Re: Wanda Hefei | Unknown | Intamin Launched Semi-Shuttle
We do hear about accidents. A few flat rides have had them and have made the news in the west.
Even if they didn't make the mainstream media, which they would based on the flat ride reporting, they'd make the coaster sites, so at least we would hear about it. A video of a frisbee ride breaking did the rounds via YouTube/Facebook etc. recently, so to assume that we'd never hear about a coaster accident is naive.
We did hear about a car detaching itself from a Hebei Zhongye looper a while back, even though nobody was injured, so of course we would hear about anything more serious. This idea that some people seem to have that China is some sort of black hole when it comes to news is just totally inaccurate. Yes, the press there is government controlled, but it's used to prevent political stories; they don't block basic news stories about accidents. Plus, everyone has smartphones and internet access; it's not North Korea.
The safety standards for testing new coasters in China are very rigorous. It's not "anecdotal" on my part, M&V/Gravity Group have said as much. Since they make coasters in China, I think they'd know.
Health and safety in China with regards to staff training and maintenance is a different thing entirely. Once the coasters are handed over, that's out of the manufacturers' hands. There will be an accident at some point; statistically, there has to be. When that happens, every coaster "expert" on forums like these will be screaming "CHINESE KNOCKOFF!!!!!" when the truth is that it will invariably be down to maintenance issues or operator error, exactly like it is with pretty much every coaster accident in the west.
Whenever there has been an accident, it's taken extremely seriously. A brand new park had an incident on opening day where people fell from a booster ride. This was entirely down to operator error, not the ride itself. Not only was the ride closed down, but the entire park was, and seems unlikely to reopen for a very long time, if at all.
Back to this coaster though. If it does turn out to be a Chinese knockoff, I hope it IS from Golden Horse, though to be honest, I'm doubtful. They tend to knockoff coasters that they have had direct access to, copying them exactly, and I'm not sure that they would've had access to the only current tilt coaster.
The other manufacturers don't seem to reverse-engineer to the same extent - they copy coasters that they couldn't have had direct access to, and/or design their own layouts - so the results are a lot less consistent than Golden Horse.
I'm not defending these companies in terms of producing quality rides because they're not. They're mostly pretty awful, but usually no worse than poor examples of the originals. A newer knockoff loopscrew will ride better than an older Vekoma/Arrow, for example, but they're still a crap ride type. You have to remember that they're knocking off ride types that generally don't get a lot of love in the first place.
I'm just showing the other side to the the whole "dangerous" argument because it's lazy and misinformed; there's absolutely zero evidence that they are, and we absolutely would have heard about any accidents.
