Green Lantern incident at MW

[Brad2912]

A few people had said they heard a 'bang' before the incident. But it couldn't effectively have hit something surely that wouldn't have done more damage to the front car as opposed to the back. And given the ride had been operational all morning, what could it have hit unless a part from the previous car through had 'fallen off' and stayed on the track (I know the plausibility of that is ridiculous but so too would be what I'm looking at in these pics and first hand this arvo)

Obviously I'm no expert, but why leave the heavy people on the side still connected to the track, thereby adding more weight to the only remaining wheels? Why not just hook a rope around the harness and lower the disconnected side?

That was my initial though to. Surely they can winch the raised side down, unless they have concerns about the other side of the ride and over balancing somehow. It just really doesn't make much sense at all. The entire assembly is missing from the back of the car. Could have been very nasty had it hit the queue line. It appears as though the footrest/restraints have hit the front car, is it possible that this contact is what has stopped it flipping over entirely? That could explain their unwillingness to move the people from that side

Update:

Everyone is now evac'd.

That was the easy part, Now the investigation begins...

Edited March 15, 2015 by Brad2912

[webslave]

If it took off the front bogie it may have caused the rear to run into it doing more damage. Ditto if, say, the first bogie jammed.

[Reanimated35]

I am now happy to release EXCLUSIVE ON RIDE FOOTAGE OF THE INCIDENT

[Brad2912]

If that was the case we're basically looking at a catastrophic failure, and pretty much some luck that we didn't have full separation from the track? No?

[bladex]

a damn wheel came off? what are they paying the guys who check all this daily they should be fired! don't think i'll ever ride that again now (it's not that good anyway)

[Reanimated35]

what are they paying the guys who check all this daily they should be fired!

Please go.

[Brad2912]

I have no doubt MW will do their due diligence with regards to the who, what, where, how etc etc, and when the time comes for it to reopen it will be with sureity of its safety - so sign me up, I'll go on it.

If that's your thoughts Bladex you best not ride anything at MW again as its the same maintenance crew for the whole park

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

pictures from today's accident

Please forgive me for the Instagram filter guys.

Edited March 15, 2015 by The_Ninja_59

[Brad2912]

Nice filter bro...

[New display name]

It appears that the lateral bogies are missing off both the front and rear cars judging from the photo of the underside, with the front one (if it is still attached) not where I would expect it to be, and the rear is missing all three bogies. I wonder if it may have hit an obstruction?

Note the expected position of the front bogie:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m44uwtySIo1rre72ko1_500.jpg

This picture might show it better. When I look under his arm i'm sure it's not the same

Edited March 15, 2015 by skeetafly

[jhunt2]

Wait, so the breakdown was due to the loss of the wheel on one cart, but the other one still stopped on the lift hill...

So is it safe to assume that was due to an emergency stop button being hit?

And if so, can we STOP being critical of the ride operators and inspectors and give them some credit? This is a human-designed machine, it will fail sometimes. Believe it or not.

[webslave]

Er, no.

[iwerks]

It's good to hear that they all got down safely.

[jhunt2]

Sorry to be a bug, but please explain why not? I mean, why would one cart on a roller coaster stop because the wheel of another separate cart fell off?

And if it wouldn't, why can't we assume that it may have been a deliberate stop by the operator when he/she saw that the cart was damaged?

And if we can, why can't we give them a break?

[Brad2912]

Don't think anyone is being critical of the ride ops, what could they have done? Probably safe to say the wheel assembly probably collected some of the track as it fell causing an e-stop. Which opens up a genuine concern as how close the assembly could have come to cars awaiting unload in the brake run

Operators wouldnt have been able to see the car through the roof. I'd It was a manual stop it would have been reactionary to ether a noise or reaction from the queue line

Edited March 15, 2015 by Brad2912

[jhunt2]

Fair enough. That's all I needed ^

[webslave]

The brakes on these ride vehicles require a co-acting mechanism be fitted to the track for braking to take place. Ergo, the only ways a vehicle will stop once moving is due to mechanical failure causing excessive friction, a brake section, or contact with an obstruction.

[aussienetman]

This is unbelievable... from the pictures it does appear the ride suffered a major issue today.

I was heading towards Paradise Country when I saw the snafoo outside movieworld with the crane. I was in a rush so I didnt have time to stop.

I am so glad noone was injured... when the ride does re-open, i truly doubt i will get my partner on it again.

[lolman123]

Just saw it on ten eyewitness news. Holy shit, doesn't look good half the carriage is off the track, and a wheel has fallen off closly missing the queue. According to witness's the carriage was travailing faster than normal followed by a loud bang. People in the queue said they saw bults and the wheel fly pass. The news lady said that there will be an investigation in to how the accident occurred and a look at the rides maintenance history.

[Theme Park Girl]

Don't think anyone is being critical of the ride ops, what could they have done? Probably safe to say the wheel assembly probably collected some of the track as it fell causing an e-stop. Which opens up a genuine concern as how close the assembly could have come to cars awaiting unload in the brake run

Operators wouldnt have been able to see the car through the roof. I'd It was a manual stop it would have been reactionary to ether a noise or reaction from the queue line

Pretty sure I read somewhere (maybe earlier on in this thread) that a loud bang was reported to have been heard moments before the car derailed. So yeah, that alone was probably enough for any ride attendant to consider hitting the E-stop

ETA: ^^^ lolman just reconfirmed this as well.

[mba2012]

Just saw it on ten eyewitness news. Holy shit, doesn't look good half the carriage is off the track, and a wheel has fallen off closly missing the queue. According to witness's the carriage was travailing faster than normal followed by a loud bang. People in the queue said they saw bults and the wheel fly pass. The news lady said that there will be an investigation in to how the accident occurred and a look at the rides maintenance history.

I'm not quite sure how exactly witnesses would know if it was travelling faster than normal, unless it was travelling quite significantly faster than other cars.

[Reanimated35]

Probably safe to say the wheel assembly probably collected some of the track as it fell causing an e-stop.

Given the amount of sensors rides seems to have, I'd say the ride computer has gone "hang on, that wheel should be connected - e-stop"

[joz]

Yeah, I'm kinda side of 'er n'o here too.

I think it's a fair bet that someone did hit the e-stop since the car stopped at the bottom of the lift (possibly after hearing a loud bang). If they didn't though the block system would have prevented an accident, so the second car is really a non issue. Well done to the op though.

From looking at the low res blurry photos It looks like there was a failure in the front left of the train, that then has got wedged under the car and caused a failure of the back left set of wheels. That's really about as bad a situation as one could realistically imagining happening, and while this sort of failure seems to invariably result in a situation where the car gets stuck, things could have been much worse, and I think many from Village Roadshow management will privately be thinking that they dodged a bullet here.

Having said that, Movie World maintaince is pretty damn good when it comes to this sort of thing. Everything they do is within the manufactures standards. That's everything from how the rides are to be inspected to how often every piece of hardware is replaced. It's far too early to speculate in any meaningful way from outside the company about what caused the incident, but I wouldn't be calling for the heads of anyone from Movie World's maintaince team at this stage. It could be a faulty part that was supplied, it could be an issue with the reccomended maintance procedure, or it could be a hairline fracture inside a component that's just impossible to spot.

Wether we ever know for sure is anyone's guess, but I wouldn't suggest people go pointing the finger till you know what you're talking about.

[webslave]

Given the amount of sensors rides seems to have, I'd say the ride computer has gone "hang on, that wheel should be connected - e-stop"

Computers aren't very good at that because unlike us they can't see or hear, or at least don't generally make decisions on such stimuli. Instead they rely on sensors, and those sensors need to be connected to the control system. I wouldn't think it to be likely for the vehicle bogies to have sensors that are in wireless (or third-rail) comms with the control system.

[Richard]

Another angle from the scene (from Gold Coast Bulletin) shows that the front bogie is at least partially detached from the track and appears to be short a wheel, while the rear has completely separated from the track. I'd lean towards joz's theory that whatever fell off on the front wheel bogie became debris and in turn caused the back to completely rip off the track.

News footage showed the rescue crews securing the train to the track with nylon straps before starting to remove the riders.

Reports that the car was travelling faster than usual just before it happened sounds like typical embellishment from bystanders.