...And more amazingly, how was this video obtained?

DAMN!

The video has already been removed by the user!

But is this a surprise to anyone AT ALL? LOL

***EDIT***

The video can be found here on NBC Los Angeles.

* This Post Has Been Modified *

> ...And more amazingly, how was this video obtained?

I'm guessing there's an on-ride video camera where you can buy your videos after you ride. Volcano at KD has one.

After watching that video I will say that those two were lucky that they weren't seriously injured. You can clearly see debris at the end of the launch and when they start to rollback.

All I can say is whoa! I'd hate to imagine debris from KK or would that be about the same as this?

> All I can say is whoa! I'd hate to imagine debris from KK
> or would that be about the same as this?

Well it already happened once several years ago on TTD. Here's the news article on that accident.

And KK launched an empty train once and it practically exploded.

Yikes!
And thanks for the link.

You'd think they would come up with some sort of shield that would effectively cover the cable in case it would snap like that. Given that it's happened on several occurrences, wouldn't it seem logical?

> You'd think they would come up with some sort of shield
> that would effectively cover the cable in case it would
> snap like that. Given that it's happened on several
> occurrences, wouldn't it seem logical?

Yes. That's what I've thought ever since the TTD incident. I think it's crazy that they wouldn't have had guards anyways before the cables started snapping. It's crazy. Yes, the guard would have to be very strong, and would probably get damaged each time a snap would occur, it would protect the riders.

Oh well, maybe they have their reasons.

-Josh

Who says there aren't any guards? It would be impossible to create a housing that is completely enclosed because something has to come into contact with the train.

If a cable snaps at this speed its conceivable that pieces of it would be sent into all directions and some might escape from the protective housing. The video shows pieces of something flying around, not the entire cable.

Wow!! Well, for all of you wondering why there isn't something to shield riders from this, one word...INTAMIN!!! That seems to be the obvious answer lately.

What I'm more curious about is how the park allowed the onride video to get out. You'd think that the video censors would be trained to erase videos with obscene gestures, nudity, and/or guests being pelted by shards of flying cable in them, wouldn't you?

Paul

PS Volcano "used to" have on-ride video system. They and Dorney scrapped the idea after the one season experiment. I thought all of Cedar Fair had gave up on it, but apparently Knotts still has it.

* This Post Has Been Modified *

> Who says there aren't any guards? It would be impossible to
> create a housing that is completely enclosed because
> something has to come into contact with the train.

Fair enough. It would be interesting to hear from someone more knowledgeable on Intamin's rockets and their respective safety features.

> PS Volcano "used to" have on-ride video system.
> They and Dorney scrapped the idea after the one season
> experiment. I thought all of Cedar Fair had gave up on it,
> but apparently Knotts still has it.

Raptor still has it (at CP - a CF park).
Someone posted a video here about a week ago.

> I thought all of Cedar Fair had gave up on it,
> but apparently Knotts still has it.

> Raptor still has it (at CP - a CF park).

On second thought, when we rode Raptor just last weekend, I didn't even notice if the video cameras were still there (nor did we look at our on-ride images on the way out).

> Fair enough. It would be interesting to hear from someone
> more knowledgeable on Intamin's rockets and their
> respective safety features.

The cable is somewhat enclosed within the track and attaches to the catch car that rides on top of the track from the underside. I don't know any more specifics.

I do agree with your original observation that you would think it would be more protected. However, wire ropes of this nature shouldn't snap.

It's a shame, because I suspect that this ride is going to get murdered by the state of California and their state inspection process.

It happened Friday, and the video was apparently leaked by an employee from the camera footage they use to make onride DVD's. Knott's tried to put a stop to it, but once it hit Youtube it was all over the net. You can find it easy enough there with a quick search.

It's interesting to note that while Ka had the one incident, how many have Cedar Fair parks had? Two on Top Thrill, at least 2 on Millenium Force, and now this one. It's almost starting to make me wonder is this as much Cedar Fair as it is Intamin, or what the deal is.

I wonder if they are going to file charges against the employee for leaking that vid?

Hem interesting point, but it could still be just a coincidence about it being at just the CF parks.

I too wonder why they did not make a more enclosing catch car gutter. Because on the hydraulic launch systems Intamin is producing, there is only really a roof directly on top of the launch cables, but nothing really covering anymore than that. Now obviously you can't cover everything like others have stated. But the launch dog is no more than 3 inches wide. You could be enclosing that space much more than it is now. Sure if they were to snap, shards would most likely come out, but to only have about a 3 inch gap down the track would at least help. Look at air craft carriers, that gap is way small. Not to get too technical or nerdy here, lol. If there is one mechanism, or system I would pick to deal with in one way or another for the rest of my life, it would so be Intamins hydraulic launch setup, or a steam catapult. :-D

I just hope people don't force knotts and other parks to put some big 3ft. tall wind shield on the coasters. I just figure there has to be a better way.

This incident happened on Wednesday at around 4:00 pm.

The issues on Millennium Force do not count. It's an entirely different ride and the way they use the cable is different. Also, it should be noted that chains on lift hills also break. It's not just cables.

* This Post Has Been Modified *

> It's a shame, because I suspect that this ride is going to
> get murdered by the state of California and their state
> inspection process.

No kidding. It's my favorite ride in the park.

> It happened Friday, and the video was apparently leaked by
> an employee from the camera footage they use to make onride
> DVD's. Knott's tried to put a stop to it, but once it hit
> Youtube it was all over the net. You can find it easy
> enough there with a quick search.

> It's interesting to note that while Ka had the one
> incident, how many have Cedar Fair parks had? Two on Top
> Thrill, at least 2 on Millenium Force, and now this one.
> It's almost starting to make me wonder is this as much
> Cedar Fair as it is Intamin, or what the deal is.

Well, to be fair, I think that outside of the ones mentioned above the only other Intamin accelerator coaster in the US is Storm Runner, so it's simply be default that CF has the majority of these coasters in the US. I'm not aware of any incidents with the ones overseas, but I've also gotta imagine why most launches now will be LIMs or LSMs.

> Well, to be fair, I think that outside of the ones
> mentioned above the only other Intamin accelerator coaster
> in the US is Storm Runner, so it's simply be default that
> CF has the majority of these coasters in the US. I'm not
> aware of any incidents with the ones overseas, but I've
> also gotta imagine why most launches now will be LIMs or
> LSMs.

I don't think that is a fair arguement.

Cedar Fair has two of these types of coasters, Hershey has one, and SFGAdv has one.

Unless I missed one somewhere else, Cedar Fair only has one more than the SF chain (comparing apples to apples, Hershey isn't a chain).

Although a different ride system, the Intamin Giant Drop at SFKK had a cable snap and we all know what happened with that.

I think the issue falls squarely on Intamin.

Joe
Great_Ump

> Well, to be fair, I think that outside of the ones
> mentioned above the only other Intamin accelerator coaster
> in the US is Storm Runner, so it's simply be default that
> CF has the majority of these coasters in the US. I'm not
> aware of any incidents with the ones overseas, but I've
> also gotta imagine why most launches now will be LIMs or
> LSMs.

> I don't think that is a fair arguement.

> Cedar Fair has two of these types of coasters, Hershey has
> one, and SFGAdv has one.

> Unless I missed one somewhere else, Cedar Fair only has one
> more than the SF chain (comparing apples to apples, Hershey
> isn't a chain).

> Although a different ride system, the Intamin Giant Drop at
> SFKK had a cable snap and we all know what happened with
> that.

> I think the issue falls squarely on Intamin.

> Joe
> Great_Ump

I'm definitely not trying to defend either CF or Intamin. I simply think that CF has been the focal point for these incidents recently, especially in light of the MF situation earlier this year and now Xcelerator. What is it they say on ESPN?: "once is a fluke, twice is a trend, three is a problem."

Some pics were just posted on Screamscape....

YIKES!

Something practically sliced the front car in half. Those two are really lucky!

> Some pics were just posted on Screamscape....
>

Might have been interesting to actually SEE those photos...

403 Forbidden - You don't have permission to access
assets/images/db_images/db_2009_0916_XceleratorAccident11.jpg

There ya go Rob. I was able to see them on Screamscape, but in case they get pulled, I was able to save them and host it to Image Shack so they won't get lost.

If your involved in something like this does the park try and "take care" of you?

I hope to hell they did...cause if they say well this happens sometimes bit I dont' buy it.

They have insurance for accidents like this and thank god that kid didn't get even more injured then he did, that was some serious damage.

Thanks Katie - maybe it's because I don't have a screamscape login.
Whatever reason... it does look like the car got sliced in half.

Where was it posted that the car got sliced in half? I want to see who actually said/reported that.

The front of the car or at least the facade of the car got sliced in half. It is in the picture. Not sure who said it first or not, but it's clear that it did.

> Where was it posted that the car got sliced in half? I want
> to see who actually said/reported that.

Junebugg said "Something practically sliced the front car in half" in the post with the photo links. Once I saw the photo's I said "it does look like the car got sliced in half".

Yes, I see now. On other sites some where claiming that it split the frame of the car, but I didn't believe that. The cable has power, but that's stretching it.

The front of the vehicle is fiberglass and it appears that the cable came up from beneath the vehicle and broke the front.