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Ohio State Fair accident


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Excerpt: "We saw the people coming out of the cart and then I was right next in line so I saw the buttons that the guy was hitting," she said. "And he hit the emergency stop button and as soon as he hit that the whole cart started flying off because the force was so big from the big ride."

 

If this is true, it kind of surprises me there isn't a secondary safety system in place to prevent this type of harness failure. I know many enthusiast feel seat belts are not needed on harnessed rides, but the simple truth is they help prevent a full failure. And in this case it may have prevented the additional victims from falling out of their seats after the carriage fell from the ride.

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Excerpt: "We saw the people coming out of the cart and then I was right next in line so I saw the buttons that the guy was hitting," she said. "And he hit the emergency stop button and as soon as he hit that the whole cart started flying off because the force was so big from the big ride."

 

If this is true, it kind of surprises me there isn't a secondary safety system in place to prevent this type of harness failure. I know many enthusiast feel seat belts are not needed on harnessed rides, but the simple truth is they help prevent a full failure. And in this case it may have prevented the additional victims from falling out of their seats after the carriage fell from the ride.

 

A "crotch belt" that would run from the restraint to the seat would probably be sufficient for this but who knows why they decided not to install them.

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If this is true, it kind of surprises me there isn't a secondary safety system in place to prevent this type of harness failure. I know many enthusiast feel seat belts are not needed on harnessed rides, but the simple truth is they help prevent a full failure. And in this case it may have prevented the additional victims from falling out of their seats after the carriage fell from the ride.

 

I always feel a lot better with seatbelt on any ride and one does have to wonder if belts would have saved a life in this horrific situation.

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Does anyone have any insight into what a normal schedule for NDT is for a ride like this? They have to test more than just the pins; metal fatigue is a known problem and I imagine there must be some regular testing of all structural components, possibly just not every time its set up?

 

I looked it up last night and the manual states that a "Level 1 or higher Non-Destructive Test (NDT) Company" is required to annually inspect for welds and joints on these attractions. You wouldn't be able to do something like Ultrasonic testing on this every time it is taken down/put up.

 

That's a bit worrying, but it does explain this a bit too. Only the welds and joints, so it sounds like they're not required to do the same studies on the structural members. I have a feeling that might be changing after this.

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I am pretty confident if the row struck the floor it was after it left the arm. Do not forget that there has to be enough clearance for the riders legs. I do not believe the floor ever moves into a position where this is possible.

 

I am trying to count legs as the ride swings down and it appears that there are 4 people on the row before it detaches from the arm. I believe the two people flung through the air actually came from the row which detached since there are only two people in the row when it came to rest on the ground.

 

This should not be possible period. If we need more testing or this ride needs redesigned something like this should never occur again.

 

On the video it looks like one side of the floor had raised back up and that was what the row hit. Something had gone wrong somewhere to allow that piece of floor to raise back up while the ride was in motion.

 

I want someone who claims to see a raised section of floor to explain what section of floor is raised? On the KMG Afterburner to my knowledge only the center section moves at all. The two sides are stationary. The center drops down to form a V shape and I can clearly see the gap from the dropped floor as the arm comes down and as it goes back up on the other side.

 

From what I can tell the failure occurred right as the ride started its upward swing which would be the point of highest speed and stress on the arms. This looks like a very clear case of metal fatigue.

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Mandatory shutdown of Fireballs and Move-its...that is not what I wanted to see before heading to Morey's. It's for the best under the circumstances, but...ouch.

 

I hope KMG can get this behind them soon, and make sure it doesn't happen again...

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^I'm not sure Morey's will be shut down, it says it only affects Afterburners with serial numbers 1-40, so I feel like that's most likely the first generation ones, and Morey's IT is only a few years old, with lapbars so I can't say for certain if it's down, but it might not be.

 

Still freaky as hell because IT is my favorite flat ride, and knowing this happened on "technically" the same ride

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Mandatory shutdown of Fireballs and Move-its...that is not what I wanted to see before heading to Morey's. It's for the best under the circumstances, but...ouch.

 

I hope KMG can get this behind them soon, and make sure it doesn't happen again...

 

Because this is the internet and so much is available, I looked up the serial number: KMG-2011-FRB-24P-162. I think you're alright to get on "it" soon enough (unless their insurance company is freaking out).

 

In case you were wondering, this ride was KMG98FRB24006.

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Excerpt: "We saw the people coming out of the cart and then I was right next in line so I saw the buttons that the guy was hitting," she said. "And he hit the emergency stop button and as soon as he hit that the whole cart started flying off because the force was so big from the big ride."

 

If this is true, it kind of surprises me there isn't a secondary safety system in place to prevent this type of harness failure. I know many enthusiast feel seat belts are not needed on harnessed rides, but the simple truth is they help prevent a full failure. And in this case it may have prevented the additional victims from falling out of their seats after the carriage fell from the ride.

 

A "crotch belt" that would run from the restraint to the seat would probably be sufficient for this but who knows why they decided not to install them.

Pretty sure that KMG pendulums do not come with belts… At least the ones I've been on. Maybe we will be seeing them added after this incident?

 

Wasn't this a problem a few years ago with the move-it/spin-out rides? I seem to remember hearing about a similar incident on one of those a few years ago

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Is Hershey's manufactured by KMG or someone else?

 

It might be down for good measure right now, because it's designed by KMG, but built by Chance. KMG said that shut down doesn't affect the Revolution, but I wouldn't be shocked if all similar rides by KMG aren't shut down as a cautionary procedure.

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Excerpt: "We saw the people coming out of the cart and then I was right next in line so I saw the buttons that the guy was hitting," she said. "And he hit the emergency stop button and as soon as he hit that the whole cart started flying off because the force was so big from the big ride."

 

So, from this, it sounds like what happened was that a harness failed, and when the operator saw people falling out of their seats, he hit the emergency stop, and the force of it caused a failure in that metal and the carriage thus fell off....

 

This is the most detailed witness report I've seen so far, and to me it makes sense...

 

I would say this is impossible to be the reason for this, the operator could press the emergency stop at any point during the ride and it wouldn't just stop dead. It would still have to slow down until it comes to a complete stop. Emergency stops aren't block brakes that I know of. Id also say, as others have, that we can rule out anything to do with the floor based on the lack of damage to the rest of the ride and floor itself and on top of that I'm sure an operator cannot just raise a ride floor while it is in motion, the system should stop this. I'd say this is catastrophic failure of the ride arm due to metal fatigue

Edited by RyanTPM
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I'm actually relieved to not see people do the usual thing here and say, "That's definitely the operator's fault. Rides are all safe!" afterwards. This is exceptionally not OK.

 

Also this is actually the second time that a KMG ride has had seats decouple and throw people at the Ohio State Fair. A KMG Remix lost a row in 2002 and threw riders into the backsplash. They were injured but lived, and this led to a re-welding of the point at where the seats joined with the arms.

 

That one was a tivoli re-mix and caused by a failing weld.

 

We're in uncharted waters here with a solid piece of steel ripping apart on a kmg ride.

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That one was a tivoli re-mix and caused by a failing weld.

 

We're in uncharted waters here with a solid piece of steel ripping apart on a kmg ride.

 

I'm afraid that might end up being the cause here. If you look at the picture posted several pages ago where the steel looks "ripped apart" is actually pretty close to where it would have been welded on the back side of the gondola while the plate on the front looks to still be completely intact.

 

I tried to find some pictures of the ride seat gondola (sorry I'm not sure of the proper term here) but all of the pictures I found were a different design, with more a tubular structural brace on the gondola instead of a square beam, and the attachment to the sweep arm is a lot beefer with additional support plates that appear to be bolted instead of (maybe in addition to) welded.

 

Maybe this was a design change for those version that were SN# 40 and after?

 

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those impacted by this tragic accident. I hope that the manufacturer can identify the problem and prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

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Right away I didn't believe the rumors that it hit the floor. Remember that the legs of riders are dangling beneath the ride. There would have broken legs, probably traumatic amputations in fact. Lots a blood and many more deaths.

 

Also when the e-stop is activated on any flat ride the ride doesn't stop on a dime. There are no brakes on these rides. The motor act as the brake and it just slows down. On newer more advanced rides the program jumps straight to the end cycle and brings the ride to an end normally. On some older rides the power just cuts off and it coasts to a stop normally. But no ride ever just ENDS suddenly. All the e-stop does is end the ride cycle.

 

Lastly if you go watch the youtube video and set the play back to 0.25 you can clearly see that no one is falling out of the ride until AFTER the crashing sound. So the eyewitness that said the operator pushed the e-stop is likely flat out lying.

[youtu_be]https://youtu.be/cd8J7X3zHxY[/youtu_be]

 

Also you can only hear the audio on normal playback but it appears as if the crashing sound is not the ride section coming off but rather it hitting the other ride section. The sound comes long after the section has come off.

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Nickelodeon Universe at MOA has closed Shredder’s Mutant Masher ride in response to the Ohio State Fair accident.

 

http://www.twincities.com/2017/07/27/mall-of-america-closes-ride-after-ohio-state-fair-accident/

 

The Mall of America has closed down one of its amusement rides in the wake of a fatal accident involving a similar ride in Ohio this week.

 

Mall officials said Thursday afternoon that the Shredder’s Mutant Masher ride at Nickelodeon Universe was closed as a precaution pending further inspection.

 

The decision came after one person was killed and several were injured when the Fire Ball ride broke apart Wednesday at the Ohio State Fair.

 

The California State Fair shut down its version of the Fire Ball ride, and other fair boards across the country were evaluating their own rides. A version of the ride has never appeared at the Minnesota State Fair, which is scheduled for later this summer.

 

In light of the tragic accident at the Ohio State Fair, Mall of America has proactively stopped running Shredder’s Mutant Masher for additional inspection. Shredder’s Mutant Masher is a fixed, permanent theme ride that is inspected on a daily basis, as are all of our rides. Mall of America holds itself to the highest standards. Our ride will remain inactive until we’ve been given appropriate clearance by our manufacturer.

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