BORG accident - Human Error

[WadeJ]

Not a great start to the 2007 season folks.  Thank goodness the injuries were minor.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11287823/detail.html

Carowinds Employees Hurt Testing Ride

POSTED: 1:00 pm EDT March 18, 2007

Seven Carowinds employees were hurt Saturday evening while test riding the BORG Assimilator. Eyewitness News has learned some locking devices that hold the seats on the ride down came a loose. The ride was not in danger of coming off the track, but the malfunction caused the ride to shake vigorously. The employees were taken to Carolinas Medical Center in Pineville with bruises. They have all been released. Carowinds officials say they are working to repair the problem with the BORG Assimilator.

[GADVwow]

I hope everyone recovers totally...

I wonder what, if anything, this means for Batwing and FireHawk.

[Bubba Z]

Hopefully they can find and fix the problem by April 9th at 10am!   

[WadeJ]

GO CEDAR FAIR!!  Wow...just wow.  I guess in the operators defense, that button shouldn't WORK if the ride is running!!!    Bubba, looks like the ride is good to go by the 9th

From http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11308720/detail.html

Ride Malfunction At Carowinds Blamed On Human Error

POSTED: 3:23 pm EDT March 20, 2007

YORK COUNTY, S.C. -- A Carowinds spokesperson says it was human error that caused a rollercoaster mishap on Saturday.

Seven park employees were hurt after the seats on the Borg Assimilator suddenly flipped to an upright position during the ride.

Eyewitness News has learned that the ride operator accidentally pushed a button that unlocks the seat position.

A Carowinds representative said the problem has been fixed so now if the button is pressed during the ride, the seats won't unlock.

Officials are hopeful the ride will be open on Saturday.

[Bubba Z]

Yeah for me ! Hopefully they enclose the button with a clear box  and have the ride-ops carry around 2 keys to unlock it like nuke missiles have. 

[Cyclonic]

Interesting.  I thought Borg had less computer components on the trains then the other two Flying Dutchmen.  The mechanicals for the seats are in the station, as opposed to on the train:



I guess a signal can still be sent to the train to release the seats though.  Very interesting.

[WadeJ]

DON'T PRESS THE RED BUTTON!

Yeah, I'd guess its a wireless transmitter.  So even those these trains are less complex, they still need to go up and down.  Its amazing to me they actually operated this long without a lock-out of some sort without other incidents.