News Shivering Timbers Station Collision Results in Derailment

[Zachary]

Excuse me, what the fuck

And to be clear, according to the person who posted this photo originally to Facebook, guests were onboard.

 

[Gavin]

Code 2 Grapefruit

 

[b.mac]

For a hot second I thought this was just a reposted picture of Boulder Dash and the person who experienced this was exaggerating things...

And then I saw the red uniform on the team member, and then I saw the maintenance person with Michigan's Adventure stitched on his uniform.

 

[zachclarke]

Walking the length of the ride in the parking lot now and I can hear them hammering wood in the station. An op walking into the line told me it "probably wouldn't be opening today."

Pretty enormous bummer since this was the only ride I was looking forward to at this park. Probably the worst 'big' park I've ever been to so I doubt I'll be back here to ride it. Oh well.

Edit: here's the original post with more photos.

 

[RollyCoaster]

For better or for worse, parks should just stay closed tomorrow to break the trend

 

[I305Evan]

Reading through the Facebook comments. This sounds like it could have been maintenance/ operator error. According to the rider, the train sat on the final brake run for about 10 minutes before "maintenance instructed the operator to pull us into the station".

 

[ControlsEE]

Reading through the Facebook comments. This sounds like it could have been maintenance/ operator error. According to the rider, the train sat on the final brake run for about 10 minutes before "maintenance instructed the operator to pull us into the station".

Still, you shouldn't be able to pull the train into the station if it is currently occupied, even in maintenance mode.

 

[Gavin]

Spoiler: On some rides you can, Volcano would allow this and has had both trains collide at low speed with nobody on board.

 

[ControlsEE]

Spoiler: On some rides you can, Volcano would allow this and has had both trains collide at low speed with nobody on board.

Yeah, but you shouldn't be able to. That's how Smiler accidents occur.

In my line if work, I liken these incidents to cross-contamination. In the Food processing industry, it's a big no-no. That's why I go to extraordinary lengths to ensure there is no way to accidentally cross contaminate, whether by a bug in the code, or by operator intervention. All of the conveyors have a hard coded "cleanout" timer which forces the conveyors to run, without product getting added to them, for a set length of time, so no two products are accidentally mixed. It is worth noting that in these cases, they are not concerned with allergens or requirements to clean/disinfect since these are after any allergens have been added and cannot be treated as allergy-free.

 

[b.mac]

With the B&Ms I have worked you had to have a visual confirmation that the block was clear before you could reset the block in maintenance mode. This was the tripping point with the Smiler incident, that the block *was* clear, but the maintenance personnel who were resetting the ride didn't check to see that the train had saddled between block points.

This is just... incompetence of the textbook variety.

 

[panopticon31]

Pretty sure i saw a trip report on r/Rollercoasters just last week and they were talking about how awful the MA operations were.......so I am not surprised.

 

[I305Evan]

I'd also like to point that brakes can be released by messing with the air lines. Basically they do not need input from a control system. Smart operations would be to evacuate the riders before doing anything like that - especially with multiple trains on the track. Not saying that was what happened here, but each brake can be manipulated independently.

 

[ControlsEE]

I'd also like to point that brakes can be released by messing with the air lines. Basically they do not need input from a control system. Smart operations would be to evacuate the riders before doing anything like that - especially with multiple trains on the track. Not saying that was what happened here, but each brake can be manipulated independently.

Yes, however you would have to physically go to each brake in order to apply air (for safety, they require air to open) pressure to get each one to open. In this case, it sounds like you can clear a block and move trains manually regardless if there actually is a train there or not.

 

[zachclarke]

Just watched a Mad Mouse car coast through the final brake run and collide with the stacked cars after maintenance took control of it (to release a car that stopped midride). Evidently this is a recurring issue at this park.