Six Flags coaster malfunctions, strands 25 people
by Jonathan Stein | Staff Writer

A roller coaster at Six Flags America in Largo malfunctioned on Saturday, stranding 25 passengers 100 feet in the air for nearly two hours.

The incident occurred on a ride called Two Face: The Flip Side at around 6:40 p.m. when a safety sensor suddenly shut the roller coaster down just as the ride was about to begin its descent, according to Park Spokeswoman Karin Korpowski.
Rescue workers arrived on the scene and decided that manually rolling the cars back to the platform would be the safest option.

As the cars rolled back to the platform, they jolted to a stop, breaking a hydraulic line and spraying fluid on some of the passengers.

Korpowski said there were no injuries, but two passengers asked to be taken to a hospital as a precaution.

The last passenger was taken off the ride at approximately 8:30 p.m.

This is the second time in two months that a safety sensor has shut the roller coaster down.

On Sept. 9, the roller coaster stalled at the top of the entry hill and 28 passengers were stranded for 40 minutes. There were no injuries in that case.

The coaster also stalled in July 2003, stranding passengers in a similar fashion.

Two Face: The Flip Side has been in operation at the Largo park since May 1999, Korpowski said.

‘‘I don’t know if was the exact same thing both of those times and I couldn’t speculate at this time if it’s the exact same thing this time,” Korpowski said.

The ride is currently closed while inspectors from the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation coordinate the investigation into the cause of the malfunction.

‘‘This is a very serious matter that we’re taking very seriously,” Korpowski said. ‘‘We will meticulously go through with the state of Maryland. There is no demand to have it done by any certain time. Our immediate concern is to find out what the malfunction was Saturday night and take it step by step from there.”

According to Gina Principio, the amusement rides supervisor at the DLLR, there is the potential that a roller coaster’s manufacturer could be asked to make alterations to a chronically malfunctioning ride.

‘‘We monitor safety records and maintenance logs,” Principio said. ‘‘If we see that it’s an ongoing problem, sometimes we have the manufacturer come out and we tell them that they have to design something different.”

Principio said she sent safety inspectors to the scene immediately after the ride malfunctioned on Saturday and the inspectors shut the ride down.

‘‘We tell no one to touch anything because we don’t want the scene contaminated,” Principio said.

Because Two Face: The Flip Side utilizes a sophisticated computer system, the investigation could be a prolonged one.

‘‘A lot of times when you’re dealing with coasters, you’re dealing with a lot of high tech equipment, so takes a long time,” Principio said.

Quelle: Gazette.net