X-Coaster
Wednesday, 13th June 2007 by Alex Turnbull
Update: As correctly pointed out by Matthijs in the comments, it turns out this is actually Gauntlet, which is beside X-Coaster. Unfortunately X-Coaster is brand new, and doesn't yet appear in the Google images.
This is the X-Coaster at Magic Spring and Crystal Falls theme park in Arkansas, where a dozen riders spent half an hour hanging upside down on Sunday — 150 feet above the ground.
Apparently a power cut shut down the attraction, and once the city Fire Department had rescued the stranded thrill-seekers, one person was treated for, rather unsurprisingly, a sore neck.
Thanks to the Metro.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
That isn’t the X Coaster, it’s Gauntlet.
Thanks Matthijs, post updated.
That’s a pretty dumb design for a roller coaster. For most coasters, a simple power cut would not be able to cause a train to stop upside down. The trains only stop on the lift (which drags the train up the hill) or where there are brakes on the track. The brakes are normally only on straight, flat pieces of track, which are always in somewhat accessible parts of the track so that the passengers can be evacuated if necessary.
If you hit the emergency stop or the power is cut then the lift will stop and all the brakes will close. The trains will then all stop on the lift or when they reach the next brake, so evacuating passengers is not too difficult.
Based on the photos on this web-site it appears that the lift on the X-coaster is designed to pull people straight upwards and then flips them over backwards before releasing them from the lift. The power cut happened when the train was at the very top of the lift, so some people were upside down. Having people stranded like this seems like an inevitable consequence, therefore this is a stupid design.
We had a case a few years back in the Brussel’s Walibi park where the brakes came in catching the entire unit perfectly balanced in mid-loop for several hours.