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Oakwood Discussion

GaryH said:
I don’t think it did - it was the start of the decline of the park
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I'm sure it didn't do it any favours, but to still be operating about 20 years later it certainly did survive the incident.

Looks like an eyewitness account has emerged on bbc news...

"He turned around and saw a girl aged about 14 screaming, 'Stop'. A man in the carriage with her had been thrown out.
"It looked like the last few carriages were loose and wobbling. He'd been thrown out (and) other passengers were holding the carriage because it had become a bit loose."

Partial derailment maybe? With the lap bar restraint I'm sure a violent enough jerking way outside the movement the restraint is designed to be effective against could cause someone to be ejected.

Hopefully the relatively low hight of the ride will bode well for the injured.
 
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Whatever the cause of the accident, the negative publicity certainly won't make things easy for the park going into next year.

I personally used to love Oakwood back in the 90's but it's been in a really bad state for some time now. Their only saving grace in this situation is that they're owned by Aspro.
 
It's only a Zierer Tivoli. There's no way of stopping it mid course like that normally.

Sounds like maintenance had been working in it and this was the first run of the day
 
From the witness
I shouted for the ride to stop and staff were clearly panicking to get it stopped. It went on for a bit before it grinded to a halt.
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People really don't understand the physics of rollercoasters at all, do they? Similar things happened with The Smiler with people shouting at the staff to "stop the ride".

That being said, the position that train has come to rest is very odd. The quote that the back car was "slipping and sliding off the track" does suggest a derailment of sorts.
 
The park don't seem to have said anything, a little curious, although perhaps they may have done if they intended to be open today.

For all the conversation about how the media like to mention previous incidents at the park when reporting something contemporary, I've barely seen a mention of Hydro.

Thoughts to all those involved.
 
Rick said:
The park don't seem to have said anything, a little curious, although perhaps they may have done if they intended to be open today.
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I looked the opening times calendar for the park and I was surprised to see that it was closed during this week anyway until next Saturday. I had just assumed that this would have been half term week for them but looking at the calendar it seems not.
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So they have a few days anyway before the crucial half term period next week, it will be interesting to see what their response is to this and how the public will feel about the park and whether the media will make the link between this and the Hydro incident.
 
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Why bother with an investigation or getting to the route cause when we have so many qualified engineers on Trip Advisor weighing in on how perilous they think the place is and business experts so sure that it's curtains for the park?

As with all of these accidents, this should never ever happen so requires a balanced and thorough investigation to get to the facts so that measures can be put in place to prevent something like this ever happening again and anyone guilty of negligence or breaking the law is held to account. We don't need a distasteful trial by social media.

I know that Tree Tops, despite its namesake is indeed quite low to the ground. But you're still looking at quite a substantial fall from parts of the ride of a full storey or more.
 
On one hand, I think the typical visitor is often very lacking in knowledge about what is and isn’t safe. And even if you are an expert, there’s a limit to what you can glean just from going on a ride. On the other hand, the UK hasn’t got a great record when it comes to enforcing health and safety. If any accident were going to be investigated thoroughly, surely it’d be Grenfell Tower, where 72 people died, it made headlines around the world, and the public enquiry is going to cost tens of millions. But no one’s been prosecuted yet, it’s unlikely that anyone will be, and the families of victims and the lawyers representing them have generally dismissed it as a sham.

The are plenty of other examples that haven’t had the public scrutiny that Genfell Tower has had. It is true that there are a lot of misconceptions about safety, and a lot of rubbish gets posted on the Internet. But I certainly wouldn’t trust the government to enforce safety standards, or to do a proper investigation into a serious accident. The Health and Safety Executive would be a laughing stock, if it weren't such a serious matter,
 
Alsty said:
People really don't understand the physics of rollercoasters at all, do they? Similar things happened with The Smiler with people shouting at the staff to "stop the ride".
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Honestly, I'd admit before I was an enthusiast I assumed all rollercoasters were powered by electricity for whatever reason, it sounds stupid now but I was shocked when I first heard that most coasters were powered by gravity.

It's just one of those things that you assume when you don't think about things too hard. Not everyone is as interested in theme parks as us enthusiasts.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Honestly, I'd admit before I was an enthusiast I assumed all rollercoasters were powered by electricity for whatever reason, it sounds stupid now but I was shocked when I first heard that most coasters were powered by gravity.

It's just one of those things that you assume when you don't think about things too hard. Not everyone is as interested in theme parks as us enthusiasts.
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Although it is literally in the name, roller coaster, they roll and coast.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Honestly, I'd admit before I was an enthusiast I assumed all rollercoasters were powered by electricity for whatever reason, it sounds stupid now but I was shocked when I first heard that most coasters were powered by gravity.

It's just one of those things that you assume when you don't think about things too hard. Not everyone is as interested in theme parks as us enthusiasts.
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Sorry to be Mr Pedantic here, but all rollercoasters are powered by electricity.
Ok, bar the single gravity/punter weight transfer one.
 
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