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coastergraham

Not a standard trip report but not a standard day, a day that was supposed to be about getting to ride the magnificent Knightmare turned into a nightmare as we only spent around 2 hours on park before we had to go to Chorley hospital A&E.

Caroline injured herself quite badly on Knightmare, she was told that she has injured her Deltoid (not sure if spelling correct) muscle in her right shoulder, how? Well here is the story of the day.

After going on a couple of rides we made our way to Knightmare and were totally blown away with how insane it was running, I saw someone I know who works at Camelot (who shall remain nameless) and was told the reason was because the trim brakes had been disabled due to them playing up, thus making the ride run a hell of a lot faster than it should do.

We then went for a reride and before we could get on it had broke down, which became a familar pattern. The engineers were called, which again became a familiar pattern. After a while the ride started again and we got on the first ride which again was as mad and intense as I have ever known a rollercoaster to be.

After getting off and feeling where the seatbelt had rubbed into the shoulder we went away for a few minutes then came back to another breakdown. One of the ride ops told people the reson why it was breaking down was it was running to fast, well I think we knew that one.

What was happening was that as it came back into the final brake run the chain stopped as the ride went into something like an e-stop even though the train was still able to get back to the station.

The problem was not the physco drop but the twists after that as the trim before that section of track was doing nothing to slow the train down. TBH I was loving it being so intense but in truth it was too fast and too forcefull to be running imo.

Now onto the ride that did the damage, just after the second twist after the phsyco drop Caroline screamed out in pain and when we had got to the brakes I noticed that she was in tears as she was in agony. What happened was that a combination of the seatbelt diggin in and the insane speed with high laterall forces had banged her shoulder.

We went to the nearest first aid where an injury form was filled out, we were told by a senior ride op for the area that there was no problem with Knightmare and it was not running too fast and that the reason for the breakdowns was due to the train hitting the final brakes too fast!!! Work that one out if you can.

After being ripped off in Wimpy for our dinner and seeing if Carolines shoulder would get better we headed back towards Knightmare, I overheard a woman as we were on our way there saying that Knightmare had hurt her shoulder. As we got down there it had broke down again with the same problem, by this point the engineers were permantely on the platform due to all the problems.

Again after a few minutes they got it going again and we watched it going around, as it went through the figure 8 twist section you could see just how violently the train was going through it and at the end you could see people heads move forward and back on the brakes, in fact the run into the final brakes had some very nasty and painfull airtime.

After just two circuits the ride broke down yet again. We also noticed that a lot of adults coming off the ride were rubbing there shoulders, kids it seemed were not affected.

At this point Caroline was still hurting so we went to the Reception to complain about what had happened, the person there tried to get the ride ops manager to come but she was at Knightmare at the time. After us saying that our day was over at 12:45 and we had to go to the hospital she did give us some free tickets to come back, which really was what they should have done at least in all honesty. Just as we were leaving a manager came into the reception to say that they were closing Knightmare down.

In my view a few things have contributed to what happened today,

- Health and safety, without Camelot being forced to put belts on the trains this may not have happened.
- Warm weather, the wheels would have been warm leading to more speed and people were wearing T-shirts which means less padding on the shoulder.
- But the single most important thing was Camelot themselves for the reason below.

IMO based upon countless thousands of rollercoaster rides that ride should not have been open as the speeds led to forces that were too much for people with the restraint system the ride has. I believe that the ride should not have been run without the trims working as it was obvious just what impact them not working was having. An intense and execellent ride was turned into an out of control beast.

I feel that Camelot were slow to respond to the problems that were happening and had a head in the sand attitude. Obviously no park wants to see its signature ride shut when you dont have too many white knuckle rides in the first place, but sometimes you need to put peoples wellbeing above all that. The fact that eventually they shut the ride would suggest that they finally came to that view themselves.

To me Camelot took a very big gamble today as if seasoned rollercoaster riders are being hurt on it

- Caroline, hurt shoulder and hospital visit, told to go through pain barrier to excercise sholuder or it could become froze
- My Mum, bruised shoulder and chest
- Me, tender shoulder and chest

then the GP are even more likely to get hurt as well.

Sorry for the mega long post by the way
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frosty · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject:

I'm really surprised an established park would allow a ride to stay open once any of the safety features is known to be playing up.
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Steve
Member of 'non rollback' Stratacoaster club 06/08

smiler · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 8:25 pm Post subject:

When it was in Japan did it run more then 2 trains? I throught that 99% of the rides with trim brakes here there and everywhere run with more then 2 trains at the same time ie Wild mouse rides etc. Surely the ride even with the trim breaks off the ride can still operate safely etc but on this ocation it didnt. I no the ride has been having problems with it etc but surley someone must of knowen. Sorry to hear bout the day etc hope she gets beeter soon.
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bluea61 · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 9:10 pm Post subject:

Hope Caroline feels better soon, its not nice to have an experience like that.

As for the ride, i think the seat belts will do more harm than good. It seemed when we rode that they didnot help at all as they felt loose. The lap bar did more to hold us in. It was pretty insane when we rode it in the wet as well.
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Steve
RCCGB - 2355

coastergraham · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 9:16 pm Post subject: