Attraction Wave Breaker: The Rescue Coaster

[Mr. Porkchop]

Here is a look back at a Wave Breaker incident that occurred in 2020. After going over the second launch, a train stopped at the tallest point of the coaster. The train was stranded for 4.5 hours and the riders had to be rescued by firefighters.

Here is a video of the full incident from one of the riders that was on the train:

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After tieing down the train, the firefighters removed some of the riders from the train that were sitting towards the back. The remaining riders were not able to be reached by the firefighters due to the distance in between the rest of the train and the ladders. A firefighter attached wire rope to the front of the train so it could be slowly lowered down the hill backwards towards the launch. When the train was close to the end of the hill, the wire rope either snapped or got unhooked from the train, resulting in it quickly going down the hill. Thankfully, the drive tires correctly stopped the train and the riders safely got off with no reported injuries. According to a Reddit post from a rider on the train, half of the park was closed for the rest of the day and the riders got free Platinum Passes. The poster also mentioned that they were told that an investigation would be done. I'm not able to find the result of the investigation, but I assume the causes were the launch not receiving enough power and how the train was balanced. It is important to note that the conditions had to be perfect for this incident to occur, and it is unlikely that it will happen again.

A cement pad was added after the incident to make evacuations easier:

Photo Source: Theme Parks In Review's YouTube Video

Here is drone video of the rescue from KENS 5:

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[Mushroom]

Really interesting, thanks for sharing. Silly question, but why couldn’t the firefighters have just pushed the train either forward or backward down the hill in the first place, like when TTD would get stuck on the top hat?

 

[Mr. Porkchop]

Really interesting, thanks for sharing. Silly question, but why couldn’t the firefighters have just pushed the train either forward or backward down the hill in the first place, like when TTD would get stuck on the top hat?

Here is what the Reddit poster that was on the train commented:


If this happens again, hopefully the firefighters will push the train down the hill initially.