NEWS: Four hurt in Dorney Park flume ride mishap
Sandy A. Nicolaysen
Monday, May 17, 2004
From staff reports
S. WHITEHALL TWP. -- Four people suffered minor injuries Sunday during
an "incident" on the Thunder Creek Mountain log flume ride at Dorney
Park & Wildwater Kingdom, a park spokesman said.
While the spokesman confirmed four people were injured, he did not say
what happened.
"I don't have that information right now," said Chris Ozimek, the
park's public relations manager. "It's still under investigation."
The park was closed to the public Sunday and had been rented out for a
private event, another spokesman said.
Ozimek said the four guests were on Thunder Creek Mountain about 4:20
p.m. when the incident occurred.
He said the four guests were removed from the ride and examined by
Dorney Park emergency medical technicians. The guests were then taken
to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township for treatment of minor
injuries, Ozimek said.
Thunder Creek Mountain was closed for the remainder of the day and
will not reopen until the incident is fully reviewed by park staff.
Under state law, the ride cannot reopen until it has been inspected by
a Pennsylvania state ride inspector.
Thunder Creek Mountain is one of the more popular rides at the park
and takes passengers on a cruise through natural landscape before
"ending with a big splash," according to the park Web site.
The ride was built into the natural hillside of the park and was the
longest in-ground flume ride in the country when it was built in 1982.
Dave Althoff Jr
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b6_5dorneymay18,0,358789.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed
From The Morning Call
Dorney Park log riders forced to jump ship
Mechanical faults shut down water flume until park management and state
can inspect.
By Angela Pomponio
Of The Morning Call
May 18, 2004
A Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom water ride is being inspected
after a log flume stopped Sunday at the ride's peak and several panicked
riders scrambled out of their seats.
Park spokesman Chris Ozimek wouldn't discuss details, but said ''the
minor incident'' will be thoroughly investigated by management and
inspectors with the state Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Rides and
Attractions.
Sheila Clever of Wescosville said she and her 13-year-old daughter,
Sarabeth, were bracing for the final plunge down Thunder Creek Mountain's
overhang when a small mechanical arm popped out in front of their log car.
The flume, which is built into South Whitehall Township's natural
hillside, winds around a curve and levels off before a 120-foot descent
into a basin.
''I said, 'That's interesting, I've never seen that before,' and my log
stopped,'' said Clever, who was taking the 4:20 p.m. incident in stride
Monday. ''I was sitting there thinking something needs to happen.''
That's when another log carrying a man rounded the curve and butted their
log. The man's log quickly filled with water as a park employee helped
everyone bail out of the two carts, which later made their way over the edge.
Clever thought the mishap was over until a third log came along and then
another. Panic broke out when the riders glanced over at people standing
on the hillside, Clever said.
''All of them just jumped out as soon as they saw us standing there. It
looked like a bunch of ants as soon as you stamp on an anthill,'' she
said. ''They were scared before they saw anything bad happen. I probably
would have had the same reaction.''
Clever, her daughter and other riders who bailed out were eventually led
down a staircase to the ground by park employees.
Clever and her daughter were not injured, but four unidentified riders,
including two girls, were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury
Township as a precaution.
The park was open Sunday only to Girl Scouts and their families from
across the state.
Ozimek said the ride, which was shut down for the remainder of the day,
will not reopen until a state-required inspection.
angela....@mcall.com
610-820-6790
Copyright B) 2004, The Morning Call
--
/X\ _ _ _*** Now Open Every Day!!! ***
/XXX\ /X\ /X\_ _ /X\__ _ _ _____
/XXXXX\ /XXX\ _/XXXX\_ /X\ /XXXXX\ /X\ /X\ /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX
Dave Althoff Jr
the ride's safety system did exactly what it was supposed to do. It
sounds like the injuries were caused by the impromptu evacuation.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
RCoaster
> Sheila Clever of Wescosville said she and her 13-year-old daughter,
> Sarabeth, were bracing for the final plunge down Thunder Creek Mountain's
> overhang when a small mechanical arm popped out in front of their log car.
> The flume, which is built into South Whitehall Township's natural
> hillside, winds around a curve and levels off before a 120-foot descent
> into a basin.
That's normal. It's a system that maintains the spacing between boats
during the ride. This arm is located right before the first drop that
ducks under the lift. I've had the boat stop one time and there was a
sign next to where the arm is warning passengers that the boat may
stop to keep the spacing. It's similar to the short conveyor belt at
the top of the last drop on Knoebel's Flume ride.
> That's when another log carrying a man rounded the curve and butted their
> log. The man's log quickly filled with water as a park employee helped
> everyone bail out of the two carts, which later made their way over the edge.
>
> Clever thought the mishap was over until a third log came along and then
> another. Panic broke out when the riders glanced over at people standing
> on the hillside, Clever said.
There may have been a mechanical failure or the arm that stops the
boats may have jammed when the other boat came in, but that is not the
root cause of the accident. Why didn't the operator E-stop the ride,
or shut down the lift belt? Also, why were the boats too close
together to begin with? Was the operator in the loading station
dispatching the boats too quickly? The station is a dual loading
station, and boats are stopped by a bar that moves in from the side.
There are a loading and unloading positions on both sides.
-RC!
Jay
sounds of it) a similar system. The dispatch system on ours only allowed
dispatching at set intervals, however, we constantly had boats backing up on
the lift. Some boats move faster than others due to natural or human-related
issues (i.e. people holding out their arms and stoping themselves in the
trough or rocking the boats.) Usually the computer spaced the boats by
itself, requiring no human interaction. There were only a few instances
where we had to space them manually (and then only
leads/maintenance/supervisors were allowed to space them.) They also could
have been in some sort of unusual situation (we had 30+ unusual situations
we trained for). I'm guessing the injuries were because of the premature
evac that seemed to occur. It is early in the operating season, and perhaps
people just weren't trained correctly... a lot of the unusuals seemed to
occur early in the season (that's how I became a lead... we had an unusual
come up early in the season before we had a lead and I took over and got
everything worked out.)
"RCoaster" <noju...@rochester.rr.com> wrote in message
news:21abb181.04051...@posting.google.com...
Craig S. Dohmen
"Jay" <vfwil...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:DLydnWJW6o2...@comcast.com...
> I was a lead at Valleyfair! on the Flume for a year... We had (from the
> sounds of it) a similar system. The dispatch system on ours only allowed
> dispatching at set intervals, however, we constantly had boats backing up
on
> the lift.
Heh. I worked on Kennywood's Log Jammer, which has a manual dispatch
system, and we almost never had close boats. :) After a while you get to
know how fast you can dispatch them; you start to be able to guess how
fast a boat will go just by the riders (4 kids will go slower than 5
big adults). There was one day one summer we had something like 24 boats
in the trough, which is the most we ever had in my 3 seasons. I was up in
the tower dispatching like crazy. Not a single close boat alarm.
I'm thankful for small victories.
--Craig
Mike Kallay
> Heh. I worked on Kennywood's Log Jammer, which has a manual dispatch
> system, and we almost never had close boats.
My friend Steve worked on Log Jammer too. But in Chatsworth, not
Kennywood...
--
mike kallay
free coaster pr0n at www.ghostrider.org
kal...@ghostrider.org