A brief video showing off one of these new plastic mold injection machines at Busch Gardens can be seen here.
(7/20/09) The details around an incident at Busch Gardens this weekend seem a little odd, but a local college football player (USF) who was an employee at Busch Garden’s Skyride attraction fell from the ride on Saturday. After loading guests onto the gondola at the station near Jungala and sending it into the automatic dispatcher (which times the dispatch of the gondolas) he felt that the door was still unlocked. He jumped back over to the car, grabbed it to give the door lock a quick key twist when the dispatcher must have let the car loose. From the story in the article, he held onto the car as it engaged the moving cable and for some reason failed to let go even at that point as he was pulled up into the air. They estimate he fell about 35 feet when he let go, landing in a “landscaped area”. He was taken to a hospital and while no official statement has been issued, the USF Football coach did visit and told the news that the player may have injured his vertebra.
While I understand that anyone can panic in a situation like this, a ride op on this kind of ride system should have known to let go if he knew he couldn’t hold the car back. Having worked on an identical ride system to this myself in my youth for 3 years, I can visualize what happened to a “T”... I just don’t understand why he didn’t let go. Of course, given that I’ve personally held a loaded car back after a dispatch in a similar fashion I’d have to say that while it isn’t easy... it’s not impossible either. Still... better to let the car go and hit the E-Stop if need be. Lets hope for a speedy recovery as I’m sure the team will need their starting kicker back ASAP.
In other news a guest to the park this week reports finding a blast from their past when they encountered something they had not seen in a park for about 20 years or so. On your next visit take a look around and you may see one of several new (or refurbished) plastic injection mold machines that create on demand a statue complete with a Busch Gardens logo. I’ve got to admit I was surprised by this news as I think the last time I saw a figure machine at a theme park was about 30 years ago when I was a small child and we visited the extinct Lion Country Safari in California. I can’t even remember what animal shape I got anymore... all I remember is that it was blue.
(7/20/09) The details around an incident at Busch Gardens this weekend seem a little odd, but a local college football player (USF) who was an employee at Busch Garden’s Skyride attraction fell from the ride on Saturday. After loading guests onto the gondola at the station near Jungala and sending it into the automatic dispatcher (which times the dispatch of the gondolas) he felt that the door was still unlocked. He jumped back over to the car, grabbed it to give the door lock a quick key twist when the dispatcher must have let the car loose. From the story in the article, he held onto the car as it engaged the moving cable and for some reason failed to let go even at that point as he was pulled up into the air. They estimate he fell about 35 feet when he let go, landing in a “landscaped area”. He was taken to a hospital and while no official statement has been issued, the USF Football coach did visit and told the news that the player may have injured his vertebra.
While I understand that anyone can panic in a situation like this, a ride op on this kind of ride system should have known to let go if he knew he couldn’t hold the car back. Having worked on an identical ride system to this myself in my youth for 3 years, I can visualize what happened to a “T”... I just don’t understand why he didn’t let go. Of course, given that I’ve personally held a loaded car back after a dispatch in a similar fashion I’d have to say that while it isn’t easy... it’s not impossible either. Still... better to let the car go and hit the E-Stop if need be. Lets hope for a speedy recovery as I’m sure the team will need their starting kicker back ASAP.
In other news a guest to the park this week reports finding a blast from their past when they encountered something they had not seen in a park for about 20 years or so. On your next visit take a look around and you may see one of several new (or refurbished) plastic injection mold machines that create on demand a statue complete with a Busch Gardens logo. I’ve got to admit I was surprised by this news as I think the last time I saw a figure machine at a theme park was about 30 years ago when I was a small child and we visited the extinct Lion Country Safari in California. I can’t even remember what animal shape I got anymore... all I remember is that it was blue.
