The Knott's Berry Farm (KBF) Discussion Thread

[the ghost]

^ I doubt they will get it back during haunt, and I have a feeling that even if that does happen the general gp(myself not included) will avoid that ride for a while. I just cant even see it being ready for at least a month.

[WFChris]

^Why would anybody avoid it? The GP loves the concept of a chance of disaster on a roller coaster. Every time I go to a park I hear way too much about Final Destination 2.

 

Besides, if there is an accident on the 5 freeway, are you going to avoid it? If a building you frequent floods, would you avoid that too? If the engineers say it is fixed, it's fixed! It's one of those things that you just have to trust 'the powers that be' to get it right. Do you avoid riding brand new roller coasters?

 

Imho.

 

Chris.

[atem122]

^ I don't know if that's quite the case, whenever I wanna ride a drop tower, the people I'm with are always hesitant because: "Didnt some girl get her feet cut off on that ride?" Accidents do have a pretty lasting effect in the amusement industry, if I'm not mistaken, Expoland met its demise after the accident there.

 

And for the record...it's Final Destination 3

[Purplepills]

^^ I think some people will avoid it, since people worry in general if coasters are safe, so if one has been involved in what could've been quite a nasty accident, it'll put people off. Especially if they haven't seen the video and have just heard from their friends that 'some kid got his face smashed off' or something like that.

 

Its actually the first time I've breifly considered NOT riding in the front (I've never bothered anyway) of one of these just incase it happens again. I didn't feel that way after the first cable went (Dragster?), but twice is enough to make me think. I'd probably still do it anyway if I really wanted to.

 

I know theres probably just as much chance of being in a plane crash etc, but then I don't have to ride a rocket coaster in the front seats to get anywhere

[Six Flags Enthuseast]

Funny this goes back to what someone said awhile ago about 'Sitting in the back on Xcelerator'...... Can't find the topic, but I know it was said out there somewhere.

 

Still, all joking aside, it's sad that this accident happened. I'll never consider not sitting in the front just because kids got smacked in the face, though. What's weird is that 2 kids from my class were just there and they said the park would be tearing it down. I'm glad I looked here first before I believed anything. If Xcelerator were to be removed, I'd have gone nuts that my current favorite coaster would be torn down just 4 1/2 months after I rode it!

[Top Thrill Dragster]

Photos of the snapped cable and damage to the train.

 

http://www.screamscape.com/html/knott_s_berry_farm.htm

[knottslover77]

Photos of the snapped cable and damage to the train.

 

http://www.screamscape.com/html/knott_s_berry_farm.htm

 

Wow! They were really lucky!

 

--Jay

[themeparkman25]

Well it doesn't look like the cable got dragged into or beneath the train, but that could prove to be false. If you look at the front of the train, the decorative car was split down the middle. I imagine that it is made fiberglass, which obviously would take a lot of quick force to break. Interesting seeing those pictures though, those brake fins got rocked!

 

I guess on a slightly positive note, the dad doesn't look too majorly distraught with the incident.

[jjune4991]

I guess on a slightly positive note, the dad doesn't look too majorly distraught with the incident.

 

did you see the video? he was freaking out once his son started to scream!

[themeparkman25]

^Ya, but if you look at those pictures and the blurb on it, the father seems fairly collected after 15+ minutes. I am not saying he wasn't distraught and upset that a cable just snapped in front of him, he just seemed collected (as has been mentioned many times in this thread) which is probably helpful to his sons reaction.

[fpsphil]

I actually picked up a piece of the train 2 weeks ago on Friday when I was there, now I know exactly where it came from, I though it might have been off the side or something

[Purplepills]

Judging by the way the cable has just smahed through the train body, this could have been a much more serious accident if it had come into contact with anyone on the train. Let's just hope that never happens.

[Kennyweird]

If that gash was truly caused by the cable, then Intamin seriously needs to reconsider their catch-car system.

[deguy123]

Wow that split in the middle of the train is crazy. I'm just glad nothing worse happened to the people on the train.

[Guest]

Just a few more feet and someone was going to get seriously injured. I am going to think twice about riding Ka in the front.

[ahecht]

Just look at the front of the train. This could've been MUCH MUCH worse.

[fpsphil]

At the front of each train under the fiberglass train there is a a large crossbar, I bet u that was what utlimately stopped the cable from going any further into the car

[christianscoasters]

Wow. They are probably two of the luckiest people on the planet. If that cable just moved a few more inches, they could have been dead instantly.

[peteb]

There is a lot of energy in that cable during launch. And what happens to cables that suddenly fail under tremendous forces is not pretty or very predictable. The cable is definitely the weak link in these systems, LSM and LIM launches definitely are the safer way to go. Let's just hope they can figure out the failure mechanism, maybe it's number of cycles, and come up with a solution. I'm thankful the riders did not get seriously injured.

[Purplepills]

Looking at the video again, do you think there's a chance that the cable did actually cut his leg? They both look down and panic. I assumed he had been injured, but never really considered it could have been the cable smashing through the car.

 

Edit: I just saw the press release (or what the YT video says is) saying the cable did actually come into contact with the kid.

[themeparkman25]

^Where is that press release? Or was it on TV or something?

[MagicMountainMan]

Wow, those pictures are horrible! Those people would have been killed if they weren't so lucky. Those shredded brake fins are crazy, too. When I was there a week ago I didn't see those but there was a platform erected on the launch about 3/4 of the way up so I'm guessing that's where the brake fins were. They got destroyed.

 

I wonder if Cedar Fair will end up suing Intamin like they did with Togo.

[mattnz]

Pretty scary photos there - but the report on Screamscape alluding to Intamin's supposed 'Decade of Destruction' is absolutely infuriating. Supposedly every incident on Intamin rides in the last 10 years is 100% the company's fault, when we all know that rider error, ride operator error and (for e.g. in the case of California Screamin' and Superman: Tower of Power) maintenance error on the part of the park has been to blame for the most part.

 

We're yet to hear all the details about what exactly happened on Xcelerator, but I suspect that - again - full blame can't just be attributed to Intamin. The ride has operated without incident since 2002, after all.

[Purplepills]

^Where is that press release? Or was it on TV or something?

 

Its on the description on the right of THIS video. As I mentioned I don't know where it's come from, so it could be made up/incorrect.

[Tmcdllr]

No matter what the cause/who is to blame this is not acceptable. Something seriously needs to be done whether it's stronger cable, better monitoring of the cable, protective guards under the train... something as long as the cable launch system is used. To say those people were lucky is an understatement. I am guessing the cable broke off where it attatches to the front of the catch car. Just to clarify, does it use 1 or 2 cables to launch? I don't remember.