Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky

• NEW: Witness describes seeing cable go under car and strike riders
• Ride malfunctions and cuts off girl's feet at Six Flags in Louisville, Kentucky
• Girl, 16, was on "Superman Tower of Power," a free-fall thrill ride
• Ride drops passengers 154 feet at 54 mph, stopping 20 feet above pavement

A girl's feet were cut off Thursday when a free-fall thrill ride malfunctioned at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Amusement Park in Louisville, Kentucky, police said.

A cord wrapped around the 16-year-old's feet and severed them at her ankles while she was on the "Superman Tower of Power," a police dispatcher said. The girl was taken to a local hospital.

An unidentified witness told CNN affiliate WLKY she saw a cable on the ride snap.

"The people on the ride just came and hit the ground," she said. "When I got up there, the lady she was just sitting there, and she didn't have no legs. ... And she was just there, calm, probably in shock from everything."

"That could have been all of us -- riding that ride," witness Whitney Sandfer told CNN affiliate WDRB/WMYO.

The incident took place shortly before 5 p.m. ET, according to Six Flags spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg. The park remained open, but the ride in question was shut down and will remain so until the full investigation is complete, Goldberg said.

During the ride, passengers are lifted to 177 feet, suspended momentarily and then dropped, according to the park's Web site.

Passengers drop 154 feet at 54 mph, stopping "just 20 terrifying feet above the pavement," it adds.

"I seen the car go up. Then, like, the cable broke, I heard -- pwchh -- and I heard a lot of people screaming," Chris Stinnett, who was at a ride next to the Superman Tower of Power, told WDRB/WMYO.

"The cable went under the car -- and I seen it pull up and hit a lot of people -- and I seen them bring their legs up," Stinnett said.

The ride was introduced in 1995.

(c) cnn

Schlimme Vorstellung so ein Ereignis.

Stahlseile gehören heutzutage zu den sichersten und strapazierfähigsten Seilen überhaupt. Normalerweise reißt ein Stahlseil auch nicht ohne Vorankündigung – sprich kleine sichtbare Schäden. (Spliss)
Ich nehme mal stark an, da dieser Unfall in America passiert ist, dass nun der Park kräftig zur Kasse gebeten wird.
Sollte sich dabei evtl. herausstellen, dass man an der Sicherheit gespart hat, dann kann für mich die Strafe gegen den Park nicht hoch genug ausfallen.

Ich möchte damit den Park nicht vorverurteilen. Unfälle passieren in allen Bereichen leider überall, doch viele Unfälle waren unnötig und vermeidbar, wenn man sich an die Vorgaben der Hersteller und des TÜV gehalten hätte. (z.B. der Achterbahnunfall in Japan)

Herzliche Grüße
Sebastian

www.Kirmes-und-Parks.de

Hallo Leutz,

zwei kurze Fragen dazu: Ist zum einen nicht der Tower von S&S, der ja in Deutschland keine TÜV-Freigabe erhält und zum anderen: Gibt es in Amerika eine Art TÜV ?

Gruß

Hi, der Turm scheint ein GiantDrop von Intamin / RideTrade zu sein... Du meinst warscheinlich den gleichnamigen Dreifach-Tower von S&S in SF OverTexas...

Hm, danke, jetzt steht es nochmal auf Spiegel Online:

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,490167,00.html

Von dem Turm gibts noch mehrere in den USA. Cedar Fair hat die 5 in ihren Parks erst mal geschlossen, damit diese überprüft werden können...

Kings Island stops ride
An accident at a Louisville amusement park ride Thursday in which a girl’s legs were severed has prompted officials at Kings Island to shut down its similar Drop Zone Stunt Tower ride.

A 13-year-old girl’s feet were severed above her ankles while on the popular Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

The Kings Island Drop Zone ride is one of five across the country that will be shut down so the parent company can conduct a thorough inspection, Craig Ross, Cedar Fair LP vice president of marketing, said this morning.

The five rides in amusement parks Cedar Fair owns around the country were manufactured by the same firm as the ride at Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Ross said.

The Drop Zone ride at Kings Island “is similar, but not identical” to the ride at the Louisville amusement park, he said.

There’s no estimate on how long the Drop Zone ride will be closed.

“We won’t compromise the safety of our guests,” Ross said.

Ross noted that all Kings Island rides are inspected regularly. “We inspect every ride every day.”

The Drop Zone ride, which opened at Kings Island in 1999, is described as the world’s tallest gyro drop.

The ride spins riders around a 30-foot ring of 40 seats that encircles the drop tower to a height of more than 26 stories, and then drops guests in a 67 mph freefall.

The Drop Zone, the park’s highest point at 315 feet, was shut down twice in the first year it opened in 1999, according to previous Enquirer reports.

The drop tower was shut down for a week that July after it was struck by lightning. Two weeks later, park officials closed it through the end of the season as a safety precaution after a child was killed on a similar ride at Paramount’s Great America in Santa Clara, Calif.

No problems were found with the local ride, Kings Island officials told the Enquirer at the time. The ride opened the next season with improved safety restraints.

Ross said it is common procedure to shut down similar rides when an incident happens elsewhere in the country. In general, visitors to the park will not be told much detail about why the Drop Zone is closed, Ross said.

If patrons take the step of going to guest relations, they will be told that the ride has been shut down as a precaution.

“We’re really not going to go into much more detail,” Ross said.

More than 4.4 million riders have ridden the Drop Zone at Kings Island since 1999.

(c) The Enquirer, 22. Juni 2007

Letzte Bearbeitung am 22-Jun-07 um 21:28 Uhr ()
Selbst auf der Six Flags Homepage wird unter dem Ride in Kentucky ein Bild von einem S&S gezeigt. Bei dem Ride in Kentucky handelt es sich aber definitiv um einen Giant Drop:

Superman Tower Of Power (exHellivator)

Bilderquelle: negative-g.com

Ein weiterer Turm wurde jetzt wegen einem defektem Kabel geschlossen. Laut dem Charlotte Observer haben Parkinspektoren in Carowinds Drop Zone Stunt Tower nach einer Inspektion ein fehlerhaftes Kabel entdeckt. Die Inspektion wurde auf Grund des Unfalles im SF Kentucky vorgenommen, der Turm war bereits kurz nach dem Unfall geschlossen worden...

___snip___
Cable closes free-fall ride
Carowinds attraction similar to the one that cut off girl's feet

Inspectors closed a popular ride at Carowinds Friday after they found that the Drop Zone Stunt Tower had a cable that was too thin.

The ride was inspected after an accident involving a similar attraction in Kentucky sliced off a girl's feet on Thursday.

Inspectors ordered the ride at Carowinds closed Friday morning, said Jonathan Brooks of the N.C. Department of Labor, but Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. of Sandusky, Ohio, had already closed Drop Zone along with rides at four other amusement parks Thursday "as a precautionary measure," the company said.

Carowinds officials planned to install new cables, and inspectors were scheduled to take a look at Drop Zone again on Tuesday morning. Brooks said the cable wasn't frayed, as some media outlets reported Friday.

"You have the strands of the cable start rubbing together and they create a rust," which causes the thinning, he said. "The cable wasn't frayed where, you know, the piano's hanging above the guy and it's about to fall and there's one strand holding it up."

Brooks said no riders at Carowinds were ever in any danger. The cable was deteriorating from inside, but could have lasted for months, he said. There are five metal cables on each four-person car, though just one is enough to lift all the weight. The Drop Zone lifts people 160 feet before it free falls at speeds reaching 56 mph. The cables are not used to stop the ride.

Park spokesman Scott Anderson said he didn't know when the 11-year-old ride would reopen.

State inspectors were at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville to examine the Superman Tower of Power, where Thursday's accident happened. The ride lifts passengers 177 feet in the air, then drops them at speeds reaching 54 mph.

It was unclear at what point in the ride the 13-year-old was injured Thursday, said Wendy Goldberg, a Six Flags spokeswoman. CNN and the Louisville Courier-Journal reported that a cable broke free and injured the girl while she was on the ride. The girl was taken to a hospital, where her condition was not immediately available Friday. There had been no reports of injuries on the ride before Thursday, Goldberg said.

Six Flags shut down similar rides at parks in St. Louis; Gurnee, Ill.; and near Seattle.

In addition to Carowinds, Cedar Fair shut down drop tower rides in Cincinnati, Toronto, Virginia and California.

Intamin AG, a Swiss company, made the rides but did not supply all the parts, said Sandor Kernacs, president of the company's American operations. -- observer staff writer greg lacour and the Associated Press contributed.

(c) Charlotte Observer, 23. Juni 2007 von Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

Fehler lag an defektem Kabel und (!) an Operator, weil der den Notaus nicht gedrückt hat, weil die Leute geschrieben haben.

http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/19409284.html

Bei allem Respekt, wenn das Kabel reißt und es einen Lauten Knall gibt, sagt mein geringer Sachverstand, dass ein Notaus da auch nicht mehr viel gebracht hätte. Und "nur" weil die Leute schreiben und es einen Knall gibt, den man von unten wahrscheinlich noch nicht mal richtig örtlich zuordnen kann (war es das eigene Fahrgeschäft oder kam es woanders her?) den Operator mit zu beschuldigen: Ich denke, da will man die mangelnde Wartung nicht so stark gewichten..

Vielleicht sehe ich da ja was noch nicht richtig, aber ich finde es eine Frechheit...

Kettenflieger, Riesenräder und andere Karussells jetzt im Coastershop: Lift...Drop...Shop!

Was und vorallem wie, per Brief, Fax oder sms, haben den die Leute dem Ride Op geschrieben?

Gruss

8i Bahn

?!? Sowas... was hat mich denn da geritten?!

Kettenflieger, Riesenräder und andere Karussells jetzt im Coastershop: Lift...Drop...Shop!

Letzte Bearbeitung am 02-Jun-08 um 01:02 Uhr ()
Mir fiel beim Lesen des ausführlicheren Berichts an anderer Stelle (wo, habe ich leider vergessen) schon auf, dass die Parkmitarbeiter da fahrlässig gehandelt zu haben scheinen. Eine Ride-Mitarbeiterin hat als Zeugenaussage abgegeben, sie habe mit ihren Kollegen dem Schichtführer gesagt, dass er den Notstopp drücken soll, da das Kabel wohl bereits beim Hochziehen des Turms gerissen sei und die Gäste sich durch Schreie lautstark bemerkbar machen wollten.
Dieser habe nicht reagiert, und sie habe daraufhin die Notrufnummer des Parks angerufen und gesagt, die Leute würden schreien und ihr Schichtführer nicht reagieren. Antwort: Schreiende Leute in einem Freizeitpark seien normal.

Ich finde diese Aussage unfassbar und gehe demnach schon davon aus, dass hier nicht nur die schlampig durchgeführten Checks, sondern auch die Personalpolitik & die Art und Weise des Personaltrainings zu dem Unfall beigetragen haben.

Ok, wenn das so ist, nehme ich alles zurück. Aber: Wieviele Kabel hat denn eine Gondel, um hochgezogen zu werden?

Kettenflieger, Riesenräder und andere Karussells jetzt im Coastershop: Lift...Drop...Shop!

Also bei den Anlagen die ich bis jetzt kenne sind es 3 Stahlseile.
Jedoch denke ich das Intamin die Anlagen auch revediert und konstruktionsänderungen bei neuen Anlagen durchführt was natürlich auch auf die Anzahl der verwendetet Zugseile zutreten könnte.

Mir ist jedoch immer noch der Ablauf des Unfalls unklar. Wie hat denn das Zugseil überhaupt die Chance in die näche der Fahrgäste zu gelangen.
Gruß Christoph