ValleyFair Ride Accident (5/21/06) 4PM

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/446161.html

this sucks cause I was thinking about going to ValleyFair in a few weeks. I hope is reopens soon...

heres some more stuff on it. it's all over the news here in minnesota.

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_141180956.html

another update.... 6:45

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_141180956.html (it now had more pics plus video) *** Edited 5/21/2006 11:47:18 PM UTC by Rapter Rocks!***

Edited again**
After a full days of school for me I happened to run into someone in my History and Art class (same person) who was actually at ValleyFair yesterday. She said that her and her friends were going to go on WildTHing and just ride it a few times before they left, but instead went on ripcord and then went over to WildThing. She said she saw a helicopter and heard a bunch of abulances on her way TO the wildthing and it was roped off and some lady was there saying the ride was closed for the day. she said she could barley see the car from where she was standing and said at that point it didn't have a tarp on it. Then, she said the MOVED the car. so from what I understand is that the ride did-NOT crash at the last breaking point. I still didn't belive her untill she wipped out her digital camera, and showed me a 30 video clip of the car (now w/ a tarp over it) when she was driving by when she was leaving the park. *** Edited 5/22/2006 9:59:27 PM UTC by Rapter Rocks!***

After that, it'll probably be safer than ever.

This is certainly troubling after I just spent the weekend riding coasters at CP. How the heck does the back car detach and fall off the track?

MrScott

I always thought it came to a fast hault but maybe it's just me........

It's final destination 3 all over again....

It's hard to read when something like this happens at any park, but even more difficult when it's at a Cedar Fair park. :(

It didn't completely detach and fall off the track... from what I gather it tipped to its side and came to rest on the fence around the braking area.... Only one side of the wheels came off the track...

What I'm trying to figure out is how 17 people were injured when only one car did this. I assume from the pictures that the rest of the train continued towards the station. I thought there were only 6 riders per car... Hmmm

Perhaps this is better discussed at CB? *** Edited 5/21/2006 11:35:25 PM UTC by Josh M.***

I really wish the news station would post some pics up here. I watched about a 10mins long thing on it and they showed the whole train and it looked like just the back car was effected. (turned to it's side)

There are pics in Raptor's second link

Has it occurred to anyone that this appears to be a lot like what happened on Steel Dragon 2000, also a Morgan coaster...?

*** Edited 5/21/2006 11:54:19 PM UTC by DBCP***

That's exactly what I was thinking...

You would think that they would have at least contacted all of their customers about a potential problem and to be vigilant during maintenance of the ride.

The ride certainly hasn't had a rigorous summer of wear and tear...maybe it wasn't completely assembled properly after its annual overhaul?

i agree with josh M. how the F do 17 people get injured from that accident?? that just doesn't make sense to me.

Well the number injured is now up to 18. I originally didnt realize that the second to last car also derailed a bit. That makes for 12 understandable injuries... The other 6 must have been from some other source?

Maybe when the car fell off it hit people that were passing by the ride?

other sources like they want free passes (or a lawsuit) from valleyfair. even if the car tipped and landed on the railing, that's no worse than going around a corner. not sure how you become injured from that.

^I think the erupt stop would hurt a little.

Like it was said above, the fact that this was a Cedar Fair park is the biggest shock. Looking at the pictures, it seems like it would have been much worse if the other set of wheels on the opposite side went out, the car could have rolled right off. This is news no one wants to hear.

It's nice to know everyone is alright.

*** Edited 5/22/2006 2:29:35 AM UTC by Gomez***

There was an update as of 8:25 PM with some first person accounts. Sounds like the second to last car derailed first, which in turn caused the back car to flip.

Sounds odd to me - how could a car with that many darn wheels have all of them come off at the same time? I mean it is almost impossible is it not? Also, it looks to me as though it the fence and walkway was not there that the car would be in the dirt under the ride and we would be talking about some fatailties not injuries. Seems like a pretty serious situiation to me.

It might not be the wheels, but the wheel assemble that holds the wheels on.

First of all, I was at Cedar Point today, and so of this incident, all I know is what I read here and in the supplied links.

The Wild Thing train is not similar to the train on Steel Dragon. Steel Dragon uses gigantic guide wheels which required a unique chassis design with the guide wheels outboard of the track. Wild Thing has a configuration similar to that found on Magnum XL-200.

The basic car design is described in great detail in U.S. Patent #3,114,332 which contains some, shall we say, familiar names. In general, each car has a central spine, the car body is attached to that spine, and two axles are attached to the spine. The hitch is independent of the axles, so it is unlikely that a hitch failure led to an axle problem. In my opinion, it is more likely that an axle problem led to the failure of the hitch.

Each car has two axles. Each axle has two road wheels, two up-stop wheels, and four guide wheels. The use of doubled guide wheels means that any single axle could pilot itself smoothly down the track without derailing even if it were not attached to a car. Morgan adds a shock absorber to the axle, connected between one end of the axle and a point on the car body, to further dampen the axle rotation.

On these type of cars, both axles are able to 'yaw', that is to rotate left and right in order to follow curves in the track. One of the axles (on the Arrow it is the back axle; I'm not sure about Morgan) is mounted on a longitudinal pivot so that it can also roll a few degrees relative to the car body. The other axle is not able to roll relative to the car body, and thus provides roll stability, insuring that the car body remains parallel to the track under that axle. Perhaps you can already see where I am going with this.

One difference...in my opinion, a critical difference...between the Arrow Runaway Train cars (Magnum XL-200, Gemini, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Excalibur) and the Morgan cars (Wild Thing) is the position of the axle relative to the rest of the car. On the Arrow trains, the axle is positioned ABOVE the car center beam, sandwiched in between the center beam and the car body. On the Morgan cars, the axle hangs down below the center beam. This means that on an Arrow coaster, if the axle pivot pin should fail, the axle will remain trapped with the car, and if it is the front axle it may cause the car to jam or to misalign with the track. But because the car hangs down between the rails, and because the axle can't get away from the car, the misaligned car should not derail. On the Morgan train, the only parts that hang below the top of the rail are the axles themselves, and from the photos, my suspicion is that the lead axle on the last car may have become separated from the car. That would explain the attitude of the car in the photos. Running down the track without a front set of wheels would also tend to explain the bumping, scraping and smoking, and if the damaged car should hit something and stop suddenly (say a brake caliper or a track tie) the force might be great enough to break the drawbar between the cars.

Note that this is all SPECULATION on my part, but given the photos and what I know of the ride system, I suspect we're looking at a dropped axle.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

If that force was great enough to break the drawbar, then it seems like it would have broken a neck as well.

Thanks for the input Dave. *** Edited 5/22/2006 5:21:08 AM UTC by Gomez***