M&D Scotland's Tsunami derails

[Superbatboy]

Yeah there is no way the manufacturer can be blamed considering the ride is 12 year old. Couple that with the fact that parks are supposed to do redundant safety checks and regular maintenance, the park is completely at fault.

[beatle11]

Like others have stated, I just can't wrap my head round how the entire train completely came of the track. It will be very interesting to see what comes of this. From those pictures, I'm shocked that no one was killed. I hope everyone involved can make a full recovery.

[Mechanic]

It's truly amazing that no one was killed. I hope the injured are able to recover quickly. The maintenance does look suspect. I will be interested to hear the official cause of the failure.

[wakey151291]

With limited information it's difficult to judge how the wheel assemblies are set up on this model, and the exact circumstances behind the detail but looking at the picture of the bogie on the floor (which is difficult to view in detail at best) the swivel pin looks to have sheared off or if the bogie is upside down perhaps the bearing assembly broken. The break point doesn't look clean which would suggest there may have been an existing crack, and it could be likely that the other bogies are in a similar condition. If the swivel pin has sheared the bearing assemblies may be under greased and are siezed. Where the train appears to derailed (at the bent support) it looks like the train is undergoing a large amount of stress here as can be seen by the wheel marks on the track. The train will be twisting, picking up speed and undergoing high Gs. If the other bogies are in the condition the one on the floor is in then it's possible one bogie failing will be enough for the others to fail as well.

 

It's hard to say this is 100% accurate Until more detail is released.

[amy_mel]

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/tsunami-rollercoaster-terror-boy-11-8292166?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#XkjcQsl6RWZzADjx.97

 

It sounds like these people were incredibly lucky! Prayers to everyone for speedy recovery!

[DirkFunk]

It's easy to argue that the park is at fault for a number of reasons, but until there's an inquiry, it is best to wait until there's conclusion. Edmonton Mindbender's infamous fatal accident turned out to be the fault of the wheel assembly design being basically impossible to properly maintain.

[julioot]

I'd say even in case of bad maintenance, wheel assemblys shouldn't just ripp of (notice that this ride wasn't that old). If that's in face the cause of the crash.

[Lionsharki]

I hope everyone who was involved in the crash recovers well. Incidents like this are always horrible to deal with.

 

There's not really enough information on why it happened as of yet, so I don't really want to make direct conclusions. By the looks of it, could be a combination of issues from both the manufacturer and the amount of maintenance M&D gave the ride, but in till we have a conclusive report on what went wrong, it could be many different things.

 

It's sad to think that the media in the UK have jumped on this again and used it as excuse to fear monger and bring up the Smiler incident again. This was an incident on a small, fairground-type rollercoaster, and should never be compared to that of larger theme parks.

[coasterbill]

It's easy to argue that the park is at fault for a number of reasons, but until there's an inquiry, it is best to wait until there's conclusion.

 

Did you forget what website you were on? There's no room for that type of completely rational thinking here.

[KingRCT3]

Edmonton Mindbender's infamous fatal accident turned out to be the fault of the wheel assembly design being basically impossible to properly maintain.

Wasn't also because the manual was only in German and not translated into English?

[DirkFunk]

Edmonton Mindbender's infamous fatal accident turned out to be the fault of the wheel assembly design being basically impossible to properly maintain.

Wasn't also because the manual was only in German and not translated into English?

 

There were a number of issues - translation (though of course this was not the only such ride sold to an Anglophile nation), quality control due to Schwarzcopf receivership/bankruptcy, design issues from Stengel, and questions about sufficient maintenance by the mall. Ultimately, the inquiry (which I believe is free to read online), found that the core issue came with the wheel assemblies, which were made in such a way that the screws keeping it together could not be visually or physically inspected on a routine basis by the maintenance crew. The ride had been making metallic noise and been stopped and maintenance called twice that same date, but nothing was discovered as there was no way to discover the issue without removing trains from the track entirely. Most of the assemblies were found to be loose, and this issue was corrected in the subsequent trains the ride got (along with new restraints that had independent locking systems to prevent the rider ejection - aka those awful accordions). It also shuts down a couple times a day for maintenance checks which is....suboptimal.

[KingRCT3]

^ Does that design issue have affected other Schwarzkopf coasters?

[DirkFunk]

^ Does that design issue have affected other Schwarzkopf coasters?

 

It probably did, but a lot of stuff has been lost to time, so I honestly can't say. I can't imagine that Mindbender had a unique set of trains.

[Pirate]

There is hope in the GP... on Facebook.. YES.

 

ZERO people so far mentioned *other* accidents and only ONE person had a negative comment about parks and coasters.

 

I say this is a huge leap for the GP as they are becoming smarter!

[coloradocoasterguy]

Edmonton Mindbender's infamous fatal accident turned out to be the fault of the wheel assembly design being basically impossible to properly maintain.

Wasn't also because the manual was only in German and not translated into English?

From what I understand the manufacturer went bankrupt during delivery of the ride and Galaxyland had a different company install the ride while also finishing parts of the ride on their own based on bad translations into English. This is a different issue.

[coloradocoasterguy]

There is hope in the GP... on Facebook.. YES.

 

ZERO people so far mentioned *other* accidents and only ONE person had a negative comment about parks and coasters.

 

I say this is a huge leap for the GP as they are becoming smarter!

 

People are still stupid. If you don't count things like heart attacks, anyerisms, and morons walking under or on the track then the number of people killed or seriously maimed by coaster accidents is actually pretty low compared other kinds of accidents.

[Johnlloyd]

Yesterday, M&Ds Scotland's Theme Park reported that they will indeed reopen the Tsunami after the police investigations have concluded and the victims’ conditions have been released. For a full report, click here. If this coaster does reopen, I hope that the train is thoroughly inspected and properly fixed, as well as that bent support as an incident like that could easily reoccur again.

[KingRCT3]

"Each and every ride within the theme park is safety checked on a daily basis and undergoes a thorough independent inspection every 12 months.

 

"Tsunami had its annual independent safety inspection in early June.

 

That might be the scariest part of the article...

[coasterbill]

"Each and every ride within the theme park is safety checked on a daily basis and undergoes a thorough independent inspection every 12 months.

 

"Tsunami had its annual independent safety inspection in early June.

 

That might be the scariest part of the article...

 

I was just about to post that. I would have kept that to myself if I was him. It makes me legitimately question the safety of the other rides in that park (though of course the investigation may change our opinions). Normally I'm all about re-opening the rides because usually even if it is a mechanical failure it can be easily corrected but THE ENTIRE TRAIN FLEW OFF THE TRACKS AND CRASHED INTO A KIDDY RIDE.

[KICoasterkev]

Yeah its not something little, this is really big especially in a western country.

[simaticable]

THE ENTIRE TRAIN FLEW OFF THE TRACKS AND CRASHED INTO A KIDDY RIDE.

This seems like something 10 year old me would do in RCT2.

[wakey151291]

Looking at further pictures it would appear the casting of the bogie assembly has cracked all the way around, on the bogie that's on the floor at least, this could just be one of the bogies that has broken off afterwards from when the train has hit the floor or the strain of the derailment. Maybe the trigger is a wheel failure, bearing siezed or worn out, bolts come loose, many causes are possible. If the ride jammed up the lift hill the day before, although could be completely unrelated to the incident itself, the two could link together especially if the fault caused the train to sit lower than usual and the dog of the car wasn't catching the chain for example. Things that HSE will look for, as well as maintaince records, are witness marks on the track for wear patterns and bolt scoring etc, condition of the bearings for wear and under greasing, loose bolts, missing locking pins/clips, the breaks on the bogies if they are clean breaks or rusty breaks - rust indicates the break has been there for some time.

 

One thing that's for sure - it's a good job the train landed the way it did.

[snoflake15]

Toddler narrowly avoids injury in M&D's Tsunami crash

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-36651692

 

Am I being slightly cynical in doubting this version of events?

 

Edit to avoid double post. Further article as media try to destroy park's reputation:

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/mds-paid-100k-compensation-injuries-8306314#4Y56LIv9G0DrQbqD.97

[Johnlloyd]

"It's a shame because Dylan was just starting to love rollercoasters, but I'll never let him on one again."

 

"I won't be back at M&Ds, and we'll have to cancel our trip to Flamingo Land next month."

 

These quotes are from the first article in snoflake15's post. I find this article, especially these statements to be quite extreme and overblown. I mean sure, M&D's coasters may not be the safest according to reports but, that doesn't mean everyone else's coasters are dangerous as well. You're more likely to die on your way to an amusement park than at the amusement park itself. Some parents are extremely over protective and wonder why their children become easily bored in life.

[cookiex]

It's easy to argue that the park is at fault for a number of reasons, but until there's an inquiry, it is best to wait until there's conclusion. Edmonton Mindbender's infamous fatal accident turned out to be the fault of the wheel assembly design being basically impossible to properly maintain.

I highly doubt that since Tsunami had been operating for twelve years (and had been travelling in South America before that) without serious incident while Mindbender derailed after only a few months. Design flaws like that would have doomed the coaster years ago.