AmyUD06 Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 (edited) Where did I personally insult you? Several posters were flipping out about this and the Mindbender incident. I understand metal fatigue just fine, I just don't see any correlation between something that happened on a ride when it had probably 1/100th of the amount of cycles that this one did. No one (on this forum at least) knows what happened here, so to assume that it MUST be the same as what happened on Mindbender is ridiculous. I completely acknowledged that they MIGHT be the same situation, by my use of the word "possibly" as the second word of my first sentence. Perhaps "gullible" wasn't the right word. I had originally typed out something far more hostile. EDIT: At least I didn't go in to my usual commentary regarding rides in third world countries. Edited October 3, 2019 by Mike240SX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 (edited) I wouldn't be shocked if this ride had exactly the same problem that Mindbender did and I wouldn't be surprised if it was something else entirely. I have no idea and no expertise in that field. All I'm saying is that the American parks that didn't close their rides seem confident in the safety of their own rides as of now which is why they're still running. That's not exactly a hot take or a groundbreaking assumption. Edited October 3, 2019 by coasterbill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bamwa Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 Well thanks. That's more civil and discussionary at least. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKvillalba Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 The Mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheimbaum, spoke briefly about the case during her morning press conference. Video: She said that investigations are still underway, and that they have found several "administrative inconsistencies" in the park's management and procedures, particularly in last year's archives. She announced that the government is looking to revoke all permits to the company that operates the park, (Ventura Entertainment, which also operates Selva Mágica), and that if that's the case, they will look for an international company interested in taking over the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 From my experiences, the park is poorly run. I'd be excited to see what a new operator could do considering the park is in the heart of a super populated city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 She announced that the government is looking to revoke all permits to the company that operates the park, (Ventura Entertainment, which also operates Selva Mágica), and that if that's the case, they will look for an international company interested in taking over the park. Oof, that means that Bullet may have been neglected as well. Just sell Quimera to Knoebels already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 ^ Would that really help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 ^ Would that really help? Absolutely not, not even close. I'm very curious about the condition of Bullet and Cascabel now. Here's hoping that a pattern hasn't formed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Bullet is such a unique coaster.....I hope it's not too neglected by this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanthonyam Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 Curious too see if the park re opens the ride again or sells it off to somewhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 You hear that Six Flags? I bet you could get it for way less than 4 billion dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKvillalba Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 La Feria will close permanently The company that manages La Feria has just announced that the Mexico City Government has revoked their operation permit and will close for good. Last week, the investigations ruled "lack of maintenance" as the cause of the deadly accident that took the lives of two men on September 28th. It is expected that the Government will look for any company interested in taking over the park, but nothing has been officially announced yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disownedpear Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 Wow the cities government closed the park? Not something that happens in the US as far as I'm aware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKvillalba Posted October 13, 2019 Share Posted October 13, 2019 Wow the cities government closed the park? Not something that happens in the US as far as I'm aware. That happened because the park itself is state-owned. The government ran the park since the Montaña Rusa was built in the 60's until the early 90's when they leased it to a private company. In recent years La Feria was operated by the company called "Operadora de Desarrollo Humano Chapultepec", which is part of the mexican amusement park chain "Ventura Entertainment". So, what happened is that the City revoked the permit to the company and therefore the park will remain closed since the government doesn't have the means to run it properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanthonyam Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 So they are looking for someone else to come in and operate it. Interesting. Let's see if that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Wow the cities government closed the park? Not something that happens in the US as far as I'm aware. That happened because the park itself is state-owned. The government ran the park since the Montaña Rusa was built in the 60's until the early 90's when they leased it to a private company. In recent years La Feria was operated by the company called "Operadora de Desarrollo Humano Chapultepec", which is part of the mexican amusement park chain "Ventura Entertainment". So, what happened is that the City revoked the permit to the company and therefore the park will remain closed since the government doesn't have the means to run it properly. Thanks for the explanation. This is an absolutely crazy story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFunk Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Glad I went on Wiener Looping before it got to Mexico since it's probably a death trap. I'm also 100% OK with the operator losing their license to run this park - if a car breaks apart and kills people due to bad maintenance (which is exactly the situation) then I'm fine with criminal investigations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKvillalba Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Hello TPR It's been a week with a lot of new developments on this case, the Attorney's General Office of Mexico City released the results of the investigation on the Quimera accident. Mexican coaster enthusiasts site "The Coaster Zone" condensed all the information and you can find it (in Spanish) here Translation of the main points: 1. The ride Quimera operated outside the norms established on it's own manual, official mexican norms and complementary technical norms. 2. According to the ride's manual, the rollercoaster was operating without the required conditions, as it was functioning with 5 cars instead of 6, with no corrective maintenance and under seriously unsafe conditions. 3. The lack of proper maintenance was the cause of the derrailment and subsequent fall of car number 5, causing the deaths of two people and serious injuries on other two. Causes of the accident The General Attorney's Office will prosecute the people responsible and/or the company under the charges of culpable homicide and injuries. Once the legal procedure begins, they will release a list of those accused. The manual that the company used to operate the ride was not the original, the used incomplete copies of the technical specifications translated to english and spanish. The Attorney concluded that Quimera operated under seriously unsafe conditions such as poorly maintained seatbelts, oil leaks on equipments, fissures on the wheel trucks, broken screws on the track joints and damages on the rails. "Loop number one showed excessive movement, all three loops required leveling, the operator's display had failures that had been reported before, and the routine technical inspection of september 29th (the day of the accident) determined that the ride had a reliability of 58%, because of that, the coaster should not have been opened to the public until the failures were corrected. How the accident happened According to the Attorney's Office, and based on the maintenance log, the roller coaster was not in condition to operate safely. "The prevailing conditions originated excessive vibration in all of the ride's elements, causing the screws of the right wheel truck on the last car to fall off and therefore causing the whole right set of wheels to derail, the train followed it's path because the left truck was still in place, but when the coaster turned right, the last car derailed completely and became airborne, pulled by the speeding train until it hit the support structure, the hit snapped the last car off, which started spinning while falling, throwing the two now deceased passengers to the ground" La Feria is looking to perform it's own investigation with the help of a foreign expert, but according to the Attorney's Office, the company has not followed the proper legal protocol and therefore, no official request has been fullfilled. As of the future of the park, the Government of Mexico City opened a public poll for the citizens to decide what the future of the La Feria site will be. They are asking people to make proposals to either keep La Feria or transform the spot based on 5 main points: - What should we do with Montaña Rusa? keep it? remove it? renew it? - The site should keep it's leisure and recreation purposes, but it's not limited to an amusement park, it can become a museum, a park, sport's complex, et cétera. - Should it have a theme in particular? - In case of it still being an amusement park, what kind of rides would you like it to have? - What other activities or events should be hosted there? You can find the poll and the people's proposals here Also, here they are hosting a simple yes/no poll on wether La Feria shoud remain an amusement park, it's open to everyone. Luckily enough, as of now, most people are asking for La Feria to remain an amusement park, but it should be operated by an international company. What are your thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 (edited) Thank you for breaking this down for us! I've been trying to follow along but having to rely on Google translations and what I remember from High School Spanish has made it difficult, especially when everything that the park puts out is a press release in a .jpg. The Mexican government seems to be on top of this and taking it very seriously which is great to see. This is giving me Daytona Beach Sandblaster flashbacks, though obviously this had even more tragic consequences. Anyway, hang on a second I have a poll that needs responding to ----- Edited October 17, 2019 by coasterbill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Thank you MKvillalba for breaking it all down and translating it! It's terrifying that I rode this last year now that this has come to light. Montana Rusa was a pretty good ride with some surprising and very abrupt ejector air. And considering the ride's history, I'm glad they're looking to keep it. Although I'm totally on-board with an RMC if they went that route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKvillalba Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Anyway, hang on a second I have a poll that needs responding to ----- [attachment=0]file.jpg[/attachment] That translates into "you should put RMC out and give it eleven rolls of barrel" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 I (literally) laughed out loud at that. The fact that I failed 8th grade Spanish is showing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Reading over the report, it mentions that Quimera was running without the required conditions, as it had 5 cars instead of 6. I know several parks in the US that have removed cars from rides (ex. Voyage going from 7 to 6 or Cyclops going from 6 to 5), but usually that's for a more permanent change. And that got me thinking. Medusa has used a 5 car "Frankentrain" arrangement in the past created by cars from both trains instead of the usual 6 car arrangement. I know the bigger issue with Quimera was the lack of proper maintenance, but I thought of Medusa when I saw the bit about the 5 car train. Orange in front followed by 4 red cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKvillalba Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Reading over the report, it mentions that Quimera was running without the required conditions, as it had 5 cars instead of 6. I know several parks in the US that have removed cars from rides (ex. Voyage going from 7 to 6 or Cyclops going from 6 to 5), but usually that's for a more permanent change. And that got me thinking. Medusa has used a 5 car "Frankentrain" arrangement in the past created by cars from both trains instead of the usual 6 car arrangement. I know the bigger issue with Quimera was the lack of proper maintenance, but I thought of Medusa when I saw the bit about the 5 car train. Well, let's keep in mind that the people who perform those investigations are not experts on all things regarding rollercoasters, and they will include anything outside of the ride's specifications on their reports. I don't think the 5-car arrangement had anything to do with the accident Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 ^ That makes sense. I agree one less car probably had nothing to do with the derailment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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