Power Tower Cable Snap

Tonight at about 7:30, a cable on the drop side of Power Tower snapped mid drop. I was walking the midway by it as it happened. It sounded awful, but thankfully nobody was injured. Trying to get good pics, but its hard from my vantage point.

Clearly a conspiracy against "blue". First, the blue on Gemini, now the blue on Power Tower.

Yikes. ^^Yeah, spot on, IMO. Very glad no one was hurt here.

The only injury I saw was a lady who got hit in the shin with the cable when it snapped. She has some cuts and gashes on her shin, but was ok. 2 others I talked to were next in line for that drop tower, and said the cable landed at their feet. Fwiw, the cable didn't looked frayed where it snapped, it looked like a clean break from what we could see. I never saw people move so fast in my life.

So someone was injured then. Still glad it wasn't worse than some minor cuts.

I was unaware of the injury until a half hour after my initial post. At first glance, it didn't look as if anyone got injured, everyone walked off under their own power without any complaints other than a youngster crying. As we were walking away, I saw a woman on the EMS cart being treated for minor abrasions.

Has a cable on the sky rides ever snapped? That would be horrible. I know things like have happened in other parts of the world. Our time could be up at anytime, anywhere.

I doubt it's that hard to replace a cable on Power Tower. I don't recall ever hearing of one breaking during operation though. Hopefully we don't find this was a deferred maintenance situation.

Just curious. Are we sure this is a ride cable and not a hose of some sort? I'm not sure how the cable would snap and not have some wicked fraying at the snap location and if it was just some minor bruising maybe a lighter hose would cause less injury than the heavier cable?

CoasterHawk:

Our time could be up at anytime, anywhere.

This isn't the San Andreas Fault. Preventative maintenance is crucial to preventing something like a ride cable snap and despite a few hiccups Cedar Point has a pretty good track record.

Bleauxjays, it definitely was the cable, you could see one of the 4 was missing afterwards, and it was laying on the ground. Here is a better pic of what where it broke. Looks to maybe be a bolt fastener that holds the one end of the cable to the spool? It fell from the top, right as the ride dropped. In the pic, we can clearly see its a bolt in a threaded sleeve that the cable attaches to.

Interesting. Just looking at that picture there I think CP is even more fortunate no one was seriously hurt. That looks heavy and awkward and could really do some damage. Also The cable isn't a full loop right? Its connected to a piston inside the larger compressed air pipe right? I wonder if it sheared off at that connection or if that's the connection point to the car

That picture implies that it separated from the top of the cylinder inside the tube. That could have really hurt someone.

Fwiw, it occurred right after the air compressor releases the air right before the ride vehicle drops.

https://www.beaconjournal.c...608697007/

DRE420 was that you I just saw as an eye witness being interviewed by FOX 8? Witness said it banged into the Control Booth. That must have been a startle for the Ride OPS.

By the look of that thing, I would say the park dodged a (literal) bullet.

As an aside, what do those cables do, exactly?

Nope, wasn't me. The noises it made tho, it was definitely scary. I almost needed to change my boxers

Glad no one was hurt, that's what is most important.

Maybe now the power tower will be full streaming since they cut the cable.