What's new
By:
FORUMS - COASTERFORCE

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Boomerang Accident in Chile - Caught on Film

Hyde

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
A really bizarre occurrence, as first reported by Screamscape.

Beginning at 0:23, On-ride video footage shot by a rider shows what otherwise would be a normal boomerang ride for the first half of the ride, until the backwards portion. Notice that these riders are riding in the third or forth car, and have a number of cars ahead of them in the train.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AyIq32whv4[/youtube]

However, at 1:16 in the video, once the train begins traveling backwards and hits the loop, you will notice that the riders appear to be at the front of the train, with no cars ahead of them.

In photos shown later during the news broadcast, it appears the roller coaster sheered in connection, setting the two sections of the train free. Gratefully it appears none was seriously injured, with the front portion of the train valleying in between the second spike and loop. (Pictured below)

ScreenShot2015-02-01at102337AM.jpg


The roller coaster is named "Boomerang", and is located at Fantasilandia in Santiago, Chile.

Such a bizarre incident - especially to be caught on film!
 
Strange.

Whydo they wear neck braces for the interview, by the way? If I understood it correctly, the two sections of the train "valleyed" in different parts of the ride after separating. The rear of the train finished the ride and presumably stopped like normal, whereas the other must have been pendelling back and forth until coming to a rest at a brake-free section of track. The braces would have been a must if they had separated and both valleyed, as that would have involved a crash at relatively high speeds. But there would have been no unusual sudden stops for either of the passengers here, would it?

The only explanation I can imagine for them to be necessary, is if some riders unexpectedly turned their heads as the train continued through the narrow turns and twists in the cobra roll, or as the rear section of the train halted on the brakes.

Or, well, neck braces could be necessary anyway after a Vekoma Boomerang, accident or no accident.
 
Could also be some sort of precautionary measure... Or media sensationalism... Or a mixture of both. :wink:

Any Spanish speakers able to translate the interviews at the end of the report?
 
I mean it'd be terrifying and all but my first reaction upon watching is hahahaha at the neck braces.
 
I loved the whole Final Destination empty space thing in front of the guy when he gets back to the station. Fantastic.

I thought neck braces were sold at the gift shop for all Boomerangs? :P
 
That could have ended much worse if the scenario Neal suggested happened :P

It's not often you see a genuine coaster accident caught on film so a real gem in that sense. Glad no one was badly hurt.
 
It looks like they're in the back car. Makes you wonder why the rest of the train didn't make it through the loop, yet a single car was able to finish the circuit.

Could you imagine what this incident could have been like if it snapped off just a few moments earlier, on the chain lift!
 
This hasn't been brought up on here yet? I find it quite weird considering it has been mentioned under CF's facebook posts from Jerry's visit to the park.

It seems like a really 'interesting' incident, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't get worldwide attention if it weren't for the video.

The ride is now surely closed, right Jerry?
 
Hyde said:
Any Spanish speakers able to translate the interviews at the end of the report?
Click to expand...

First Interview with official: He says they are waiting on comfirmation from Vekoma in Holland to assist in the investigation since Vekoma officials came months ago to inspect the ride and found it in perfect conditions. An analysis of the incident will be released soon.

Second interview with official: He's just saying that the ride will remain closed until futher notice.
 
Interesting to watch. It is very strange to actually see the train split and the two parts opposite each other! Lucky there were no injuries.
 
Figures that something like this would happen just before I make my first trip to Santiago. I took a few photos of the closed Boomerang the day I arrived and uploaded them to our Facebook page, but the post never appeared and I didn't notice until after seeing the latest post.
I spoke with two different park management people about the incident, but neither would comment other than explaining that there was a coupling failure and no one was seriously injured. They also do not know how long the coaster will be down.
 
What fascinates me most is that Vekoma supposedly inspected the roller coaster a few months prior without any incident.

This Boomerang opened in 1996. Not the oldest in the fleet, but still a 19 year old ride. I'd imagine there is some fundamental oversight in maintenance - but there has been wilder things in the roller coaster industry.
 
No reports yet of others closing. It is the off-season after all for many parks, which would mean they are already inspecting and tearing apart their rides for maintenance. This also gives time for investigation before worrying about a critical flaw in the other 49 boomerangs around the world.
 
^ it would be more than the boomerangs though surely? That train design is probably the most popular on the standard loopers too.

Regardless of that, I get the feeling Neil was being sarcastic ;)
 
I have seen a picture of the detachment and can offer some mechanical background to the affected parts and possible reasons for their failure

The cars on this particular model (MK1200 trains) are joined together on a swivel pin, or a King pin, that goes from one car into another. It is a fixed part of the car behind, that is inserted into an assembly of the car infront where a castle nut screws on to a short threaded section of the end of the pin, where it is torqued down and a split pin put through to safety it in place.

In this instance looking at the picture I had seen it would seem that the nut is completely missing from the swivel pin and thus nothing was holding it into the assembly of the car infront. Two safety cables are designed to keep the cars together in event of detachment but are more than likely useless in doing so over the years due to corrosion etc.

The reason for the nut to have come loose is an odd one indeed. Perhaps the nut wasnt safetied with a split pin (technical word cotter pin) therefore allowing the nut to come loose. These nuts are likely to be left slightly loose as over torque of the nut would cause excessive preload of the pin and added friction of the swivel - but it wouldn't come any loose then intended as it is safetied. These pins are likely overhauled on each major maintenance so it is not a question of deterioration over time. Or it is possible that due to wear over the years the swivel had an excessive amount of end float play that wasn't 'shimmed' out creating a situation where the nut is constantly being hammered each time the trains couplings shunt each other through loops and drops etc, something that can be felt when riding a well worn SLC for example. Another possibility is that the end of the pin that is threaded could have fractured in half completely, but looking st the substance of the material involved I would say that is highly unlikely - a material and design most similar to heavy vehicle HGV steered axles - but with that said the MK1200 train has suffered from material cracking of the bogies - unrelated to this incident but one worth remembering all the same.
 
Pokemaniac said:
Strange.

Whydo they wear neck braces for the interview, by the way? If I understood it correctly, the two sections of the train "valleyed" in different parts of the ride after separating. The rear of the train finished the ride and presumably stopped like normal, whereas the other must have been pendelling back and forth until coming to a rest at a brake-free section of track. The braces would have been a must if they had separated and both valleyed, as that would have involved a crash at relatively high speeds. But there would have been no unusual sudden stops for either of the passengers here, would it?

The only explanation I can imagine for them to be necessary, is if some riders unexpectedly turned their heads as the train continued through the narrow turns and twists in the cobra roll, or as the rear section of the train halted on the brakes.

Or, well, neck braces could be necessary anyway after a Vekoma Boomerang, accident or no accident.
Click to expand...

I'd have thought that the neck braces might have been needed because one half of the train would have stopped rather more abruptly than rolling back and forth until coming to rest. The trains on a Boomerang only have one set of wheels per connection. I'd assume that the rear of the train kept hold of the wheels at the front of that half of the train as it managed to get all the way back to the station. The other half would therefore be left no wheels at the "front" of the car, so the actual car itself would have fallen to the track and then been scraping along the track to a halt. That would probably explain the need for neck braces.

Edit: After looking at the video again, it looks like the front half of the train had already come to rest by the time the rear of the train has passed through the station before the final roll back down to the platform.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top