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Roller coaster

Plumb-bob said:
I cannot imagine being asked to review an amusement ride without some basis of training.
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It shouldn’t happen but it does. Jurisdictions do not have staff for that. Given that there’s two or three carnivals per year, it doesn’t make sense to train a building inspector to inspect amusement rides. In my case, I was self taught.

Most of the problems that I found with rides are obvious but there are things to know that are specific to a ride. For example, every ride has a maximum revolutions per minute and I would ask them to operate the ride at full speed. Now some rides will exceed the limit when empty and slow down when loaded. Rides with multiple motors will run fast if one of the motors is down. Any ride called Spider has special requirements for the main bearing.

I’ve related stories here about the Dragon Wagon, Gravitron, Ferris Wheel, fun house and more. It comes down to what you are comfortable issuing a CofO to operate.

An average day

The shooter was the owner’s son. Every electrical item from alarm clocks to the refrigerator is being replaced by the insurance company. Not the wiring or service panel which is on the outside.
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Mark K said:
To automatically blame the failure on the engineer reflects a lack of appreciation of the issues involved.
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I'm not automatically blaming the engineers but being an engineer I know that every possible mode of failure should have been taken into account. Especially engineers who routinely design things like this should be well aware of the effects that repetition will have on fatigue of the members as well as the welds. If they aren't they shouldn't be designing things like this
 
It will be interesting to see why this failure happened and I'm sure it will be considered in evaluating existing rides and designing future rides. Luckily not injuries or fatalities, so never a landmark like the KC Hyatt.
 
Since no one was injured in this case, no ride failure, car stuck at the top etc, it’s going to be a little difficult to slap them with a fine. But … it’s summer … peak season … shut down all the rides and require an extensive inspection process, one that would take a couple of weeks to complete.
 
Just thought of something interesting. The Carowinds park literally straddles the border between NC and SC. Who has jurisdiction?
 
In my opinion, looking at the configuration of the joints at the top of the support, the crack appears to be related to the fabrication. Forensic investigators will need to examine, but I'd place my bet on origin as an issue during fabrication. Possibly lack of preheating during the welding of the joints or some other fatigue stress, such as an arc strike in a critical zone, etc. Very difficult to tell if the crack started at a weld or adjacent to one. I doubt it is an engineering design issue given the lack of total failure (collapse).
 
If the lack of total failure was the design intent, kudos to the designers....If it was blind luck then someone needs to be playing the powerball....

And if it wasn't an engineering failure then it was an inspection failure. We will likely never know because no one died...
 


"On July 1, Tiffany Collins Newton of Shelby posted a photo she took June 24, noticing a smaller crack in the same pillar."

The woman took a picture of the crack on June 24. There's no way to know how long the crack was there prior to the separation.

"reported the cracked column to the fire department and the ride was shut down nearly an hour later"

Well there appears to be a need for training.
 
ICE said:
"reported the cracked column to the fire department and the ride was shut down nearly an hour later"
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Which fire department? Shelby is nearly an hour drive from Carowinds. I wonder why she didn't report it to the park?
 
Msradell said:
I'm not automatically blaming the engineers but being an engineer I know that every possible mode of failure should have been taken into account. Especially engineers who routinely design things like this should be well aware of the effects that repetition will have on fatigue of the members as well as the welds. If they aren't they shouldn't be designing things like this
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Using this logic all failures are the fault of the engineer. Similar logic would suggest that there is no need for periodic inspections of airplanes to check for cracks in the frame.
 
There is no track record to compare to with a roller coaster other than its own history. The train car and the people in it must weigh four tons. The G force exceeds 4Gs. Moving at up to 95mph and hitting the turns places an enormous force on the structure. The cycle rate is 45 per hour.

The failure happened in stages. Might not be so lucky next time. Shirley Prudence calls for an examination of every weld.
 
Mark K said:
Using this logic all failures are the fault of the engineer. Similar logic would suggest that there is no need for periodic inspections of airplanes to check for cracks in the frame.
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Planes are designed by people like you and put together by people like me. Having performed hundreds of annual/100 hour/pre-flight inspections I can tell you that there is no substitute for finding the weak points that were built in by an engineer.

Airworthiness Directives (AD, a sort of oops!) are a common occurrence and every year a few were impossible to implement…so the engineer had to go back to the drawing board. The drawing requirement must have eliminated plenty of engineer candidates. Some of the best couldn’t comb their hair much less put pencil to paper and come up with a part. Of course the mechanic gave the engineer an idea of what it should look like.

You always fall off the cliff when an engineer is mentioned. We are all just like cabbies, some know how to get there and some are lost for an entire shift. Be aware of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge…don’t forget about the first jetliners with square windows. Those planes remind me that engineers kill people every day…. perhaps not as many as doctors but still…..and they complain about the cost of insurance. LOL they bitch about having to get insurance at all.
 
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There can be no rational discussion if it is assumed that engineers are incompetent and inspectors know everything and make no mistakes.
 
Mark K said:
There can be no rational discussion if it is assumed that engineers are incompetent and inspectors know everything and make no mistakes.
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Once more off the cliff. You need to ask REI if they sell parachutes....and find an inspector to pack it for you.
 
I would question just replacing the 1 support column, since there are 2 holding that elevation in place.

And the 2nd column was doing the work of 1, when the other split.

Just my thoughts.
 
Mark K said:
There can be no rational discussion if it is assumed that engineers are incompetent and inspectors know everything and make no mistakes.
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Who said this? No one but you! You seem to greatly fear that we all think this and then you tend to lash out at inspectors as being the aggressor.

This only reinforces my thinking that an inspector has shown you up a time or two and you have a superiority complex that can't let that go.
 
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