Coaster Stops?

[Jakee]

Well, about a week ago I saw something on the Today Show on Nine. It was a US park, and one of its coasters had stopped half way through the course. Two hours had past and they were still getting people out, I only caught a few seconds of it, but im pretty sure they were lying down, and thats why it was taking so long. I didnt see anything on the site, does anything know any more about this? Edit: Found It-

Rescue crews are using cherry pickers to remove two dozen people stranded between 40 and 80 feet off the ground on a roller coaster at a Northern California theme park. Authorities say the riders on Great America Theme Park’s Invertigo Roller Coaster in Santa Clara, Calif. are being lowered one at a time into buckets at the end of aerial ladders. All of the riders are expected to be back on the ground by 5:30 p.m. Monday, about 4 1/2 hours after the roller coaster came to a stop. San Jose Fire Capt. Scott Kouns says the passengers are right side up and safely strapped into the ride. No injuries have been reported. Authorities had first reported 32 people were stuck on the ride. Authorities are blaming the incident on mechanical failure.

http://blog.taragana.com/n/two-dozen-stuck...ifornia-136076/ Dosent give much detail on the issue. Edited August 17, 2009 by Jakee

[Gazza]

It was Invertigo at California's Great America: http://www.rcdb.com/m/473.htm Have a look at this pic: http://www.rcdb.com/m/473.htm?p=22597 The ride is an Inverted Boomerang From the station the train gets lifted up the slope backwards, then released, where it rushes down and through the 3 inversions, it then goes up the second slope, where it is lifted to the top of that one and released, rushing backwards through the circut back to the station. The train stopped on one of the lifts. This was the big problem because Inverted Boomerangs don't have evacuation stairs beside the lifts, so it was necessary for them to use cherry pickers to get everyone off. The guests wouldn't have really been lying down. Each car has 4 seats, two forwards and two backwards, so they either would've been reclined back a bit, or sliding forward against the harness (Sucks to be those guys) If you look at this pic of Lethal Weapon http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/AU/Gold_Coas...hal_Weapon.html you can see the set of stairs, which, when used with a movable platform, allows guests to exit if the train if it becomes stuck on the lift.

Edited August 17, 2009 by Gazza

[Jakee]

Thanks Gazza, that helped. Explains alot.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Hehehe, the only other thing that I would add is that this coaster's baby brother - The Vekoma Boomerang (Demon at Wonderland or Titan at Expo 88) was well renowned for stalling on one of the lift ramps, and thankfully (as it was a sit-down) had stairs up each lift ramp for just such an emergency. Invertigo has the same profile as the original sit-down version (slanted lifts), but I thought inverted boomerangs had almost vertical lift hills (like DejaVu) or am I off in my own world? Edit - yep off in my own world - inverted's had the same profile, its the GIANT inverted (such as Deja Vu) that I was confused with)

Edited August 18, 2009 by AlexB