S.Korea theme park ride Accident

[willsy]

Did anyone see it one the news tonite? I seen it on ten and win tv, Does anyone know how it got stuck or what happend?

[screammachine]

Oh you beat me to it!! Yeah I was watchin the Channel 10 news this arvo around five, and I saw the thing on TV. I think it happened at Lotteworld. It looks pretty freaky! I feel sorry for the people. The thing was apparently stuck for about 2.5 hours and then as they were lifting people off the ride the thing just dropped! If you saw you could could see people falling off the ride! It was pretty scary!! But things like that dont happen to often. If you think about it there is more car Accidents a day than what there would be accidents in a themepark within a few months! Richard do you have any idea on what happend to the ride? Screammachine

[Richard]

For those who didn't see the news, it was a carnival-style freefall ride, I believe a Huss Shot'n Shot. It was at Riverside Parkland - right country with Lotte World, but not the right park. I presume it was some sort of power failure or ride error that meant that the ride got stuck up there. They would have tried a manual release and probably a dozen other things before getting the rescue people involved. When that proved unsuccessful, they brought in what I believe was some sort of crane or cherrypicker to take rescuers up and bring those stranded down. Great plan, but I think they forgot a few things. If you're going to send people up there, make sure that there is no chance of the ride moving - make it mechanically impossible to do so, and surely the ride is designed with such things in place to make rescues like this safer. I can't see a ride like this being built without some sort of hard-coded system that shuts the ride down exactly where it is and prevents it from budging. Many rides use a hydraulic system that when activated will just completely jam the thing up completely using cams or something similar. If by some chance this isn't possible, and you're going to get rescuers involved, then make it safe by rigging it so that it's not going to budge. Anyone that's done a first aid course (or just has common sense) knows that first priority is keeping the rescuer/helper safe. You don't swim into shark-infested waters to save someone in a shark attack. You don't touch someone who's been electrocuted and is sprawled out on live wires. I'd have thought you don't climb onto a gondola 27m above the ground that's likely to fall at any moment. Better to be safe than sorry. In this case they're definitely sorry.

[Richard]

I read recently on Screamscape that Huss released a statement in which they stated that the ride was not a Huss model, but an Asian-made "ripoff" (goes nicely with all those fake watches, clothes and dodgy DVDs and whatnot that are so common over there). I would say this explains 90% of what happened, but still doesn't give their rescue method too much credibility.

[Gazza]

What has happened is terrible, they really should have used something to hold the gondola in place like rich said. On another note, did anyone hear about the incident at the Tamworth show? A little kid fell out of the ferris wheel.

[screammachine]

Anyone that's done a first aid course (or just has common sense) knows that first priority is keeping the rescuer/helper safe. You don't swim into shark-infested waters to save someone in a shark attack. You don't touch someone who's been electrocuted and is sprawled out on live wires. I'd have thought you don't climb onto a gondola 27m above the ground that's likely to fall at any moment.

Agreed!! And If you are 27M in the air; you do actually wear a harness and you secure the "casualty" with a safety harness before you remove them. (thanks to the guys from SES! ) Oh yeah and as for the Made In Korea Tag! It all explains itself! Screammachine

[Flea]

Screamscape has just posted an article on the accident here (scroll down)..

South Korea News - (3/26/04) Two rescuers were injured at Riverside Parkland in South Korea when Gyroscope, a tower ride from an unknown manufacture, became stuck 27 meters above the ground. The local firefighters went up in a cherry picker lift to attempt a rescue but failed to secure the ride vehicle itself, which had become “stuck”. Unfortunately, the cart was not quite as stuck as they thought when it suddenly dropped down a few feet onto the rescue lift, causing it to overturn and dump out two rescuers who were taken to a nearby hospital and are reported to be in critical condition. Later the fifteen trapped riders were rescued without further incident or injury. You can see a streaming video feed of a local news reports covering the accident here and here, however be warned that it does contain footage of the accident itself. While the tower ride itself at first appears to resemble a Huss Tower ride, Huss was quick to issue a public statement that the faulty tower ride was not a Huss Ride.