Intamin Rapids Accident At Adventureland, Iowa

[Brad2912]

Very sad to read of another capsizing raft, 3 critically injured and 1 child confirmed dead. Not details as yet as to what caused it to flip.  

Boy, 11, dead, 3 critically injured on rapids ride

[July 6, 2021] An 11-year-old boy has died after a raft flipped over on a water ride at an amusement park in Iowa on Saturday, in an incident that left three others injured. The incident happened around 7:30 p.m. when multiple emergency crews from surrounding areas were called to the scene of the Raging River raft ride at Adventureland Park in Altoona, Iowa, on Saturday night, according to the park. There were six riders on the raft when it overturned. Three were critically injured, one suffered a minor injury and two others were unharmed. The boy, identified as Michael Jaramillo, died of his injuries the following day, the Altoona Police Department said Monday. They added that a second child is still in critical condition. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Jaramillo family as they navigate the heartbreaking loss of their child,” police said in a statement.

Adventureland acknowledged the accident in a post on its Facebook page on Saturday, shortly after the incident occurred. The park added that the ride had been inspected a day earlier and that it was “found to be in good working order” at the time. “Adventureland is working closely with both the state and local authorities, and would like to thank them again for their efforts,” the park said in a statement after the boy’s death on Sunday.

It was not immediately clear why the ride turned over, and an investigation is underway. The ride has been shut down during the investigation. The Raging River just reopened for the first time this season, as the ride had been closed since last year. It first opened in 1983, manufactured by Intamin Amusement Rides of Switzerland.

It’s not the first time that someone has been fatally injured on the ride. A 68-year-old park employee fell onto a conveyor belt and suffered a fatal head injury in 2016. Iowa’s health and safety regulator fined the park a maximum penalty of $4,500 for the incident.
 

[Jdude95]

Soon we're going to start seeing more and more of the free floating rapids style rides going away in favour of a fully tracked system

[Aw hype]

2 hours ago, Jdude95 said:

Soon we're going to start seeing more and more of the free floating rapids style rides going away in favour of a fully tracked system

If people are dying on free floating rides and not(?) tracked ones, however irregular those deaths may be happening, it's probably not a bad move imo

[Gazza]

The ride in question:

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/raging-river-adventureland-park

10 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

Iowa’s health and safety regulator fined the park a maximum penalty of $4,500 for the incident.

WTF

Edited July 6, 2021 by Gazza

[Im Hungry]

11 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

A 68-year-old park employee fell onto a conveyor belt and suffered a fatal head injury in 2016. Iowa’s health and safety regulator fined the park a maximum penalty of $4,500 for the incident.
 

That $4,500 fine seems a little reasonable for that event, but for the Thunder River Rapids-like incident, I assume there'll be an even heavier fine.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I'm not sure how things have changed but I know a while back, theme parks fell into the same category as state fairs and were the jurisdiction of state fair \ labor \ agricultural bodies rather than any sort of workplace safety inspection agency.

The original laws surrounding compliance were intended for state fair \ farm machinery etc, and never really changed over the years as parks established permanent locations and rides became more complex. 

ETA: here's the Iowa department of labor guide on amusement ride safety rules and as you can see, much of the language here is around safety for temporary attractions such as locating power supply lines, and safety guy-wires and the like...

875.62.pdf (iowa.gov)

[ejpdtd]

There is a video from the next raft just a moments after the raft flipped which is pretty horrifying to watch, parents standing in the raft water screaming for help as their children are stuck upside down in the raft. Onlookers in the next boat with little ability to help. It does seem from the video like this takes place mid ride though in just the standard sort of rapids area and has nothing to do with conveyor belts.

There was a discussion on reddit I saw about the negligence to react on the parks behalf, some people saying that similar Intamin models at other parks have lifeguards stationed throughout the midcourse with e-stop buttons that drain the whole ride in 30 seconds, and if Adventureland had these procedures, that death could've been avoided after the flip. Anyone know if that statement holds true, I don't ever recall seeing lifeguards posted throughout whenever I rode Disney raft rides (not that im very attentative). 

Seems like the number of theme park incidents are pretty high this year so far.

Edit: video of the incident has now been made private, probably for the best as its hard to watch

Edited July 8, 2021 by ejpdtd

[Im Hungry]

After viewing the video, it does appear that the accident occured in an area "mid-ride" with the absence of a conveyor belt. It's sad to watch like what @ejpdtd said, and that it makes it even worse to know that the situation is beyond the guest's control. The riders on the passing raft couldn't do anything but sit and watch, the riders on the upturned raft helplessly trying hard to do whatever they were trying to do.

It's hard to comprehend how that accident could've happened, seeing that the area was relatively calm, mild or somewhat gentle (I've never been on a river rapids ride myself, so I cannot judge on what the experience through an area like that would be like).

Just hope the families affected, the park, investigators and other important figures reach a conclusion and find the answers they are looking for and are somewhat able to consign something to the past (I understand it'll be hard to).

Wishing the grieving family the warmest hugs, thoughts and prayers, and that their son rests ever so peacefully.

[Brad2912]

An initial report stated “at least one” of the 8 air bladders was deflated, but that could have occurred post capsize.

it is quite puzzling. Having seen the video from the raft following, the water course in that area doesn’t seem overly treacherous. The adults are standing in the water course without any trouble. 

It’s certainly chilling footage, and just heartbreaking for the family

[joz]

You'd suspect that it didn't flip in the calm area though. If past accidents are any guide, normally this happens from an underinflated tube that snags an underwater obstacle. There's only one that's flipped from a conveyor that I'm aware of, as literally all other rapids rides don't have the gaps in them.

[Jdude95]

Every rapids incident that has resulted in a serious injury or death has been mid-course rafts flipping or people jumping out. There's definitely only been the one rapids ride that rafts have ever flipped in the conveyor area.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Jdude95

[MrLukeCarroll]

The audio alone of that video is heartbreaking when you know the outcome.

The last few weeks we have seen a lot more incidents in Theme Parks than normal and it's a worrying trend.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

12 hours ago, ejpdtd said:

There was a discussion on reddit I saw about the negligence to react on the parks behalf, some people saying that similar Intamin models at other parks have lifeguards stationed throughout the midcourse with e-stop buttons that drain the whole ride in 30 seconds, and if Adventureland had these procedures, that death could've been avoided after the flip. Anyone know if that statement holds true, I don't ever recall seeing lifeguards posted throughout whenever I rode Disney raft rides (not that im very attentative). 

I can attest to the safety systems - when opened, the Wonderland rapids ride (an intamin model) had guard towers installed all around the course, fitted with loudspeakers and staffed by ride operators who could tell riders to sit down, and to contact the control room if an incident occurred.

Later, and with improvements in technology, the ride was retrofitted with surveillance cameras that covered every inch of the ride, and could be monitored by one operator, while other staff assisted with loading and unloading. On quiet days, the operator manning the control panel could also control load and unload. the automation built into the ride by then was huge. The control logic that operated the conveyor belt and loading gates was failsafe. Sensors were mounted along the conveyor to track the location of the rafts, and more sensors in the unload and load area ensured raft separation. The conveyor stopped and started based on the ride control logic, rather than running full speed all day.

So - the absence of lifeguards around the course does not mean it was unsafe, although I don't know enough about this specific installation to guarantee the camera and logic systems were adequate, i'm just offering the fact that there may have been a very reasonable explanation for the absence of physical lifeguards.

12 hours ago, ejpdtd said:

Edit: video of the incident has now been made private, probably for the best as its hard to watch

It's ok - it was made private because they sold it to news outlets so you can now view it on any of a number of news outlets websites and social pages. It was a little disturbing with audio, without it, there isn't much graphic about it except for an upturned raft - so if you want to see for yourself how it looked post-flip, but don't want to be disturbed, turn off the sound.

 

After reading all i've read on this incident and now seeing the footage, it's down to one of two causes (IN MY OPINION) - either the bladder was underinflated, and caused it to snag and somehow flip, OR someone was playing silly buggers in the raft, potentially stood up and overbalanced the raft at a key tipping point on the ride. I'm not casting blame on the park or the riders, i'm just saying in my opinion these are the two possibilities.

Given the ride had been closed for months, and it had only just had an inspection the day prior, and just reopened, if it was down to inflation, my guess is the rafts were all pressured up, the inspection checked, and a slow leak lead to the deflation post-inspection. It's unlikely a slow leak would have been detected that quickly. 

I do recall in the dreamworld inquest that leaking tubes were discussed, and it was a case of reinflating each day to correct pressures to keep them 'normal' - but that takes daily inspections to know which ones need to be watched - and since this was the first day reopening, maintenance probably hadn't yet identified rafts were leaking...

3 minutes ago, MrLukeCarroll said:

The audio alone of that video is heartbreaking when you know the outcome.

The last few weeks we have seen a lot more incidents in Theme Parks than normal and it's a worrying trend.

I feel its a lot about reopening parks that haven't operated for some time, without rigorously and thoroughly ensuring that everything is in A1 condition because (at least in some areas) nobody has ever shut down the parks for this long before

[westical]

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2021/07/15/adventureland-park-accident-raging-river-ride-failed-earlier-state-report-says-michael-jaramillo/7983886002/

• Raft had been repaired earlier in the day due to deflating
• Raft scraped the bottom of the channel multiple times during the ride after taking on water
• Cause for flipping still unknown

[Jdude95]

Probably the lack of inflation mixed with the raft taking on water. That'll help a raft flip if it hits a rapid while scraping along the bottom of the trough