[SML] Wrong time to plan

[Bruce Cooper]

On Wednesday, June 29, 2016 5:19:44 PM CDT, Jerry Durand via Stagecraft 
wrote:
> 8 people stuck 10 stories high on Ok. City roller-coaster
> https://www.rt.com/usa/348933-people-stuck-roller-coaster/
>
> It says the fire department is now developing a plan on how to get them
> down.  BZZZZT!  Wrong answer!  A plan and backup should have been in
> place as part of the permitting before it opened.
>
> I hope the people aren't hanging upside down.

  Well, my NDA period is officially over [15+ years ago], so I can talk 
about the day I was working at a 6 Flags amusement park and a full train of 
cars got stuck... Upside-Down in a loop.  Bearings on the rear-most car's 
L-side Lower Tracking wheel failed catastrophically, the wheel turned 
sideways at the bottom of the loop and acted as a brake thru the top, where 
there is the least momentum.  Voila, stuck.

  The sad fact is that even when something like a roller coaster is 
risk-assessed, it usually isn't fine-grained enough.  In the case I'm 
speaking of there were at least three separate actions taken depending on 
whether the cars were fully-inverted [about 40%], Downward-facing [another 
30%] or Upward-facing [again, about 30%].  This could have been different, 
since longer and shorter trains were a possibility.  In the specific case I 
witnessed as an employee there were in fact risk-assessments and planned 
procedures created by the park, but apparently they hadn't quite been kept 
up-to-date with changes in maintenance procedure, park layout, or fire 
department SOPs.  They were also never rehearsed or even implementation 
checked to my knowledge.

  The efforts of the local FD high-angle team, ride maintenance, and 
in-park 
First responders were Herculean, but there were persons who remained at 
least partially inverted for the better part of an hour.

  Needless to say, there was a VERY THOROUGH review and updating of every 
ride-related risk-assessment and rescue plan *very* shortly afterwards.  To 
my knowledge there hasn't been an incident since, with many more coasters 
and increasing park attendance in the years since.

 Also, it ain't the FD's job to plan.  IT is the OWNER/OPERATOR'S 
responsibility to plan and coordinate with the Local PD/FD/Emergency 
Management Agency.

  Risk assessment and planning is just the first step, folks. Training, 
practice, and assessment updating and maintenance all play a part.

My 2 bits.

:Bruce Cooper
--
Itinerant Stagehand and former Amusement Park Employee.