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Faulty cable prompts shutdown at Carowinds

2007-06-23

By Kelly Perazzolo: The Charlotte Observer is reporting that park inspectors at Carowinds closed the Drop Zone Stunt Tower ride later this week after inspection located a faulty cable. The inspection prompted by the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom June 21, 2007 incident reportedly found a cable that was "too thin". Inspectors on Friday morning ordered the ride to be shut down, however the ride had already been shut down by the park officials on Thursday "as a precautionary measure" after the Kentucky Six Flags incident. Park spokesperson could not comment on when the ride will reopen.

Readers' Opinions

From Eric Malone on June 24, 2007 at 1:40 PM
Pretty bad that they don't seriously inspect these rides 'til someone loses limbs. Makes you think twice.
From Peter Rowe on June 24, 2007 at 6:09 PM
Where abouts is this cable? What does it do? I'm not familiar with this ride configuration.
From Claudine Deshaies on June 24, 2007 at 6:41 PM
I'm curious about ride inspection on these rides: While there are rides that need inspection on many parts daily, wouldn't the cables on this type of ride at least need weekly or monthly inspection? I've always made the assumption that parks did not cut corners on inspections because a ride malfuction would cause lawsuits and/or lower attendance. Maybe I'm too naive?
From Roy Taylor on June 24, 2007 at 7:33 PM
Makes you say HUMMM!
From Logan Decker on June 24, 2007 at 7:48 PM
well, I was watching a show called ultimate thrill rides on the travel channel and they were showing power tower at cedar point and talking about how it works with its unique air compressed system. They were intervewing a mechanic thats works for cedar point, and he said that power tower goes through an inspection every morning before the park opens, and that if there is any imperfection like a lump on the cables they will take it off and will replace it with a new one. In addition to the daily morning inspection the cables are tested in the factory and they are designed to handel 10 x the amount its supposed to.
From Derek Potter on June 24, 2007 at 8:47 PM
Wonder what was faulty about the cable. It's pretty uncanny timing that this happened on the heels of the KK accident. I honestly don't blame Cedar Fair for going over their Intamin drop towers with a fine tooth comb. The rides have run flawlessly for years but better to err on the side of caution for everyones sake. I'm still curious as to the results of the inspection in Louisville.
From David Kildal on June 25, 2007 at 5:51 AM
They closed many drop rides at many parks, including Drop Zone at KI
From Pete Brecht on June 25, 2007 at 6:23 AM
I was at King's Dominion yesterday, and Drop Zone was running all day, so apparently that was a short-lived precautionary shutdown.
From William B. on June 25, 2007 at 11:04 AM
More than likely the response is going to be to replace all of the cables like the one that caused the KY incident with stronger/thicker cables. Thus the inspectors shutting down the ride for "too thin" cables. While this MIGHT prevent another incident in the future, they need to go over the KY ride with engineers and figure out EXACTLY where the chain of events started and THEN make a decision.

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