Rita's Launch Cable Snaps
- Thread starter Mike
- Start date
Martyn B
CF Legend
Hixee said:
No, but surely the biggest factor for a cable like this snapping must be down to excessive use/poor maintenance?
I'm not saying thats what happened, as it could have been anything (something falling into the trough could probably cause some bad damage), but poor maintenance has to be the most likely factor?
_koppen
Hyper Poster
I have no idea what happened here on Rita, but I do know that when it happened on Xcelerator, Intamin changed the inspection checks so that the park would have to do it more often, and shortened the life span recommendations on the launch cables so that this thing would not happen again.
Tom G said:
I'm still waiting for anyone to present evidence of this. If you're going to accuse a park of putting the lives of their guests at risk, you had better do it with some evidence to back you up.
That video above shows two things:
1) A large personally injury claim and lawsuit against the park
2) A major ride closed while a H&S investigation is put in place to determine the cause and chance of it happening again (look at Tomb Blaster).
Why would a park risk that? They may have done, nobody is saying they are definitely innocent, just that you shouldn't accuse people of negligence on a public forum without proof.
We know that everyone is aware of the issue with the cables and we know Intamin have produced a tighter maintenance schedule which the park needs to adhere to otherwise they have no come back on Intamin if there is a fault that develops.
Hixee is also right about the cables being different to those on say, the Humber bridge. What is the life span on one of those cables? 20 years? 30? 40? The Intamin cables have a 1 year life span, that's a tiny amount of time for a piece of metal under daily heavy strain that includes wrapping and pulling. It's like saying that the reason you get through 10 hamsters in 40 years is due to bad rodent care, rather than the fact that the things have a very short lifespan.
Anyway, I think Nic summed it up perfectly.
owen[b:wzhbijvr]RITA[/b]121 said:
It's the name that gives it away...
furie said:
Incredible example! I laughed my bottom off.
When I first read about this, I didn't think it's the parks fault, nor did I think that things like this 'just happen'. I was shocked however that this has happened again, and surprised that a ride type with this obvious issue is allowed to exist. This might sound extreme but it was my initial thought, so I kind of placed the blame with the design, as it does seem to be a big safety issue.
I read somewhere that for the size of cable required for these things to work, they use the strongest cable known to man, and even still these things happen. I now prefer LIM's and LSM's
T0M
Hyper Poster
OK I need to soften my line a little. Anything is possible, so perhaps I shouldn't have been as definitive as to say they didn't do this or that, but I still cannot realistically see it as being anything that couldn't have been picked up through simple checks. It's either that or they've ran it for too long and corrosion/brittleness has come into play.
In a nutshell, a rope (effectively what it is) frays before it breaks. The cable is virtually incapable of deteriorating in such a rapid manner through wear and tear which would cause it to fail between daily checks.
Freak internal manufacturing defect or sabotage are the only other possibilities I can see - and they seem extremely unlikely to me. Either way, blame lies somewhere, be it the park, fabricators or Intamin.
In a nutshell, a rope (effectively what it is) frays before it breaks. The cable is virtually incapable of deteriorating in such a rapid manner through wear and tear which would cause it to fail between daily checks.
Freak internal manufacturing defect or sabotage are the only other possibilities I can see - and they seem extremely unlikely to me. Either way, blame lies somewhere, be it the park, fabricators or Intamin.
T0M
Hyper Poster
furie said:Haha! Okay, thanks for reining in a little
Unfortunately it's metal, which can become brittle without fraying. You could bend a piece of string forever and it will never break, but try doing that with a paper clip for five minutes
Indeed, but the least they should do after this is reduce the time between changeouts.
Call me sadistic (although I hope no one is hurt), but I can't wait until there's a failure of some kind on Thirteen's drop.
T0M
Hyper Poster
furie said:
Have an investigation. If it was replaced last week then you go back to the manufacturers and ask them what the hell went wrong. If it was a year ago, it obviously can't realistically last that long, so knock a few months off. That's how a lot of mechanical inspection schedules are determined in other industries, so I don't see the problem.
Thirteen, yeeeah
ParkLogic_Chris
Roller Poster
What's the most likely fail on Th13teen if it goes wrong? Brake fail, drop section fail (relying on those tiny emergency brakes) or a derail from the sensors failing and the floor track section not raising? killing everyone....morbid and pretty much impossible haha.
Swarm has shed a bolt today too...all they need is Legoland to do something now and they'll have a full house.
Swarm has shed a bolt today too...all they need is Legoland to do something now and they'll have a full house.
It's a mess in Dark Forest now. Blue fencing all around the area and to get the rides they're directing you through the arcade.
It's stupid, it really is. Everyone knows that the cables snap. Everyone knows that when they nap, they really go. They've obviously just realised a picnic area and path under the launch run is a bad idea. Surely it was always a bad idea? As an enthusiast, you kind of always think "they must have thought of this and the channel is capable of holding a snapped cable".
So, I can see some major changes to Dark Forest coming in the off season.
It's stupid, it really is. Everyone knows that the cables snap. Everyone knows that when they nap, they really go. They've obviously just realised a picnic area and path under the launch run is a bad idea. Surely it was always a bad idea? As an enthusiast, you kind of always think "they must have thought of this and the channel is capable of holding a snapped cable".
So, I can see some major changes to Dark Forest coming in the off season.
Nemesis Inferno
Strata Poster
furie said:
Please be removing Rita, please be removing Rita, etc.