts about TV reports on discovery or other specials.  Every coaster gets inspected every night, and Both the Streaks gets their tracks walked and checked every night.  :)

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YES! No more full time trash work!
Witches' Wheel triangle - 2002

And That My Friends Is Why I Won't Ride CHaos Anymore.

And that my friends is why rides get torn down.  Structurally speaking, there is nothing wrong with Chaos.  It is built very sturdy and if manufacturer's instructions were being completely followed then this mishap would not have happened.  When MFs cable snapped and the brakes failed it wasn't this big of a deal and those rides go a heck of a lot higher, faster and carry a greater occupancy.  I for one will continue riding all rides (Vertigo included).  Since it's my choice whether or not I believe the ride is safe, then I'll get on it.

 

 

 

Ok, so it's 9:00 AM on a Monday and I'm very tired still.  If that post doesn't make sense, don't get mad at me!

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Mantis Crew '02 - Where's the unload station at?!? ;-)

The brakes failed?  I thought the car sat there for about an hour until the employees were able to be unlatched.????
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...I will be more than happy to give you a cigarette...

I think the brakes failed on a differnt occasion....  This is the first I've heard of failing brakes though.

MF's cable snapping and the brake failure were two separate instances.  Nothing CP did caused the cable failure or the brake failure.  Sure if maintenance had combed over every inch of the cable then it could have been fixed that night or quicker, but realistically speaking (and from a business point of view) it's not feasible to do this.  But now I'm rambling.  Just ride the rides unless you don't feel that you should.

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Mantis Crew '02 - Where's the unload station at?!? ;-)