Posted on 06/25/2007 12:06:35 PM PDT by John Cena
(CBS/AP) Six Flags and another company shut down eight more thrill rides Friday around the country, including a ride at a North Carolina amusement park, after a teenage girl had her feet chopped off at the ankle on a Superman Tower of Power.
State inspectors, meanwhile, returned to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, where the accident happened, to examine the ride, which lifts passengers 177 feet straight up, then drops them nearly the same distance at speeds reaching 54 mph.
It was unclear at what point during the ride the 13-year-old was injured Thursday, said Wendy Goldberg, a Six Flags spokeswoman. The girl was taken to a hospital. She was not identified and details of her condition were not immediately available Friday.
Chris Williams, who witnessed the event, told CBS affiliate WLKY that riders saw the cable break as it got to the top on the right-hand side.
Treva Smith said it snapped again as the ride descended.
"The people on the ride just came and hit the ground," Smith said.
Next, Williams said he saw the teen maimed.
"As the ride came down, the wire swung left, struck the young lady on the back side of my children," Williams said.
Williams' daughter had traded seats with the 13-year-old, and was sitting on the other side of the ride.
Smith told WLKY she raced to the ride to find members of her group who had been on it.
"When I got up there, the lady, she was just sitting there and she didn’t have no legs," Smith said. "She didn’t have no legs at all. She was just calm, probably in shock from everything."
Six Flags has shut down similar rides at parks in St. Louis, Gurnee, Ill., and near Washington as a safety precaution, Goldberg said. Six Flags Over Texas, near Dallas, also has a Superman Tower of Power, but it is not the same ride, Goldberg said.
There were no reports of injuries on the ride before Thursday, she said.
"Millions of people have safely ridden this ride in our parks," Goldberg said.
The accident led Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. to shut down and inspect drop tower rides at Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C., and other four of its other amusement parks as a precaution, company spokeswoman Stacy Frole said.
The ride lifts passengers 177 feet straight up, then drops 154 feet, reaching a speed of 54 miles per hour according to the park's Web site. It opened in 1995 and was known then as "the Hellevator," reports the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Intamin, a Swiss company, made all the rides that were closed by both companies, said Craig Ross, a spokesman for Cedar Fair.
"We're going to keep these things down until we're certain it's safe," Ross said. "We'll wait and see."
An e-mail message sent to Intamin was not immediately returned Friday.
The four other Cedar Fair rides that will be shut down are at Kings Island near Cincinnati; Canada's Wonderland, in Toronto; Kings Dominion in Doswell, Va.; and Great America in Santa Clara, Calif.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
There’s been no mention of reattachment, which leads me to think there’s not enough left to even try.
Trust they don’t snap, but also know that if they do the emergency brakes will immediately engage..... And yes, there is a small chance that this won’t happen, or they won’t work, or something else....
There is always a risk in life.
This is a tragic accident, but to portray it as something inately risky or evil with amusement parks is insane.
Couple of years ago I went to Kings Dominion just outside of Richmond VA and 1/4 to 1/3 of the rides were shut down, the park was a mess. The year before that I went to the Six Flags outside DC and quite a few of the rides were out of service.
Don't know if they are owned by the same company, but I would never recommend any of them. Hershey Park and Busch Gardens always seem to be in tip-top shape.
She was in surgery immediately following the accident and her legs where sent with her to the hospital. No other information has been released about the girl.. the type of surgery, her condition etc.... citing patient privacy the hospital has released to my knowledge no other information.
I don’t pay to ride an elevator for fun. Elevators are not intended to “thrill” you.
After the elevator messed up in my building while I was in it, I used the steps a lot more.
Where was that ride built? Was it USA or China?
I was at a minor league ballgame this week and a boy won
some tickets to a Six Flags as part of a between innings contest. A woman in my row was heard to laugh, “Ah, so he
can get his legs cut off...”
(oops—feet)
Perceived danger, not real danger.
I wouldn’t ride these things no more. The Tilt-a-Whirl is a good way to get a detached retina. I might go on The Swan again if I had the chance. That was my first ride. A huge wooden boat shaped like a swan that went around slowly in a circle.
Were her legs chopped off or just her feet?
My wife and I were at the local fair a while back and thought about getting on the Ferris wheel. Got up close and saw that the entire cage was fiberglass. You could see the whitening of the stress areas where it attached to the wheel. It changed our minds really quick.
Reports I heard were amputated below the knee. Cable wrapped around her legs.
If they could find the pack of stray dogs that carried them off.
You could well be safer riding ON the ride than doing something else instead of attending the park.
WHAT??
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