Dragon Challenge (Duelling Dragons) No Longer Duelling

[Hyde]

Hmm, and he's taking prisoners? Of Azkaban? I like it!

Exactly! Scratch the Nazis, and replace them with Death Eaters! Tell the truth or suffer the Kiss of Death!

 

[Venom2053]

It sucks. I've ridden it once with only one train running and it was good. But the last time i rode it both trains were duelling and it makes the ride 10x better. I think netting/plexiglass would ruin the feel of the near collisions. I think they made the right move, but they should start duelling again once this clears up.

 

[D1993]

Easy... Voldemort is ALIVE!!!

LOL I love it!
They should so do that!

 

[Ethan]

Wouldn't it be weird is IoA was reading this and they liked what they were seeing

 

[Mark9]

Hmm.. that is the only reason the rides are any good.. and they stop doing it because of a small incident? Meh. Very very meh.

Two people have been injured, one seriously blinded. I know that thousands of people ride the Dragons every year and two people is a small number. But two people hurt, one that will change the rest of their lives, is not a minor incident.

 

[Lfisher92]

Thats why they went off at seperate times then. It totally ruins the mood of the ride when its just the one. Especially when I'd been on Montu the previous day.

 

[Ollie]

^So were they going separately when you went on it? I was lucky I rode it when I did. Although the duelling didn't really add to it much.

 

[Lfisher92]

^So were they going separately when you went on it? I was lucky I rode it when I did. Although the duelling didn't really add to it much.

We chose blue, and as we got on the ride started moving out I looked and the red one and it wasn't coming out so I suppose, they now have them like 30 secs apart or whatever so you don't come close. But it would of been a joke if they had done this while it was " duelling dragons".

 

[reddude333]

^Still kinda dumb with the name Dragon Challenge. Not much of a challenge anymore...

 

[Martyn B]

This is NOT confirmed (has been mentioned on a another forum) yet, but *apparently* the coasters are never to duel again, ever.

 

[walker1104]

^ Seems like it is true. Apparently it's been on the local news over there.

Here's a report on it from Orlando Sentinel: click

 

[reddude333]

It really is a shame that this whole set of events had to occur. Although with serious injury, comes serious consequence. Just wish I could have gotten a ride on it before this all happened.

 

[D1993]

stupid idiot people who thought it'd be funny to throw things at other riders.
Its so sad that they have to stop them duelling, but the coasters will still be great.

 

[reddude333]

^Technically we don't know. It could have just been as simple as a loose item that fell out of someone's pocket or hand...

 

[SaiyanHajime]

The park is blaming the accident on something instead of just admitting it was a freak accident that could, in theory, happen on any ride.

The fact that it duels is IRRELEVANT. It is more likely that the object came from the same train. Do we even KNOW what the object was? Perhaps it was a bird, large insect... Who knows.

It reminds me an awful lot of Cedar Point's single train operation in the rain. Magnum had a collision that happened to be when it was raining, blame the rain! Forget the fact that the EXACT SAME ACCIDENT happened on other coasters of the same model.

Eugh.

I can understand to a degree making this crap up to keep the media happy, but the fact that Cedar Point actually makes a full blown policy out of it that they have kept in place for years is just... well, stupid. Really stupid. It's like they've genuinely convinced themselves that it was the cause for the accident.

Freak accidents happen. Accidents like an object hitting a rider CANNOT BE AVOIDED.

 

[Ian]

Freak accidents happen. Accidents like an object hitting a rider CANNOT BE AVOIDED.

You're right, they can't be avoided but they can be prevented.

Nobody can prevent a dickhead numpty from chucking something at a moving train but in the manner which this coaster duels, surely the chance of an object (shoe, unsecured wallet, phone, etc.) coming loose from an opposing train and hitting the other is increased. Maybe a risk assessment (ergh!) came to the same conclusion.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see DD duel as that's how they're intended to be but I'd imagine the accident probability lowers if they don't duel.

 

[gavin]

I haven't ridden them, but common opinion seems to be that the duelling aspect is pretty much the only interesting feature of these rides.

Take that away and you're left with two very mediocre coasters.

 

[nadroJ]

This is really, really gutting. You know my topic about how much you care about theme parks? It's things like this that really get me =[

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Freak accidents happen. Accidents like an object hitting a rider CANNOT BE AVOIDED.

You're right, they can't be avoided but they can be prevented.

Nobody can prevent a dickhead numpty from chucking something at a moving train but in the manner which this coaster duels, surely the chance of an object (shoe, unsecured wallet, phone, etc.) coming loose from an opposing train and hitting the other is increased. Maybe a risk assessment (ergh!) came to the same conclusion.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see DD duel as that's how they're intended to be but I'd imagine the accident probability lowers if they don't duel.

It most certainly increases the chance, but only the first accident here was actually one of concern. One freak accident. What would have happened had it been on a regular single coaster? Nothing? The second accident was just people complaining, they reported some blood but were in no pain.

I bet tonnes of people get struck by objects on rides, every day. I bet quite a few get cuts, bruises, scratches, etc. I bet barely any complain because, what is there to complain about?

What pisses me off the most is that if this really was a concern, that new duelling Vekoma in Singapore would stop duelling too. But they won't, the same as Cedar Fair don't employ their rain policy across all their parks. The same as Merlin don't employ the no jumpers around waist policy across all their parks. (If they even still have this policy?)

It's insulting, frankly, to blame an accident like this on something controllable when it's just an unavoidable fact of any open air vehicle that moves at speed that a passenger could get struck by an object. Insulting to people's intelligence and insulting to those who were injured.

WRGHETADHTSEGHES.

 

[michaellll]

If they really can't see themselves running them in tandem in the current state, why don't they put up some kind of net/wall between the loops? It wouldn't be ideal, but wouldn't it be better than simply running each by themselves?

DD is so dull when not dueling. Not just the loop, but the airtime hill/zero g is terrible without the interaction.