Green Lantern incident at MW

[Brad2912]

The GM was just interviewed on Hot Tomato (local GC radio). Fairly typical PR exercise, but I guess at least he allowed himself to be interviewed live. A few wrap up points (in his words)

*the ride had multiple redundancies in the event of a safety issue

* the team are trained on evac's regularly

* he was up on the ride helping with the Evac - I found that incredibly strange

* the people in the car were very calm

When asked if there was any real risk that the car could have come off the tracks he replied:

* when maintenance and Fire & rescue arrived we firstly secured the vehicle to ensure it was safe to Evac - quite a good redirect, what about prior to them Being able to stabilise it?

It's hearsay but there has been some rumours going around that it was 2 single bolts left holding the car to the Track.

[Louis.sayer3]

One thing we must do though, is congratulate the OP/s for reacting quickly and efficiently to this. And following protocol to ensure the safety of passengers, in that stressful time.

So on the behalf of the community (I believe), we would like to congratulate all ride OP's on dealing with us sort and many others on a daily basis! ?

[New display name]

I have been hearing the same about the bolts but that could mean anything.

Edited March 15, 2015 by skeetafly

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

4BC Radio just spoke to Robb Alvey the guy in charge of Theme Park Review, saying that these kind of accidents happen all the time at theme parks, he stated that if accidents like this happen everyone should try to remain calm. then he told 4BC how many roller coasters he has ridden in the world and he has not thrown up on any roller coasters in his life

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

if it's found that the prescribed maintenance has been followed to the letter, then S&S will be hit up by Roadshow to cover costs to fix it - in a similar fashion to how Qantas sued Rolls Royce after the A380 incident in Singapore.

The engine was owned by Rolls Royce and leased by Qantas. Furthermore it was a manufacturing defect, rather than a maintenance one.

Webslave, Ads DID say if it is shown maintenance was followed, then it would fall on the manufacturer.

4BC Radio just spoke to Robb Alvey the guy in charge of Theme Park Review, saying that these kind of accidents happen all the time at theme parks, he stated that if accidents like this happen everyone should try to remain calm. then he told 4BC how many roller coasters he has ridden in the world and he has not thrown up on any roller coasters in his life

Wow - they must have woken him up in the middle of the night to talk about that. Has anyone looked on TPR to see if there is a similar discussion going on?

I must say i'm amazed this thread hit 128 posts in a mere 20 hours. That's got to be a parkz record.

I heard about this yesterday, but didn't go searching for info. I knew there'd be stuff on parkz when i logged on... I just didn't expect 6 pages!

My first thoughts on seeing the wheel on 7 news (the one on the upper evac walkway, not the one on the grass) was the rear wheel assembly had failed. I wasn't aware the front assembly had also failed (and presumably was the cause of the rear failure by the looks of things). With both left wheel assemblies compromised, it's a miracle the whole train didn't cant over on it's right side, especially with the inertial forces experienced in the previous turn.

I'm thinking the front assembly wasn't totally affected, and by the looks of things, the front assembly is what kept them all on the track. I'm assuming the articulated joint between front and back has a limit, and the angle of the rear car off the track is probably at that limit.

I join others in the praise of the park and it's staff for quick action. QFRS for their rescue efforts, and join in support of the maintenance team who whether or not they did the best job they could (which I have no doubt they did) will all probably be feeling pretty crappy right now - some of them are possibly also feeling responsible and it wouldn't hurt VRTP to have a counsellor on site for a few days to let the guys talk their feelings out.

Sure nobody was injured (thankfully) but they'll all be feeling responsibility regardless. They'll also be paranoid about anything else they work on until the cause of the failure is proven.

There have been failures in AUS as a result of maintenance (space probe cable snap), but with such a new ride, i'm hoping this is manufacturing, or poor quality spare part rather than maintenance. I've got faith in the VRTP maintenance team that I hope is well founded. As others have suggested - the unique train design for GL is possibly at fault here... but we'll have to wait and see.

[webslave]

Webslave, Ads DID say if it is shown maintenance was followed, then it would fall on the manufacturer.

You'll find when you look at that in context I pointed out the difference was that the engine was not owned by the operator. In this case the ride is owned by the operator. You may also find that a failure may not be covered by the manufacturer regardless of whether it's a maintenance issue.

[New display name]

4BC Radio just spoke to Robb Alvey the guy in charge of Theme Park Review, saying that these kind of accidents happen all the time at theme parks, he stated that if accidents like this happen everyone should try to remain calm. then he told 4BC how many roller coasters he has ridden in the world and he has not thrown up on any roller coasters in his life

I just listened to Rob on Hot Tomato and he said that this is very rare that something like this would happen but it can happen.

No disrespect to Rob but the media are clutching at straws a bit if they are getting news from Rob it’s not like he has any more information on what happened then us.

[Flea]

Seems to be off the front page of major news sites this morning which is good news for MW. I hope they've moved the car though - you don't really want to be seeing a part derailed car while buying tickets to ride roller coasters.

[New display name]

They had cranes there last night and it was all lit up so I would say they worked through the night.

[downunder]

The media will look for ways to beat this up - Riders Barely Escape Movie World Murder Machine.

I'm just glad everyone got out alright, and I guess the facts will come out in an investigation.

[aussienetman]

He was on the Today show this morning as well. He down-played it really well.. earning his money today that's for sure.

That is the GM of Movieworld. Not Rob

[New display name]

Yea I was listening to him on the radio just now. Apparently to him it is standard practice for the CEO the help in all Estops.

[mikaykay]

It was the scariest thing ever, my boyfriend and I were second to next in line to get on ( in the queue ) and he watched the whole thing, where as I thought the bang was just apart of the ride until a couple of the people next to us screamed, I saw the parts fly off and my boyfriend said we were really lucky not to be hit by that wheel or whatever it was and then the lady screamed at us to evacuate. We left the park immediately because we were scared shitless, boyfriend said his legs felt like jelly. I felt so bad for that one girl who was almost dangling off the side. That incident would have ruined roller coasters for them forever. I hope those people got some sort of compensation for this

Edited March 16, 2015 by mikaykay

[MayfairProductions]

As a previous Senior Ride Operator for many years at one of the Gold Coast parks I want to add in my two cents. Regarding sensors on the ride it seems logical that either one of the operators heard or saw the part fall off the ride causing an all too common "hit on the estop". But judging from where the cart has stopped it looks like it has hit the brake run in a way where it has either destroyed the sensors going through (causing the rides computer to estop) or the car (due to being partially derailed) caused a block time alarm which means it didn't make it to the next set of sensors causing the ride computer to estop). It's better to wait until and investigation is done. But this looks like a serious issue.. nothing small at all.

[rappa]

Thanks for the input but can you refrain from using such ridiculous statements as "almost dangling off the side" as this clearly didn't happen. All guests were securely fastened in their seats the entire time.

It's a bit like this "2 bolts" thing getting around. Without knowing how many bolts hold a set of wheels, etc to the car how does anyone know if being held by 2 bolts is even a bad thing.

[New display name]

It was the scariest thing ever, my boyfriend and I were second to next in line to get on ( in the queue ) and he watched the whole thing, where as I thought the bang was just apart of the ride until a couple of the people next to us screamed, I saw the parts fly off and my boyfriend said we were really lucky not to be hit by that wheel or whatever it was and then the lady screamed at us to evacuate. We left the park immediately because we were scared shitless, boyfriend said his legs felt like jelly. I felt so bad for that one girl who was almost dangling off the side. That incident would have ruined roller coasters for them forever. I hope those people got some sort of compensation for this

Mikaykay as a self-appointed air crash investigator, I mean self-appointed coaster crash investigator I have a few question for you.

What location on the track was the car when you heard the bang?

When you saw the parts fly off did you see the front car go first or the back car or couldn’t see?

How long did you think the grinding lasted for?

How long after you heard the bang did it take the second car on the track to stop?

Did they get your details before you left?

Do you like chocolates?

[StingRay]

Everyone on here just needs to remember that although we are enthusiast of this industry we must wait for the official word from management. I know its concerning and worrying but all the right measures need to be taken.

I was at Movieworld the other day ( Thursday ) and everything with this attraction seemed fine along with other attractions at the park. Just hopefully this does not become a messy situation for the industry given all the noise about what occurred with another ride down the freeway recently.

[bladex]

Please go.

kiss my ass you don't even come close to telling me what to do you inconsiderate MOFO. get the F on my ignore list and OUT OF MY SIGHT.

Edited March 16, 2015 by bladex

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

It was still featuring prominently (two different stories - the '2 bolts' and the 'incident at movie world' articles) on news.com.au this morning around 9am.

Wow - they must have woken him up in the middle of the night to talk about that. Has anyone looked on TPR to see if there is a similar discussion going on?

Ok - i've looked. TPR had a thread - http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70031&start=10 - barely made 15 posts. I must say it's all very mature of them - the basic premise of the discussion went "well this happened... looks pretty serious... here's some closeups of the wheel assemblies...we'll have to wait until the investigation concludes before we find out what happened.... ok we'll wait".

No speculation or fear mongering here...

[webslave]

I'm not sure Crazy Bird's wheel assembly is directly comparable to GL's.

[Richard]

I'd disagree -- all El Locos share the same track gauge and functionally identical cars and wheel assemblies. That photo is exactly what you'd see up close on Green Lantern. Plenty of photos on this site showing the wheels reasonably clearly to compare the two.

[webslave]

To my eye there appears to be some differences in the wheel assembly:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/image_10595.jpg

http://cdn.mamamia.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Green-Lantern-Movie-World-feature.jpg

http://www.parkspot.eu/nl/wp-content/uploads/Warner-Bros.-Movie-World-Green-Lantern-Coaster.jpg

This one looks more like it:

http://cdn.parkz.com.au/cache/photo/individual_photo/general/2012/05/0530-1_Green_Lantern_IMG_2700.jpg

Perhaps what is/was throwing me off is the additional stuff you can see here that you miss the detail of on the TPR photo:
http://cdn.parkz.com.au/cache/photo/individual_photo/general/2012/05/0530-1_Green_Lantern_IMG_2797.jpg

[New display name]

Ok - i've looked. TPR had a thread - http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70031&start=10 - barely made 15 posts. I must say it's all very mature of them - the basic premise of the discussion went "well this happened... looks pretty serious... here's some closeups of the wheel assemblies...we'll have to wait until the investigation concludes before we find out what happened.... ok we'll wait".

No speculation or fear mongering here...

I don't think it has anything to do with the maturity level.

1. They have never been on it so they fill no connection.
2. We only have a few parks so if we don’t talk about it else do we talk about.
3. The parks cause us to speculate on most things because they do not give us any information. (If we didn’t speculate on things we would never get to the bottom of things. As you know in the states most of the attractions are released sometimes years ahead they even have walkthroughs going on and big press releases while we see a sprinkler been moved around and it’s the next big thing).

But I do think it goes over the top sometimes but if we didn’t I would only have to come to this site once a year.

[Richard]

If I remember I'll share some closeups of Green Lantern's wheels later today. It's the same basic assembly... it wouldn't surprise me if it's even the exact same part, which would make sense from an engineering and fabrication perspective given everything else about the ride systems is identical.

[webslave]

It would make quite a lot of sense, it just at immediate glance from the photos I thought to check (Parkz > Google Images) there appeared to be some differences.