Harness Issues on the Skywalker at Royal Melbourne Show

[webslave]

Looks like trouble for the operators of the Skywalker at the Royal Melbourne Show:

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/royal-melbourne-show-show-ride-for-real-thrillseekers-shut-down-over-harness-issues-20171002-gysmng.html

Here's the referenced Facebook post:

 

As I read through the comments others are sharing their own stories, and they seem like a cut above the "it was going much faster than normal and I felt like we were going to die" standard stuff and paint quite a troubling picture, eg;

 

[bladex]

bloody carny rides

[YaBoySlam]

Wow, lucky no one was injured or killed on the ride. I think KMG should do a touch up on this thing with the harnesses so that an event like this doesn't happen.

But knowing People these days they would immediately sue the owners over a simple technical fault on a ride. 

Though either age or attendants could have been a factor  

[Spotty]

...funny thing about that. I call complete BS on the "Extreme" incident. The ride wouldn't start anyway without the harnesses down and locked in. Yes someone may have "forgot" to check the harness was locked in place but I seriously doubt that. I have full faith in the rides safety systems working, and it was shown that there was nothing wrong with the ride. WorkSafe even cleared it to operate and no faults were found at all with the SkyWalker but the decision was still made to close the ride.

As far as your comment on age of the operators, no different to the theme parks. They would be over the age of 18. Having personally worked for the company who owns the attraction I can vouch for them that staff training is second to none (same with the other carnival operators I have worked for in the past, and the theme parks for that matter)

As far as SkyWalkers harnesses go, yes they do loosen ever so slightly as the ride cycle goes. But most rides actually do loosen ever so slightly. Hell even the Wipeout at Dreamworld does as well. It's why they staple you in so much to allow for that minuscule amount. I'd say what's likely to have happened is just that... the harness loosened ever so slightly, someone freaked out and the operators likely shrugged it off (which IMO they shouldn't have... even if they explained what I did to the customer, or at least acted concerned) because they know what the ride does and knows what the harnesses do.

Kinda stupid if you ask me...

Edited October 2, 2017 by Spotty

[Wil_i_am_not]

Funny question, but does anyone know if Skywalkers harnesses 'click' down? What could have happened is  the Harness clicked up one during the cycle, and someone would have mistaken that for the safety bars opening. If that was the case, it certainly would have been a frightening experience, but not a life-threatening one. 

 

[webslave]

Thanks for the insight @Spotty, interesting to hear a perspective from the other side.  Would it be normal for Skywalker to e-stop mid-ride like described?

I also find it interesting that Worksafe would clear a ride to operate - are these guys domain experts on the attractions themselves?

[HussRainbow87]

The ride was signed off by WorkSafe Victoria and was cleared to run, there was no issues with the restraints.

What that girl was saying in her post and on the news was a complete joke. I worked on the Sky Walker for 6 years and there was never any issues with restraints. There are also secondary locks in place so that if the main restraint locking system failed, the secondary would keep it in place. The harnesses do not actually click, the knife passes through the lock and is locked with the pneumatic system behind the seats, a secondary lock also passes through the knife so that if the pneumatic system failed, the secondary keeps the knife in place).

The dissapointing outcome of this situation was that some idiot on social media (yes, she made up some ridiculous story, saying that her shoulders came completely out of the restraint - this is impossible, if anyone has ridden a KMG TANGO, you would know that those restraints are very restricted and don't give the rider much freedom to move) made a ridiculous claim, and instead of the RASV getting behind the showmen and their safety measures, they made the situation worse by listening to these claims and keeping the ride closed. The fact that WorkSafe cleared the ride with no faults, just shows that this story was ridiculous.

Are we in a society today that anyone can make a comment on social media and an attraction could be closed? This could happen on any of our theme park rides also. It's frustrating to say the least.

Other than this incident, the show was a success and we had a great year on The Beast. Wonderful to see people really enjoying the ride.

Edited October 4, 2017 by HussRainbow87