Wednesday 7/18 TTD incident

Shades said:

TTD 120mph said:
Though a lot of the time, it'll snap somewhere in the troth where it's mostly protected.

And I'm not trying to be mean but that's "trough" ;)

And I'm not trying to be lazy but I hate auto correct on phones. :P

Going back a long time, I have watched that Xcelerator incident video an awful lot, and I am still not convinced that the seat moves at all. But I am fairly certain that the *camera* moves in that shot, which makes sense as the camera was mounted on the fairing that got sliced in half by the end of the rope.

As for Dragster, I thought that there were relatively few things that would result in an aborted launch, as incidents at both Cedar Point and at Great Adventure have demonstrated that it is an Extremely Bad Idea to engage the brake fins while the train is being towed...a safer way to abort the launch would be to shut down the motors and let the train go, pop the brake fins AFTER the train disengages from the catch car, and let it roll back into the brakes. It is a bad thing for the train to take the catch car for a ride.

Interesting. I haven't been up there since whatever happened, happened, so I don't have any particular suggestions or speculation to share...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

How are you not convinced the seat moves at all? The seat clearly strikes the back of the kid and launches him forward. If you look at the hand rails in the middle, the left side splits away from the other. Lastly, the left seat is twisted and distorted from the other; I don't see how any camera angle could capture an outcome like that.

That seat most definitely moves!

At the very least, the back of the seat moved.

Dave, I'm wondering if the computer (having had multiple bouts of new software updates) would pick up some kind of error if any of the cables break. By that I mean it has the ability to know if and when either of the 2 pull cables go "slack" or detects some kind of loss in tension. Because then I'm thinking it would then e-stop the ride (which also stops the motor) in the event of a loss of tension. That, to me, would also explain why it would stop midlaunch.

Rita: Queen of Speed's cable snapped this week. Doesn't add anything to this, just thought it related. :)

Ffej said:
How are you not convinced the seat moves at all? The seat clearly strikes the back of the kid and launches him forward.

I'm not convinced the seat moves. The kid does move forward, but that almost seems reactionary to being struck in the face (or wherever) by debris. I agree with Dave - it looks as though the camera moves, rather than the seat.

Video can be pretty misleading when capturing stuff at high speed (see some of the HD POV's of CP's coasters as an example).

Focusing on the dad in the video, you can see that the camera does not move. Nothing changes in the video except for the back of the kids seat lurching up.

Yeah, I just don't see the seat move. Maybe if I could advance frame-by-frame, but the video quality isn't high enough, nor does YouTube facilitate that (I don't think).

Regardless, I'm not convinced any definitive conclusion can be reached. To say it "definitely" does or does not move seems to be a reach not supported by anything definitive.

ADDED:
Looking at the seat position relative to the seat in the next row (focus on the hole), it doesn't appear the seat in question is in a different position after the incident.

I think everyone is looking in the wrong area. We're not talking about when the train is launched, we're talking about when the train is traveling backwards. There is a definite part where you can see the kids seat jolt sideways.

**EDIT**

Watch the top of the kids seat as they are going backwards. To me at least it looks pretty obvious that the seat jumps forward and more than likely crushes his legs. This would explain the obvious pain on his face.

About 13-15 seconds in, his seat moves.

Dad's seat doesn't move, and the two seats behind him don't appear to move. But the kid's seat is definitely dislodged.

tcgolfer said:
I think everyone is looking in the wrong area. We're not talking about when the train is launched, we're talking about when the train is traveling backwards. There is a definite part where you can see the kids seat jolt sideways.

You're correct - I was looking at the launch, not the rollback. I do agree it appears that his seat moves on the way back down.

The seat moved. These frames are two apart, or 1/15 of a second.

TTD 120mph said:
Dave, I'm wondering if the computer (having had multiple bouts of new software updates) would pick up some kind of error if any of the cables break. By that I mean it has the ability to know if and when either of the 2 pull cables go "slack" or detects some kind of loss in tension. Because then I'm thinking it would then e-stop the ride (which also stops the motor) in the event of a loss of tension. That, to me, would also explain why it would stop midlaunch.

Adam, I'm pretty sure the ride has always had the ability to detect cable failures. If you look at the bullwheel at the launch area, you will see that it slides back and forth during the launch to keep proper tension on the cable. You will also see a switch close to the end of the bullwheel's range of motion that will trip on a cable break because the lack of tension will make the bullwheel slide over that switch. So yes, I totally agree with you that a loss of tension will cause the ride to e-stop.

Ah yes, that makes sense. I knew it slid back and forth for tension reasons but didn't notice the switch.

Yup, it was definitely the cable.

Damn cable. Ours goes out all the time here.

Effing Time Warner...

I think this happened once before some people got some cuts but nothing major. Would scare the crap out of you though.

^^Better than my Dish. Effing Dish.