White Water Landing Crash?

After work tonight, my boss told me about a story he saw on the news that reported a few WWL boats crashed at the end of the ride right before the load/unload platform. He said no one was hurt seriously, but a few people were taken to the hospital, and the ride will be closed until after an investigation of the accident. Anyone else heard anything about what exactly happened?

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Experience Lemon Chill as Never Before! Coming to an Area 51 Near You in '03!

Something is up... I've heard 2-6 people were injured on one of the water rides at Cedar Point... I can't seem to figure out which ride this occured on... nor can I come up with a good explanation as to how two WWL boats could crash... (Edit) ...With enough force to send several people to the hospital...

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes MCS Please, Feel Free To Call Me Jes!
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew!

*** This post was edited by Zero-G 7/21/2002 12:32:38 AM ***

I know the boats bump at the end in the station, and that's why they tell you to stay seated until the boat behind bumps you. There is really no speed at that point, but if people were standing, they could have been knocked overboard and gotten hurt that way. I'm heading to the Point tommorow, so I'll try to see what's up.

Edit: I've just looked at web sites for a bunch of Toledo, Sandusky, and Cleveland news sources, and didn't find anything.

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-Chris Woodard
Just because you can't justify charging $3 for a Pepsi doesn't mean you can't charge $3 for a Pepsi.
*** This post was edited by Ralph Wiggum 7/21/2002 1:06:25 AM ***

Was their any news of the Chaos ordeal where apparently one person was taken to the hospital? I can't remember there being any.

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BTS Cedar Point
http://www.cedarpoint.tk

From what I saw on the news, 3 boats collided on that last turn right after the drop. One boat got stuck and the others couldn't stop, so they hit. From what the news said, 6 people were hosptitalized.

If you're boat was stuck....and you knew there would be boats coming in from behind you (at a considerably fast speed) wouldn't you think of getting out of that boat? The water may not look all that attractive, but it's really not that deep.

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BTS Cedar Point
http://www.cedarpoint.tk

The water moves along at a pretty good pace... something must have fallen in the tube blocking the first boat, because I can't imagine how in the hell someone could physically stop the boat themselves.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes MCS Please, Feel Free To Call Me Jes!
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew!
*** This post was edited by Zero-G 7/21/2002 1:27:03 PM ***

I thought the ride was "blocked" in a way where the only place it could be moving fast enough to considerable damage is in the dual shoots. Once after that point the ride should be slow enough where the boats would just bump softly (like in rollercoaster tycoon :)). Maybe one boat got stuck right after it left the double shoots hence blocking up both sides.

I've got news for you... the people were taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure. That's how the park covers themselves. If they have them examined by doctors who release them and say they're OK, the "victims" can't turn around and sue later for lawyer-induced injuries.

If you've seen the speed of the boats at the end of the two runs, they don't move very fast.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
7/27: Subdivision Cam becomes party cam at the year's hottest Ohio luau!

http://www.wkyc.com/news/morelocal/sandusky/020721cedarpointcrash.asp

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Virtual Midway
http://www.virtualmidway.com

Ahh...feel much safer now. :-)

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BTS Cedar Point
http://www.cedarpoint.tk

Thats very true Jeff, I guess to some people wanting to sue CP that would be annoying, but CP has to protect itself, of course, there are a few lawsuits that occur each year that probably you'll never hear about...:)

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Proud Member of the G.O.C.C

I went back to check it out this morning. Of course it was closed, and they were testing it extensively. A few of the boats were having a tendency to almost get stuck right at the bottom of the hill. They would kind of turn sideways and almost wedge themselvs diagonally in the trough. I watched this for a while, and also noticed they were constantly testing those gates that close at the top of the drop to keep the next boat from going over the hill if the boat ahead isn't clear. My guess is that if 3 boats collided at the bottom of the hill, something was wrong with the gates, or else the next boat would have been stopped when the first one jammed. I never went back to see if it was open later in the evening.

Jeff is probably right about the people only going to the hospital to keep the park from getting sued. Even at the bottom of the hill, I don't think those boats are going fast enough to do much damage.

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-Chris Woodard
Just because you can't justify charging $3 for a Pepsi doesn't mean you can't charge $3 for a Pepsi.

Having worked on White Water Landing in 1987. I can tell you first of all that trying to climb out of a boat at any point on the ride other than the station would be a mistake, everything is slick with algea and you would risk more serious injury than a bump by the boat behind. As Jeff stated, the boats do not move very fast at the end of the runout maybe 5-10 MPH. The gates at the top are tied in with sensors at the top and bottom of drop and at the end of the bridge over the lagoon. I don't have first hand details on where the boat jammed in the chute but it sounds like it may have been after the sensors at the end of the bridge where the two runout chutes merge back to one, if this was the case, then the sensors would have indicated that the boat was clear and let the next boat at the top move to the drop. Why a third boat would have come down may have been operator error, as the staff member at the top of the drop should have noticed that the first boat did not proceed around the corner at the end of runout and shut everything down, he probably could not stop the 2nd boat but should have been able to stop the third. However, to make sure everyone understands, the staff station at the top of the drop is the most stressful and most difficult of all the staff stations. The man at the drop is responsible for watching the drop sensors, boats at the gates at the top, boats in the runout, boats throughout the entire upper run of the ride and boats on the small lift before the cave. In case of problems he runs the small lift, and all the gates manually as well as talk on the phone to the station and the main lift operator, I think it is obvious that should automated operation fail and this sort of incident occur then this is exactly the kind of result that would be likely. I would also think that there would not have been any serious injuries in an accident of this sort and taking people to the hospital was just the park making sure and covering themselves. This ride is now in its 21st year and has an excellent safety record. Let me know if you have other questions about the operation of this ride.

Cheer,

Chris

cwdefouw@weddingcove.com

I was at CP yesterday and yes it was closed during the first half of the day. But it reopened around 6 or so.

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First CP Coaster: Corkscrew
MF Laps: 29
Wicked Twists: 9

Tell me if this makes sense. Boat one jams in chute after the sensors. Boat two hits jamed boat, also after the sensors. Boat three hits other two boats, but its location doesn't clear the sensor. Gates on top close, preventing more boats from coming down the chute.

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It's very hard to drink all day...
Unless you start first thing in the morning.

There is only one problem with that, Pete...

While there is an electronic sensor on the drop chute to indicate that the boat has made it through, remember also that there is a human operator at the top of the drop who has to manually dispatch the boats down the chute.

If the boats were stalled at the base of the run-out chute, perhaps right at the merge point, should the operator not have noticed?

I could see the first two boats getting jammed up; one boat goes down light and then jams up at the merge point, but after the second boat collides with it, I'd think the operator could see a problem before dispatching the third boat.

Unless, of course, the problem was not at the merge point, but rather on around the corner closer to the turntable, where the top-of-chute operator wouldn't see it.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

That's the THIRD crash this year.

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MiA - The next Cedar Point when they DO run out of room.

Dave, does the operator actually dispatch the boats, or does he close the gates when needed? I always thought that the dispatch control was automatic and the operator is only there for a backup, he didn't actually press anything to dispatch the boats.

You are absolutly right that the operator should have noticed the first two boats and manually closed the gates. That is why electronic controls are good :)

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It's very hard to drink all day...
Unless you start first thing in the morning.
*** This post was edited by Pete 7/22/2002 1:26:03 PM ***

Somehow I didn't see CWD's comment before I wrote mine...but obviously Chris is more of an expert on WWL than I will ever be...

So, Chris, you've been up there...is the boat release automatic at the top of the drop?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.