simon8899 Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 (edited) A gondola of the Monster 3 got loose and crashed into spectators. 9 were non_critically injured. Rode this 2 weeks ago and was a great ride... According to radio federal police and the TUV engineers are investigating. The ride owner is in trauma treatment. I'm now on smartphone - more later. UPDATES Radio: Spectators hear metallic grinding noises before the accident - so first assumption is material fatigue. The axis of the gondola broke. The state attorney is investigating against the owning showmen. The ride will stay closed but the fair will continue. This is the first accident with a Monster in Germany. After investigations it was not the axis that broke - it was destroyed later in the accident- but the arm holding the gondola gave in due to rust inside a hairline crack. The supports were renewed 3 years ago, now featring 4 gondolas. On another arm there was another crack discovered after X-Ray. Its believed that Monsters with the original arms are still safe. Edited October 31, 2011 by simon8899 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giovanni Bianchi Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Isn't there a rule about triple posting? Thank goodness no one was killed. They should put a "seat out of service" sign on it and keep it running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 ^Yes, there is--there's also one about "backseat moderating." In the future, if you find some more info about this accident, please edit your original post--don't bump the thread with short posts. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giovanni Bianchi Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I was just being facetious. Always thought about how rides get inspected, but personally know that every existing problem can't be seen or found unless you take equipment apart and re build. Guess it does help though. It saddens me when these things happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadster Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Wow. Rudie is going to be in mourning over this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 After 3 days of investigation the reason for the accident is clear - parts of the refit failed - so all Monster still running the original parts are pronounced "safe" again. I took this picture two weeks ago and it shows the new 4-spoke exenter attached to one of the arms. One of these spokes failed due to rust inside a hairline crack. If this was due to the fact that the stresses on the material was calculated wrong - or the part was already delivered faulty - will be part of further long-term investigations. During the initial ivestigations with a portable X-ray device another hairline crack was detected on another new support beam. The owner of the ride - showmen Uhse - claimed that he would like to keep the ride, even if that would mean another refit. First and foremost all were lucky that no was killed or seriously injured during the accident. The support beam broke as the arm was beginning to lift so the gondola didn't topple and was luckily stopped by one of the fence parts around the rides. This now rises the dicussion to completly fence-in the rides in germany like in the US. On the positive side the orignal security-system of the Monster worked and as soon as the control-box lost contact to the gondola the ride froze in position to do no further damage - this is similar to the loopingracer trains were the operater gets no green light unless all restraints are closed. Here a link to an article in german by a german newspaper: BZ Personally I'm very happy that no one was killed and that those injured get well very soon! Next to that I also hope that the reason for the failure could be found and the ride safed as I rode it three times and it was on a great programme. But what wonders me that an original Monster 2 - like I rode it in Slagharen - now runs faultless for 40 years now, while new parts not even 10 years old fail so soon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gisco Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Thanks for the picture because I had no clue what a Monster 3 was! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 @gisco Yes Mr. Schwarzkopf was always accurate! This ride was mostly called Giant-Octopus - but he pointed out that his ride has only 5 arms so he called them "Monster". Monster 1 had 5 arms with 4 fixed gondolas - Monster 2 had 5 arms with 4 spinning gondolas - and finally the Monster 3 had 5 arms with 5 spinning gondolas. Even if the last ones were built in the early 80s its a popular and signature ride on german carnivals and european parks. As far as I know two were refitted the last 10 years: This one - sadly somehow wrong - and another was made into an inverted called "Parkour". It was my first "adult" ride when I was a kid and still ride them werever available.... There was also a variant by Schwarzkopf themselves called "Orbiter" which was quite cool but sadly there's only one remaining in a park in france I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 ...and another was made into an inverted called "Parkour". Was the Absoluter (Sound Factory/Parkour) actually a Monster ride? I thought it was its own unique thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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