Ride injures teen at Six Flags

Wow, that's insane. I've been reading the story on Yahoo and it's just sad to think of. The company that made the ride has shut down similar rides at different amusement parks across the nation for further inspection. I think it was just a freak accident, although I think I would be more interested to see exactly how this happened because it would be good to know whether or not it as truly a freak accident or if this can be prevented in the future with more safety or better design.

I cringe whenever I read about accidents that happen to children or adults while enjoying themselves at a carnival or theme park. Even with safety measures in place you never really can be 100% sure of how safe you really are.

It was a scary freak accident. The Superman Tower Of Power aka Hellevator the Intamin AG Giant Drop ride that was located near the main entrance had one of the cables that snapped and severed off the girl's feet at the ankles. The accident happened between 4:45 and 5:00 pm on that fateful sunny Thursday afternoon, June 21, 2007. First the five cars pulled by their catchers attached to the lift system by the cables up to the top at 12 miles an hour. Then from the top the cars free fell at 54 miles an hour. Well, SFKK should have been told by Intamin that the cables were all subject to excessive fatigue which the Kentucky State Agriculture Dept concluded. So the park was fined a thousand dollars for failure to properly maintain the ride to ensure safety. That was why the ride had to pass inspection every time. The cables were thoughly inspected twice a week. And they were changed every three to four years. They were lubricated. If anything wrong with one of those cables, that said one was changed immediately. But despite all that safety measures, that freak accident happened probably due to cable fatigue which caused the snap that was the factor of the accident.