Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster breaks down again - This time 4 people are hurt

[Towncrier]

Shards Of Metal Injure Cedar Point Coaster Riders
Man Says Riders Bleeding When Ride Ends

SANDUSKY, Ohio -- Four people are recovering after shards of metal started flying Monday while they were riding Top Thrill Dragster, NewsChannel5 reported.

A metal cable was reportedly frayed on the 420 foot tall coaster, and when the cart rolled over the cable metal shards were sent flying, said Janice Witherow, Cedar Point's spokeswoman.

The four riders were hit by debris as the train was being launched.

The riders were reportedly treated at the park's First Aid station. Two others reportedly chose to seek medical attention at a Sandusky hospital.

One rider was reportedly injured when a shard of metal struck him in the chest. His condition, however, is unknown. Privacy laws forbid hospitals from releasing information on conditions.


Terry Downey said his 20-year-old son, Joel, was on the ride with friends when he told him that something snapped. The ride reaches 120 mph.


"All of the sudden, it felt like they were being hit by bugs because the ride was going so fast," he said. "He said when the ride stopped everybody was looking at him and he said there was blood on everybody."

Meanwhile, Cedar Point officials said the park has an overall good safety record. The world's tallest and fastest roller coaster, however, is shut down indefinitely. This is the second time in a month that the ride has been shut down.

http://www.newsnet5.com/entertainment/3523436/detail.html

If you click on the above link, you can view the video of the news report from this morning. I thought they had worked all the bugs out of this ride, but apparently not.

 

[oldkicker]

This ride sure has had its problems!

I'm glad I got to ride it and ride it safely!

 

[Bob Slydell]

Heck, just Sunday a workmate of mine was in the car behind one that didn't clear the hill -- meaning it came back down backwards towards them.

All day Sunday the ride kept going down for various reasons -- there's still some major problems getting TTD to work right.

 

[Deb in IA]

I think that ride is cursed.


We were at Cedar Point at about this time last year. I remember seeing Top Thrill Dragster closed indefinitely then.

Brother-in-law was talking to our son Mark. Mark wanted to know what was wrong with the ride. BIL says it was "tooooo scary" . . .

 

[Cindy B]

YIKES! I think of all the safe rides I have had on that! (4 or 5!)

Hmm.. maybe rethink August trip..

 

[oldkicker]

We waited in line for several hours last year waiting for them to calaibrate everything to get the car over the hill. It fell back time after time after time.

I imagine that falling BACK is an entirely different ride experience.

When it works right, it is a GREAT ride!

 

[Barb]

I have yet to ride this. I have a hard time just watching it!

 

[Cindy B]

Just got off phone with DH. Well, if Dragster is down the lines for Millenium will be worse.

This crowd will also clog up the remaining coasters as well.

We were planning to go to CP in August. Now what do we do now? (I know, GO TO ORLANDO!)

 

[Indyman]

I hope they have everything cleared up by next week, as we'll be at Cedar Point.

 

[Barb]

Cindy, I like the way you think!

 

[CrazedDisFan]

Cedar Point needs to make a decision regarding safety and image of the park vs. running this coaster intermittenly. It seems to be down more than up.

When were at the park a few weeks ago, it was up and running and hydraulic fluid was running out of the pipes near the beginning of the track. The fact that the fluid was pooling on the ground not going into a drainage system or something of that sort was enough to keep all of us off the ride. The pooling led us to believe it was a 'true' leak, not drainage of fluid for the operation of the ride.

Shortly after the ride was down for several hours. The TTD seems to be a mechanical nightmare.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by Indyman
I hope they have everything cleared up by next week, as we'll be at Cedar Point.

I remember last time TTD was down for a long time. From the first week of June to after July 4th last year.

I just looked at the webcams onsite and the TTD area is empty.


Ironically, I wanted to go to Orlando, and got shut down for a return trip to Cedar Point. I told DH this, and he said "Ok, how did you break it from our house!"

 

[The Mystery Machine]

 

[Towncrier]

I made 7 trips to Cedar Point in the summer of 2003. And I got to ride TTD exactly once. When I saw the ride this year, it appeared as though they added a water spray to cool down the cable. It seemed to have made things better as I got to ride TTD twice in just one weekend. But I guess it didn't fix all the problems. I know that they can make this launch system work because (I believe) it is essentially the same as the one used on the Rock N Roller Coaster and Disney MGM Studios. Only on TTD the top speed is three times as fast as RnRC.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Originally posted by Towncrier
I know that they can make this launch system work because (I believe) it is essentially the same as the one used on the Rock N Roller Coaster and Disney MGM Studios. Only on TTD the top speed is three times as fast as RnRC.

And Rock N Roll Coaster (along with Hulk at IOA) doesn't have a 420 foot hill that it must make it over.

I think the folks who designed TTD got greedy with the height of the ride -- they could have made the hill 400-410 feet and probablu wouldn't have had nearly the problems that they have now. There's no need for the ride to barely make it over that hill.

 

[Pkaroch]

I rode it in June, and had I known about all the problems associated with it...well, I probably would have ridden it anyway. Everything operated fine while I was there, it didn't shut down once. But I will say I was more than a little disconcerted to see, along with your basic warnings, 'Occasionally a launched train will not clear the top of the hill. If this happens don't be concerned.' I almost left the line when I read that.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Originally posted by oldkicker
When it works right, it is a GREAT ride!

I don't think I'd want to risk finding out if it's a "when it works right" day!! (Besides the fact that I'm a "thrill ride weanie" anyway. )

Hi Bernie!

 

[Saffron]

The day we were all at the Cedar Point, that thing rolled back down the hill more times that it went over. It would almost make it, then roll back, or make it to the tippy top and kind of sit there and teeter a little, then roll back. The first time I saw it roll back I screamed. I thought the people were gonners for sure!

 

[Towncrier]

I have a fuzzy digital photo of the TTD stuck at the top. The cars were empty and they were just running tests, but it went to the top and just stopped. Someone had to ride the elevator up to the top of the hill and give the coaster a push to get it unstuck.

 

[momof2OH]

All Cedar Point did for the injured people was give them a Front of the Line Pass the next time they rode TTD. Those people said they won't ride it ever again. One family was being interviewed and they said that CP people treated their son like it was no big deal.

I'm sure there will be law suits after this.