Fatal Roller Coaster Accident at Japan's Expoland

[DRACHEN_FIRE_FAN-BOY]

People are on about the assembly i'm confused how comes the car tipped so badly if only 1 wheel assembly came off, wouldn't the other one on that side have kept it moderately on the track, i mean the car looks almost sideways in some of those pictures wouldn't the other wheel assembly held it sort of in place if you get what i mean?

 

Rob

 

see the thing is the other wheel assembly is to far back (or forward). On TOGO's there are only one wheel assembly on each side, and two per car. now if there would have been two on each side, four on each car..... then this whole de-railing might not have happened.

 

*sad days for that lady*

 

*It's not TOGO's fault! the blame rests with the park*

[Matt M]

Sorry to join in late but I find this whole thing fascinating.

 

Expoland to me has always seemed like a very paradoxical park. They seem to cut corners in many respects but not in others. All of their rides are painted white with some park being an off pink tint, but yeah they splurged for a large B&M invert with a rather ornate station.

 

They seemed very committed to safety to me initially, you can see this when you take a look at the chairlift and see that it has netting underneath it and a small catwalk, which to me seems like overkill. What fascinates me is that they didn't replace the axels on the trains in over 15 years. The only dumber thing I have seen was Galaxyland's complete and utter failure to even try to run Mindbender safely, but that is in it's own league as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully other parks can learn a lesson from this about inspections.

 

Togo has to my understanding NEVER had any problems with rides crashing or breaking like some companies do. Intamin is notorious for having ride technology problems. I'm not referring to their rides chucking fat people, I view that as the rider's fault, but I'm referring to instances where brakes have failed like on the American Eagle, and I think one of the Superman rides has had this problem. Togo's to my knowledge has NEVER had this issue, even in park chains that are notorious for "poorly" maintaining rides. Honestly if I ran a park I would never buy rides from Intamin because their is no excuse for having several of their rides require extra supports to added onto the structure and the like. Also brake failure is completely INEXCUSABLE. Brakes are a very necessary part of a ride. That is poor design and there is no excuse for that. Although some may find their rides rough, Togo coasters are VERY well built compared to many other companies and do not have problems with constant valleying, overshooting the brakes, being under-supported, etc. Togo deserves credit for making a well built solid ride, not to be bashed for making rough rides. Stop being wusses people. The entire Asian continent can put up the company, and I assure you there are companies with much worse trackwork out there like Hoei and the Thrust Air models from S&S. I can't even imagine how bad the ignorant ripoff Chinese companies could be. You have to give the company credit for being ballsy and really experimenting with heartlining when the idea came around. yes they failed in quite a few instances, but someone has to fail for people to learn mistakes from them. I've sure other companies have seen what Togo did wrong and took a different approach that worked better. Progress doesn't happen unless someone screws up something. You have to give them credit for being adventurous and ballsy.

 

Also, if you Youtube "Expoland" and click on videos from Japanese news casts, when they zoom in on the train from new angles you can see that the wheel assembly is gone on the tipped train and that the headrest is ripped up and bent with brownish stains in it, probably dried blood from that woman. The catwalk also has blood stains on it if you find early pictures I don't want to post this as it's rather graphic and probably violates the TOS, so it's up to any curious people to find this if they want.

 

Just my two cents.

[Garet]

People are on about the assembly i'm confused how comes the car tipped so badly if only 1 wheel assembly came off, wouldn't the other one on that side have kept it moderately on the track, i mean the car looks almost sideways in some of those pictures wouldn't the other wheel assembly held it sort of in place if you get what i mean?

 

Rob

 

see the thing is the other wheel assembly is to far back (or forward). On TOGO's there are only one wheel assembly on each side, and two per car. now if there would have been two on each side, four on each car..... then this whole de-railing might not have happened.

 

*sad days for that lady*

 

*It's not TOGO's fault! the blame rests with the park*

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me

 

Rob

[cfc]

KD's Togo stand up, Shockwave, wasn't operating yesterday. I wonder if the park is checking the ride out because of the horrible accident in Japan.

 

This is just observation followed by speculation on my part--not an established fact.

[ginzo]

Togo has to my understanding NEVER had any problems with rides crashing or breaking like some companies do.

 

As is mentioned earlier in this thread, there was a derailment in 1984 of the King Cobra at Kings Island. This was, of course, an earlier model, and the problem seemed to be corrected. I do think it's safe to say that the safety record on Togo stand ups is solid. If you look at the tens of millions of riders over the years compared to the number of injuries, you get an activity that is far safer than most.

[DRACHEN_FIRE_FAN-BOY]

KD's Togo stand up, Shockwave, wasn't operating yesterday. I wonder if the park is checking the ride out because of the horrible accident in Japan.

 

This is just observation followed by speculation on my part--not an established fact.

 

you are more than likely correct. they probably closed it to check the train out. kinda like what they did to the rest of the TOGOs when that kid committed suicide....

 

I hope they replace the trains with a more comfortable version, and expand the catwalk out enough so something like this won't happen, or at least not with fatalities.

 

this is probably going to be one of my few optimistic out-looks, but, this accident could have been a lot worse....

[rwilliam62521]

I'm not sure if it was 1984 or 1985, but King Cobra DID derail due to a problem with one of the wheel assemblies.

 

I remember this because it happened not too long after the fatal accident at SFoMA (now SFStL) and the news media were condemming the new "stand-up" craze. BTW, SFStL's standup was an Arrow attempt and NOT a Togo.

[DenDen]

Togo has to my understanding NEVER had any problems with rides crashing or breaking like some companies do.

 

As is mentioned earlier in this thread, there was a derailment in 1984 of the King Cobra at Kings Island. This was, of course, an earlier model, and the problem seemed to be corrected. I do think it's safe to say that the safety record on Togo stand ups is solid. If you look at the tens of millions of riders over the years compared to the number of injuries, you get an activity that is far safer than most.

 

Isn't Manhattan Express also a Togo? There were incidents on that coaster as well in it's second year, support cables were snapping.

 

When looking at the ratio you mentioned, Togo's are pretty safe. And really, most coasters are.

[DRACHEN_FIRE_FAN-BOY]

well a roller coaster is like any machine. they need maintenance, inspections before operation, and replacement of things/parts as needed even if it look like it will be fine for a few more runs....

 

if this would have been done this horrible accident might not have happened, and that lady might still be alive......

[BDG]

 

From this angle, it looks like a 4D.

[Goliath513]

I’m still wondering how this never happened to Viper at Great Adventure though

 

Its a good thing that was torn down and scrapped before anything happened. I hope this coaster meets the same fate.

[SigENeaT]

well a roller coaster is like any machine. they need maintenance, inspections before operation, and replacement of things/parts as needed even if it look like it will be fine for a few more runs....

 

if this would have been done this horrible accident might not have happened, and that lady might still be alive......

 

Nothing more than that really needs to be said. At the end of the day this appears to have been an unfortunate accident based on a combination of gambling and bad luck.

 

I'm no mechanic however i would say the pivotal factor causing this accident was the rescheduling of the annual check that they usually do at the start of the year. If it was not put off for 4months (the gamble) then perhaps the faulty axel may have been discovered, or it may not have.. in which case the maintainance procedure will probably be updated to include mandatory, routine replacement of parts such as axels given this experience.

Id say something like that would happen worldwide as well (if parks hadn't already adopted the procedure)

 

Coming from working on very high safety risk mine sites where safety is the first thing you think about before you do anything, and i mean on the scale of if you accidentally get hot water on your hand making a coffee or kick your toe when changing boots, you have to log a safety incident report, there is a huge potential for very serious and realistically fatal accidents to happen without warning, unless proper precautions are taken.

In my workplace, these serious incidents provoke a significant investigation in to how appropriate procedures need to be improved to prevent similar incidents or the same reoccurring.

 

I would be supprised if maintenance procedures don't come out better than what they were for all parks globally since this incident.

[bulldogmom]

From what I've read, the fault is totally the park's for putting off that safety inspection. If I lived in Japan (or even if I didn't, which I don't) I would never go to that park. Any park that is too lazy to do safety checks doesn't deserve to operate.

[Gnome]

I think you guys are all missing the real story

The ride... had 18 women and four men aboard when the accident occurred

And I'm pretty sure it has something to do with that.

[HerBlackWings]

Here's a closeup from Liveleak.

 

http://cdn-18.liveleak.com/liveleak/9/media9/2007/May/5/LiveLeak-dot-com-48097-iup376581.jpg

[SigENeaT]

Poor girls and their families ='(

[ghost007jas]

SUITA, Osaka -- An amusement park where a roller coaster derailed on Saturday, killing a passenger and injuring 19 others, had failed to replace any of its axles for 15 years, leading investigators to suspect that the metal axles were worn out, police said.

 

The derailment occurred at Expoland in Suita on Saturday after one of the axles on the "Fujin Raijin II" roller coaster broke.

 

Osaka Prefectural Police investigators have since questioned five amusement parks across the country that have the same type of roller coaster, including Expoland in Suita.

 

As a result, investigators found that Expoland is the only park where even a single axle of the vehicle has never been replaced since it started operating in 1992.

 

Police are questioning Expoland officials in charge of operations and maintenance of the vehicle over their safety measures.

 

The instruction manual on the vehicle does not reportedly specify how often the axles should be replaced.

 

One of the parks, Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido has replaced some of the axles of its Fujin Raijin II that was introduced sometime around 1985. Yomiuri Land in Kawasaki and Washuzan Highland in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, replace axles of their Fujin Raijin II roller coasters every four to seven years. Mitsui Greenland in Arao, Kumamoto Prefecture, introduced the same type of roller coaster in 1991 and replaced its axles in June 2005.

 

The axle that broke at Expoland is made of steel, nickel and chromium alloy and measures about 40 centimeters long and some 5 centimeters in diameter.

 

Investigators point to the possibility that force had been continuously applied to the axle over 15 years, causing a crack to develop and for the axle to eventually break.

 

The company that operates Expoland had previously conducted supersonic and magnetic-particle inspections on the vehicle's axles once a year to detect invisible cracks.

 

However, the company had been scheduled to conduct the next test on May 15 -- following the Golden Week holiday period -- over 15 months after the previous inspection in late January last year. (Mainichi)

 

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070507p2a00m0na014000c.html

 

The plot thickens!

[Garet]

A member of the ECC sent me a few photos they took of the Fujin Raijin II during the ECC’s tour of the park back in 2005. Some of the other riders on the coaster have stepped forward to tell their own stories and accounts of the accident. Meanwhile the accident investigation continues and the police have just discovered a part of the wheel axle under the first half of the ride, contradicting the park operator’s report that it fell off on the second half of the ride. They have also found scratch marks on the rails at a point closer to the coaster’s starting point than what the operator claimed. It also doesn’t look like there is any chance that the Fujin Raijin II will ever reopen according to a software translation of a new Japanese news article sent my way. To quote the translation, “FUJIN-RAIJIN2 is abolished.”, “Even if EXPO-LAND will submit the report on examination in the future, FUJIN-RAIJIN2 will not be accepted according to the Suita City urban development”.

 

Taken from screamscape, the plot thickens even more

 

Rob

[Théo the little french]

Here the story of the victims... It's really scaring!! (is the word correct?)

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070508a4.html

[Louise]

^ I think you meant "scary", Théo, but your English is wonderful, don't worry.

 

Well, I'm a little sad I most likely won't get to ride this now (to experience the awfulness of it I mean, not to try and enjoy it), but will be glad to never see it open again if it'll stop people from getting hurt. Just a terrible shame somebody had to lose their life in order for something to be done, whether it be closing the ride or just fixing its problems.

[Théo the little french]

^ I think you meant "scary", Théo, but your English is wonderful, don't worry.

 

Thank you, it's very nice!

[arachelle]

Another update of the day from Japan Times. The train travels quite long way until it stops. that's torturing..

 

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20070509a3.html

 

OSAKA (Kyodo) The roller coaster car that derailed at the Expoland amusement park and killed a young woman apparently suffered its broken axle in the first half of the ride's 2,340-meter-long course, contrary to what the park operator claimed, investigative sources said Tuesday.

 

News photo

The X marks the spot where part of the broken axle of the derailed roller coaster car was found at the Expoland amusement park Saturday. The point where the roller coaster came to a stop is indicated with an arrow. KYODO PHOTO

 

Part of the broken axle was found on the ground under the rail about 170 meters from the starting point, north of the spot cited by the operator, the sources said.

 

Investigators have also found scratch marks on the rail running for several meters at a point closer to the coaster's starting point than the operator said earlier.

 

....

 

The sources said the coaster might have traveled more than 500 meters in an unstable manner after the axle broke in the first half of the course.

 

Investigators are still searching for more axle fragments.

[Goliath513]

After an investigation is completed, they should destroy this ride and replace it with a quality B&M stand-up coaster. Keep in mind, there hasn't been a new stand-up roller coaster built since 1999 when Georgia Scorcher was built at SFOG.

[ghost007jas]

Why would the ride be torn down? The problem with the ride was due to poor maintainance... Regardless of the fact that this is a togo

[SigENeaT]

As much as this incident is a tragedy, ghost007jas makes a good point!

 

However, i'm not going to quote credibility, but Garet mentioned earlier that approval by govt. to reopen may not be so forthcoming...

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=380052#380052

 

This now begs the question, will the park be open in time for the Japan tour this year? Or will it close like the water park on Santosa island in Singapore after the girl was killed there.

If so how would this incident effect peoples eagerness to go to the park?

 

Personally i have a big trip planned to Japan mid this year and have this park on my itinerary... fingers crossed it will be back up and the ride will be open again (Surely lighting cant strike twice.. surely...).