If you haven't heard, several people were trapped on the ride after a wheel dislodged from one of the cars.
Movie World as a park has always wanted their rides to be a"world first".
Justice League, which you may recognise from the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disney, was bought as an "improvement" with new ride software and scoring systems...which has caused nothing but trouble for the staff running it with constant evacuations and downtime. The ride was promised to be able to cope with up to 20 vehicles at a time, yet more than 12 cause it to fault.
Superman Escape was the first launch coaster by it's creator to feature a "dark ride" before the main coaster, which is where a majority of the ride faults happen. Another feature is the launch area. Normally this area is a flat piece of track but on Superman it travels upwards on a gradient...again causing faults and several evacuations a week, sometimes even several a day.
Scooby-Doo, made custom for Movie World by the creator, features a vertical lift and turntable system not used before. As a ride, this is the most safety-driven position a staff member can be put in. Days of safety and evacuation training prepare the staff for at least one evacuation a day in peak periods. Mainly, these faults occur because of the lift (for those who have been on the ride before, you know the lift I'm referring to). Some days, at least three evacuations can be completed. Several times before the cars have actually crashed into each other.
Wild West Falls is one of the oldest rides at Movie World, and in my opinion, needs to be retired. With the extreme lack of attendance on a normal day, there aren't usually any problems with the ride, however the most common problem is boats getting stuck. If you have been on the ride, you'll know of the section where you reverse down a hill then turn around on the other side. This reversing element is its own "world first", yet another that causes problems. Although it is quite entertaining to watch the maintenance crew kick the boat out of the wedge to fix the problem when it happens. Also to the idiots who think it's cool to rock the boats, it's not. If that boat capsizes (which it can) you will actually die. Either by drowning or getting caught in the machinery from the water being drained. So don't do it.
Now we come to the Green Lantern Coaster. A ride originally created to have four seats, not eight, therefore putting immense strain on the undercarriage which had not been updated for the extra weight. For the four years of it's operation, this ride has been know as the Green Lemon. Consistently receiving faults, being closed down for hours, even days, and this isn't the first time it's been on the news.
Turn your minds back to January 2013 when the ride broke down twice in one day from electrical faults. Around midday, a full cart of 8 people were stuck on the ride for more than an hour, having to be kept cool by water and umbrellas provided by staff. After they were eventually freed, the ride continued operating until a second fault occurred less than an hour later, trapping 8 more people.
And now just over a year later, this incident occurs.
As shown in these photographs, the car is definitely off the track. Recent photos reveal that two sets of wheels detached from the car and these photos show just how severe the accident was. A fireman that was involved in the rescue of these guests stated that they were lucky to be alive. It was stated that the only thing holding the back half of the cart to the front, was two bolts. If these had been severed, people could have lost their lives.
I do hope that for the first time, Movie World takes this event 100% seriously and genuinely attempts to investigate the accident instead of just reopening after a few days.
