Green Lantern incident at MW

[rappa]

I always ride the front seat of Big Thunder, have no problems with it at all.

[New display name]

Makes a man wonder why there isn't a second system to catch the car if it fails independent of the wheels.

[Reanimated35]

I always ride the front seat of Big Thunder, have no problems with it at all.

I've always wanted to, but both times I've been there it's been closed :'(

Makes a man wonder why there isn't a second system to catch the car if it fails independent of the wheels.

?

[New display name]

Lol that will do me.

[JacobSibbald]

Just asking for some clarification... So you've pretty much come to the conclusion that car entirely derailed and (luck??) was keeping it on the track? That's what I gauged from the photos and last couple of posts. I hope to God my inference is wrong. Scary.

Edited March 18, 2015 by JacobSibbald

[ThrillSeekerNoMore]

Hi Guys,

I am actually one of the people stuck on the top cart on Sunday. (The girl in the front with the blue shirt)

It was terrifying being up there and we were told by the rescue team that we dodged a bullet and something (assuming on the remaining wheels attached) jammed into the track which saved us from falling. I remember going over the first drop and it feeling way faster than normal, we went around that corner and i could feel the cart slide out from the track, heard a loud grinding noise and then we came to a sudden stop. I hurt my chest from the impact and I then felt a second band which made me feel like we were falling off the track (which was the 2nd cart tipping). We saw and hear people screaming and running out from the queue and I heard my dad say he could see a wheel dropping to the ground.

Movie world played their usual speel 'the ride has been delayed and we will continue the ride shortly' which they played a numerous amount of times making us worry that they would try to start it again. No one came up for about 15 minutes but once the fire rescue team was up they started to reassure us and they started strapping us down after the first hour, because they needed to figure out what to do to make sure we wouldn't fall.

Once they got us strapped in we made sure they took the young girl and her mother down first as they were on a worse angle than us, then we got off one by one.

They told us that we wee just hanging in there and we were very lucky. We overheard the one of the guys say they really don't know how it was staying up there but we are very lucky and they weren't sure if the carts were going to fall overnight.

I know all the media makes it sound over the top but it really was terrifying and I really thought we were going to die. but I am so thankful they did rescue us and no one who wasn't there probably won't get how bad it really was.

That was my story anyway.

By the way with the whole media thing, they really seek you out and don't stop until you agree to talk with them. All the papers were one lot of quotes (one by me, and the other paper was my sister and father). We aren't looking for any money at all and are not sure where the media got that quote from)

Edited March 18, 2015 by ThrillSeekerNoMore

[T-bone]

Makes a man wonder why there isn't a second system to catch the car if it fails independent of the wheels.

Makes you wonder why there is no redundancy incase all the wheels fall off on your car whilst you are driving, or that there is no harness for a commuter train to be caught when a trains wheels fail in this fashion....

I'm not going to come on here and say the failure wasn't bad, because it was bad, and somewhat shocking to see an incident like this happen in Australia, but it happens It doesn't matter how many redundancies you have in place, redundancies can fail, and machines can break down, and sometimes there is a thing called overkill.

[JacobSibbald]

(assuming on the remaining wheels attached) jammed into the track which saved us from falling.

Thanks ThrillSeekerNoMore (love the name btw),

If that's true, go buy yourself a lottery ticket!! Thanks for sharing your personal insight into what seems like a frightening and lengthy ordeal, I couldn't imagine how I would've reacted.

[ThrillSeekerNoMore]

It was really like some Final Destination stuff hey! Which was one of my first thoughts unfortunately!

[T-bone]

Thanks for your story ThrilLSeekerNoMore. From all accounts and as frightening as it may have been, the park followed procedure, and i'm sure some employee's could confirm that the breakdown message "Sorry for the delay, the ride will start up again soon" is a recorded message, heck possibly even automated once the E Stop procedure has been triggered.

Good to see a happy ending to the story, and don't let it stop you from Thrill Seeking, it is still safer to ride Roller Coasters than many other things in life.

[ThrillSeekerNoMore]

Yeah, they did everything possible which was correct, which is why we don't see the point in taking any legal action.

We didn't know what was going on and were just worried they would start the ride again but we understand why now

I really don't think this will stop me forever, just maybe for the time being.

Thanks guys

[Brad2912]

The message is certainly automated and begins when the e-stop is pressed.

There was never any danger of the ride re-starting however.

[iwerks]

Thanks for sharing 'Thrilseekernomore'. That must have been a terrifying experience. I hope it hasn't put you off theme parks for life.

I think we all weigh up the risks in our mind before we go on a ride, but you would never expect something like that.

[joz]

That's a bit like saying 'Why don't planes have 4 main wings invade the first two fall off?'

It's a cliché to be sure but you're still safer on a ride than you are driving to the park, hell that's the most catastrophic failure a ride can have and it ended safely. Some might argue that's good fortune rather than good management, but it does show even something that bad doesn't nessacarly end badly. I don't believe that poor maintenance is Movie World's business model, and I'd feel totall safe getting on the rise when it reopens.

[Zanstabar]

Quick Questions ThrillSeekerNoMore: How do you still feel about Movie World? Would you still go on rides? Avoid it like the black plague? Are you angry towards them or just happy that you are on solid ground?

Edited March 18, 2015 by Zanstabar

[themagician]

Thanks for sharing that. It was scary to think though that an hour after I had been on the ride, that happened. Glad everyone was ok.

[ThrillSeekerNoMore]

Quick Questions ThrillSeekerNoMore: How do you still feel about Movie World? Would you still go on rides? Avoid it like the black plague? Are you angry towards them or just happy that you are on solid ground?

I love Movie World, I love all theme parks. I might stay away for a couple of months but I have a pass and will end up using it again

It's hard to say what I'm upset at because they should be doing very thorough checks every morning which I know they do (being a past employee of Dreamworld) but this happened in the middle of the day where the cart has been run many times beforehand, they don't do mid-day checks or anything like that. I think for now I am very happy I am on the ground again!

[joz]

That's a really impressive attitude to have, and I really congratulate you for it. I assume Movie World, work cover or their insurance is looking after your medical expenses though?

It's an inane thing to say I know, but we're all very happy you're safely on solid ground too

Also you've been flagged as a spammer! This is mistake at our end we'll sort that out asap!

[ThrillSeekerNoMore]

Thanks, I'm lucky I'm a pretty positive person naturally I think haha Yeah, I mean my father was the worst hurt with broken ribs but we will be contacted by Movie World soon to discuss all of that kind of stuff.

[Reanimated35]

Yeah, they did everything possible which was correct, which is why we don't see the point in taking any legal action.

We didn't know what was going on and were just worried they would start the ride again but we understand why now

I really don't think this will stop me forever, just maybe for the time being.

Thanks guys

I'd at least be asking for a free lifetime pass.

Good to hear that you're safe and I don't think anyone's surprised about the media beat up over this.

edit -I'm actually more surprised at the lack of continued beat up over this.

I'm not having a go at you and I know TSNM you say it was feeling faster than normal, but barring heavy/light people effects like on Scooby, gravity didn't increase suddenly on the ride and a wheel being disconnected wouldn't make it faster. It can't really have been any different.

Edited March 18, 2015 by reanimated35

[ThrillSeekerNoMore]

I'd at least be asking for a free lifetime pass.

Good to hear that you're safe and I don't think anyone's surprised about the media beat up over this.

edit -I'm actually more surprised at the lack of continued beat up over this.

I'm not having a go at you and I know TSNM you say it was feeling faster than normal, but barring heavy/light people effects like on Scooby, gravity didn't increase suddenly on the ride and a wheel being disconnected wouldn't make it faster. It can't really have been any different.

Yeah, It is hard to tell really since it happened I might have thought it was after that, and me being afraid would have contributed to me feeling it was faster too

And I also might have assumed it was because I've been told theories of the wheel being loose giving less traction thus making is faster etc.. So it probably wasn't any faster than normal just my mind making it feel like that

Edited March 18, 2015 by ThrillSeekerNoMore

[Reanimated35]

Fair enough.

You say the media's been all over you, have you had any of those shows like TT/ACA or magazines offering you heaps for "exclusives of Australia's dodgy themeparks?"

[ThrillSeekerNoMore]

We have been contacted but after a lot of backlash from people our family decided to not talk to anymore press even if they offer money because it wasn't worth the stuff people were saying. Just the usual 'money hungry people, aren't even injured just want the money for nothing' etc.. It was actually a lot worse than that but I'm not going to get into details in it

Edited March 18, 2015 by ThrillSeekerNoMore

[Theme Park Girl]

It's the kind of accident that really makes you double think about going on a ride again. I thought BSG was bad enough, but this is pretty scary when you think about it.

It's a good thing the accident didn't happen on a different element of the ride.

I hope they get to the bottom of it.

Totally agree. I remember seeing the initial reports about this popping up in my FB news feed that afternoon whilst I was at WWW, and my initial thought was "people get stuck on rides all the time, why is this such big news?" Then I read about the wheel breaking off and my heart just sank.

Now I've read about how NOTHING was attaching the train to the track, and how lucky it was that it came to a grinding halt where it did by pure chance, or there could have been fatalities... omg O_o Reading about the details of this incident still leaves me gobsmacked.

So undoubtedly the GL is gonna be shut for a long time now, but I question what will happen to it in best/worst case scenarios following the investigation results?

If it's found to be a train design flaw (which I am still am convinced it is) S&S may provide completely new carts? Or they may completely modify the track to ensure the carts are more securely attached and have extra security measures?

Worst case scenario I'm guessing is the GL being removed altogether, but probably highly unlikely, given the effort involved and money spent on it.

Can only wonder what the outcome will be.... but obviously depends on went wrong with it to begin with. and if/how it can be fixed.

Either way, it's freaking scary what happened the other day and I am glad I got to ride it at least once, given we don't know what's in it's future now.

[iwerks]

It may well go the way of BSG and end up with new trains and half the capacity. I have ridden BSG since its initial incident (where the seat came off) and I will probably ride GL when it comes back online. I think I'm looking for MW to be really honest with what happened and 'step it through' how that's not going to happen again.