Luna Park's Mad Mouse glitch traps 7 people

[verticalzero]

From the www.theage.com.au/news

 

Seven people were rescued from Luna Park's Metropolis ride this afternoon after it was stopped because of an unusual noise.

 

Fire crews were called to the St Kilda amusement park about 12.36pm and used a cherry picker to rescue the people from the ride, also known as the Mad Mouse.

 

They were caught on the ride for about 15 minutes.

 

Victoria Police said the ride was stopped as a precautionary measure when a roll-back bar on the ride malfunctioned.

 

"That's something that stops the carriage from rolling backwards,'' a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

 

"With the assistance of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, the six to seven people that were on that ride were sky-lifted to the ground.''

 

She said WorkSafe was notified and no one was injured in the incident.

 

The ride is expected to be closed for the rest of the day.

 

But the park's chief executive officer Mary Stuart was not able to say whether a malfunction with a roll-back mechanism was responsible.

 

"The operator on the ride heard a noise that was not a usual noise. Their training is that they are to stop the ride if they hear noises that aren't usual,'' Ms Stuart said.

 

"Nobody was in any danger. It's most unfortunate that it occurred obviously and we're very sorry that it's interrupted people's enjoyment of the park.''

 

Ms Stuart said the people were removed quickly from one of the high points of the track and she was awaiting a full briefing from the maintenance department to establish what had caused the noise.

 

"We will be doing a thorough internal investigation and we will also be talking to any relevant authorities,'' she said.

 

Witnesses who were roller blading past Luna Park at the time told The Age they heard people screaming.

 

Windsor MFB senior station officer Ron Young also said a malfunction with an anti-roll back mechanism had caused the problem.

 

He said two crews attended and the seven people were rescued from about 10 metres above the ground.

 

It is not the first time people have had to be rescued from the ride.

Eight people had to be rescued from the same roller-coaster ride in December after a power blackout caused chaotic scenes among the holiday crowd.

 

And in 2005, five children and an adult were stranded on the Mad Mouse for about two hours.

[Astat]

Why is it that news outlets these days think an E-stop qualifies as an "accident?"

[palmerleeberry]

The best thing about this news story is that There were no reports of any injuries nor death! Nobody got hurt, just had to wait patiently to be rescued. In time, they will find out what caused the unusual noise, get that problem fixed, and have the riders screaming on that ride once again.

 

"Nobody was hurt. Blessed Day!"

 

"What! No injuries? That sucks! I want some roller coaster deaths!"

 

"Okay, how about we put them on the Deja Vu?"

 

"But that coaster never runs. How can I get any. . . (he finally gets the joke) Aww, kiss my !!!

[downunder]

I saw that on the news, never been to the Melbourne Luna Park, must have been a slow news day. With the carnage in Melbourne last night it should be quickly forgotten - the carnage being Federer getting his a$$ kicked in the tennis. Hell, I was at the Sydney Luna Park when the Ghost train burned down and killed 6 people.

[Noxegon]

Hope they sort it out quickly... I'm gonna be there in a few weeks!

[TheRapidsNerd]

Witnesses who were roller blading past Luna Park at the time told The Age they heard people screaming.

 

On a roller coaster? Get outta here!

 

"With the assistance of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, the six to seven people that were on that ride were sky-lifted to the ground.''

 

Aircraft skylift. Cherry pickers lower.

 

"The operator on the ride heard a noise that was not a usual noise. Their training is that they are to stop the ride if they hear noises that aren't usual,'' Ms Stuart said.

 

Too wordy. "The operator heard an unusual noise and stopped the ride, per their training."

 

"We will be doing a thorough internal investigation and we will also be talking to any relevant authorities,'' she said.

 

Also too wordy. "We'll throughly investigate and talk with the authorities."

 

Yes, I'm feeling picky today. Gripes aside, glad that everyone was ok on the e-stop.

[King of Ka]

With this news, we've got to all ask ourselves: are our roller coasters safe?

[Tmcdllr]

It only made news because people had to be "rescued." Even if this is standard operating procedure for this situation, nothing really happened and it is certainly not news worthy. E-stops occur all the time everywhere as a normal operating procedure...thats why there is a button for it. Most of the time it is a simple malfunction or just somebody being stupid. Why isnt the news then flooded with all these stops? Again, nothing really happened and nobody got hurt. Its like the news person or channel was bored and looking for something to do. I am sure there were many other important things to report on besides this...just plain lame.

[Hurricane]

But... considering this is the 3rd time something like this has happened on this same coaster in a year... it does tell you something about the ride.

 

According to other news sources, the dog that connects to the "Anti Rollback" Device fell off the train mid course. and seeing as this is a Galaxi coaster, there are rollback devices on several parts of the coaster before brake runs... so that could have been why the ride was stopped.

[Tmcdllr]

What is a Galaxi coaster? Thats a new one to me.

[the sound]

Hell, I was at the Sydney Luna Park when the Ghost train burned down and killed 6 people.

 

Wow! How old were you?

[downunder]

I was only a little kid, I had no idea what was going on.