Carnival ride spins out of control

Post by **Zamperla** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:10 am

Carnival ride spins out of control
(Thursday, July 7, 2005) - At the Montcalm County 4-H Fair in
Greenville, Michigan, a carnival ride called the High Flyer was shut
down after an apparent electrical malfunction caused it to spin much
faster than its design speed. Witnesses say they saw the entire ride
structure wobble back and forth and some of them say that the ride
appeared to come off its support jacks. After unsuccessful attempts to
stop the ride using the electronic control system, carnival workers
were forced to cut off the ride's power supply which finally brought
the ride to a halt. Five people were taken to a local hospital as a
precaution; one of them suffered a sprained neck and others may have
suffered minor back and neck injuries.

The ride's owner, Skerbeck Brothers of Escanaba, Michigan, will
disassemble the ride and have it transported to the manufacturer,
A.R.M. Industries of Ohio, for inspection and maintenance.

LunaParkFanatic · Post by **LunaParkFanatic** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 1:37 pm

Wow...

That bad...

DareWing · Post by **DareWing** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 4:00 am

It would be in America if there wasn't a 'live report' ofcourse...

http://video.woodtv.com/vid.player.php?video_id=961

http://video.woodtv.com/vid.player.php?video_id=964

Quite unusual for a motor to run out of control (electrical or hydraulic). As an ingeneer i'm quite intrigued by it. I would be quite surprised if this can be blamed on lack of maintenance or an electrical short-circuit. First thing that I thought of was unstable current at the whole fair.
The risk of toppling the ride seems real. I can imagine that the riders experienced unbearable G-forces.

The opposite happened at Douai (FR) last week where riders were stuck after there was a power failure (I won't place a direct link but you can find a movie here where people were evacuated from a KMG Tango; http://board.themeparkvision.net/showthread.php?t=3414 press -bekijk de movie-)

princess · Post by **princess** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:34 am

Wow thanks darewing for that link, gives you the creeps, though I had to laugh at the extrodinary lengths carnival workers had to go to stop the ride, "they pulled the plug".

HUSSRAINBOW · Post by **HUSSRAINBOW** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:01 pm

Amazing to think we actually have one of these, the last time I saw it was at the St Kilda Festival in 2004. Quite scary! would have been bloody interesting to see, even though it was such a shocking incident!

Post by **Zamperla** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:46 pm

I had to laugh at the extrodinary lengths carnival workers had to go to stop the ride, "they pulled the plug"

Yes this aspect intruiged me too, as all rides are equiped with an 'emergency stop' which will generally cut all power to the ride motors in the rare instance they have to be used (not normally the preferred option of bringing a ride to a stop, usually a manual stop with the control pannel is done)

From the photo it seems the ride has a fairly high counterweight on it, which would certainly make a high speed possible)

Darewing, I didn't know you were an engineer, no wonder you find these incidents of particular interest - look forward to more 'diagnosis' from you.

Trav · Post by **Trav** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:30 pm

Woah! great links... just imagine if something like this happend on a ride like the Zipper!!

the forces must of been unbelievable. Probably a once in a lifetime experience, or an experience that you would rather miss.

It is cool to hear no one was fatally injured (at least so far). Seems it was stopped just in time. Bloody lucky for everyone involved I say!

Hey there Huss, good to see you are back. don't leave us man

I think the "Top Gun" is what Huss was talking about (am I correct?). I rode it last at St Kilda fest, way back 2004. I just hope it is not a major problem with these particular rides.. I know I would hate to have been riding while this happened.

scary

DareWing · Post by **DareWing** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:30 pm

I had to laugh at the extrodinary lengths carnival workers had to go to stop the ride, "they pulled the plug"

Yes 10 minutes is unusually long to find the most obvious solution

I can imagine that 'browsing the manual' is stressing in that situation. However, some types of hydraulic engines would 'stay as it is' if you pull the plug (Top Scan, etc). Some hydraulic Huss Rangers for example are able to turn -90° counterclockwise to 180° in one movement, stop, and start moving clockwise again (I said 'some' because this won't work if the gearbox is worn)

I also doubt if the true reason will be publically revealed. It is in ARM's own advantage that;
* ARM has reliable rides
* the owner has good maintenance
* the fair is not to blame
* the insurance pays
(not that I blame them for it, I'm not holier than the pope, it's exactly what I would do)

Post by **Mattie** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:06 pm

Very interesting. One would have to say it was a UNIQUE ride for the riders when the fault occured. A once in a life time experience.

From what I could tell, is this a one armed Kamikaze ride? If it is, lets hope the over-the-head restraints are better then our Kamikaze, which does not hold me in my seat.

Trav, trust you to add such an effect to the Zipper.

Trav · Post by **Trav** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:12 pm

Mattie wrote:Very interesting. One would have to say it was a UNIQUE ride for the riders when the fault occured. A once in a life time experience.

From what I could tell, is this a one armed Kamikaze ride? If it is, lets hope the over-the-head restraints are better then our Kamikaze, which does not hold me in my seat.

Trav, trust you to add such an effect to the Zipper.

I just couldn't help myself Mattie

Post by **Zamperla** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:20 pm

It is similar to, but not identical to the Fabbri Kamikaze.

katestow77 · Post by **katestow77** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:07 pm

i was told of an incident some were in Australia around may june 2006 is any one aware of this

i am in just wondering as my cousin is doing a school assignment of the day and life of a show worker and her tafe teacher wanted to know of any incidents that affect Australia.

Top Gunner14 · Post by **Top Gunner14** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:17 am

I've got a website here with a couple of photos:

here r 2 images. These are old though. It's been re-painted but i'll post some later on

Top Gunner13 · Post by **Top Gunner13** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:19 pm

too bad too see the ride shut down

HUSSRAINBOW · Post by **HUSSRAINBOW** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:33 pm

those pix dont work...

katestow77 · Post by **katestow77** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 11:05 pm

those pixs haven worked in quite some time any chance u can up date this link and also is it the incident were a kid was killed i read it on this site that it happened around easter??? but im not shaw of wat year and was it an occy ride????

HUSSRAINBOW · Post by **HUSSRAINBOW** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 2:12 am

are they mine from st kilda festival??

Top Gunner14 · Post by **Top Gunner14** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 6:19 pm

No Chris, these r from forters amusements website. I'll b gettin' my own fotos soon. I've put the tags on either side of the link and everything else, but they still aren't workin'. It's startin to annoy me!!!

katestow77 · Post by **katestow77** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 6:56 pm

if you really want to see a picture of this ride(high flyer) then go and look up www.rideaccidents.com and look up the arcive of the accicedent july 7 2005 and u will see a picture of it

Top Gunner14 · Post by **Top Gunner14** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 7:09 pm

I'll just create the link again 2 c the pics

katestow77 · Post by **katestow77** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:13 am

(Saturday, August 4, 2007) - A 48-year-old man and his 21-year-old son were killed when an amusement ride car broke off a ride at a carnival in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. The ride, called the Booster, consists of a giant arm with two four-passenger cars at each end. The arm revolves vertically around an axis and reaches speeds of up to 55 miles per hour. The victims' car detached and slammed into the ground. Two other people who were in the car were seriously injured.
The second car was carrying two riders, both of whom were uninjured. They were left stranded 118 feet above the ground for six hours until rescue workers were able to free them by cutting through the ride's safety bars.

The ride passed a recent inspection.

Police are investigating.
and i thought american would be more strict but seems i was so wrong

DareWing · Post by **DareWing** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:29 am

Top Gunner14 · Post by **Top Gunner14** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:25 am

Wow, thats bad

Those boosters are made by fabbri and their rides are usually really safe and reliable. That's sad 2 hear bout the people dieing. I hope that never happens to speed!

princess · Post by **princess** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:13 am

Can we change the subject

kosse's amusement · Post by **kosse's amusement** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:35 pm

have u guys bean on spaceball it is mean as thats wat i call a spining ride