As much as this ride has always been something that I wanted to ride, I fear it is too late. I think that it will be removed, or at least greatly altered. Here is why:
1. It has had mechanical issues since opening, the vertical lift breaks down often and it has a lot of downtime.
2. When the coaster is empty, it often comes very close to stalling in several inversions.
right at 40 seconds:
It has valleyed in the same spot before and they had to disassemble the train to recover it. I don't understand how that passes by any standard for ride design, especially on a non launched coaster. Could they really not just lower the inversion a few feet or raise the lift? Either way this is one of the fundamental problems with the ride.
3. Something stinks. This is the third incident that indicates poor craftsmanship or maintenance. Before this guide wheels had fallen off and a piece of track had fallen off(some places say it was a bolt, others seem to indicate one of the cross members came loose). There is something that isnt right about this ride. I don't know enough to put the blame on one party or the other, but at this point I think it is mostly manufacturer defect combined with poor decision making on the part of the park.
4.Lastly I am not sure where the blocks are, but assuming that brakes on the small bunny hop just before the offending element are just trims, the only prior block is the lift. To elaborate: This happened because a train was released from the lift while the track ahead was not clear. Most modern coasters are made to automatically stop trains from proceeding until they get the all clear(for you BGW fans watch how Apollo's blocks stop the third train hard at the first block automatically when there are 2 at the station already). While the ride ops could have something to do with this, in the modern day, there is no reason to leave the safety of your guests to some teen when you can hard code it into the ride's software. Had the ride been given such a safety lock, or had it been functioning properly, this would not have happened.
Perhaps they will alter the inversions to allow safer operations, but I don't see that as very likely. only time will tell...
