It's Coming!A series of teaser trailers are being released to promote something rather special that we at Ride Guide are doing over the Winter.
Keep an eye on these and see if you can guess what it is all about on our Forum
Merlin to sue The London Bridge Experience...
Thorpe Park TeaserThorpe park have released a new video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZOLSdKDJ2c
Discuss on our forum here!
Ride-Guide Competition
The Ride-Guide have forgotten where we buried our teasured roller coaster and we need your help to find it. So, grab your metal detectors and solve the cryptic clues to make progress across Britain's theme parks until you finally reach the final puzzle.
The winner will be in for a sur-PRIZE!
The hunt will begin on Saturday 16th August, simply register to the forum and join in the fun.
Rainbow Ride collapses at LisebergThe Rainbow Ride, a Huss flat, has collapsed at Liseberg Theme Park in Gothemburg, Sweden.The ride was full at the time with 36 riders onboard.
18 riders were ferried to hospital by the attending twenty ambulances and a helicopter. Two riders were said to be in a serious, but stable condition and the remaining riders were treated for minor injuries according to police.
The 40 tonne ride, also known as a side-Flying Carpet, was installed at the park in 1983, is a spinning arm with a seating compartment on one end.
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Four Injured in Danish ParkCOPENHAGEN (AFP) — Four people were injured late Friday in a roller-coaster accident at the Tivoli fairground in Aarhus, eastern Denmark, a police spokesman said Saturday.
"Four people have been injured in an accident in Tivoli. They have been transported to the hospital where they are at the moment," Aarhus police spokesman Americ Chadha told AFP.
Asked about their condition, he replied: "I don't know if it's serious or not."
Fairground spokesman Henrik Olesen said the two young men and two young women, aged in their early 20s, "have been injured but not seriously. The exact circumstances are unclear at the moment."
The accident in Denmark's second city happened on a roller-coaster type ride called the Cobra, 400 metres (yards) long and 25 metres (80 feet) high, which reaches speeds of up to 70 kilometres (45 miles) an hour.
The first part of the train broke away from the rest and plunged to the ground, Olesen told AFP.
"There are some investigations and experts are working at the moment on the attraction," he said. "Cobra was designed by an Italian company. Cobra is a new attraction, it's its first season in Tivoli."
Story found by RG member loefet.
Update - 8th July
A statement has been released from Ride Tek, The Ride Designers...
RIDE TEK Engineering, in order to avoid unpleasant misunderstandigs and/or misinterpretations about what happened in Denmark, preferes to specify the following notes:
1 - that we are deeply sorry for what happened to the people that suffered traumas which, thank God, have not been serious
2 - that, leaving out the accident's dynamics, mentioned from all the mass-media, its causes are still completely unknown and will remain so until the execution of material's assesments.
3 - that the piece broken for no obvious reason (considering the official informations, in fact, the piece has broken at the top of the lift without being subjected to any apparent effort) has been object, during the years, of "design review" from international certifications agencies, and is working from about 10 years on others similar attractions
4 - that Ride Tek Engineering is the attraction DESIGNER and not the manufacturer's one; so, who wants to obtain official informations or press releases, should refere to the manufacturer himself or to the Danish Park.
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Theme Park Plead GuiltyA theme park has admitted breaching health and safety laws over the death of a teenage visitor more than four years ago.
Hayley Williams, 16, from Pontypool, Torfaen, died when she fell 100ft from the £1.7m Hydro Ride at Oakwood in Pembrokeshire in April 2004.
Oakwood Leisure admitted a breach of the Health and Safety Act 1974 before magistrates at Haverfordwest.
The court adjourned the case to Swansea Crown Court for sentencing on 8 August.
The prosecution is being brought by the Health and Safety Executive.
Oakwood was charged with failing to ensure the safety of the water ride's passengers after the death in April 2004.
Lagoon
In May, at Haverfordwest Magistrates' Court, lawyers for the company pleaded not guilty to the charge.
In a brief hearing at the same court on Monday the company's legal representatives said it now admitted the single charge.
Sunday school teacher Ms Williams was taken for a treat to the theme park by her parents and had been staying at a nearby caravan park.
The court heard how she and her friends had been on a variety of rides but had left the Hydro ride until the end because they knew they would get wet.
But Ms Williams was thrown from the boat as it began its 50mph almost vertical descent into the lagoon below.
She was flown by helicopter to hospital but never regained consciousness.
A four-day jury inquest into her death at Haverfordwest two years ago recorded a neutral narrative verdict.
Ms Williams' parents spoke of their bitter disappointment at the time that the coroner had specifically ruled out unlawful killing as a verdict.
The Hydro ride was shut down for 11 months after the tragedy.
But it was reopened after new shoulder straps were built into the ride after recommendations from the Health and Safety Executive.
Source
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Boy Decapitated! On Saturday 28th June at approximately 2pm a boy was decapitated when entering a restricted area at Six Flags Over Georgia. A Church group of boys had climbed over a fence in a restricted area within the parks well known ride, "Batman The Ride".
Reports say that the 17-yeard-old teenager and another member of the group had left the park for lunch and then re-entered the park through the parks perimeter fence and then into Batman’s restricted area. The boy had tried to grab rider’s feet on a passing train and was then struck by the train. The other group member was not injured, Police say.
You can discuss this story on our forum here!
Sources:
ThrillNetwork.com
Screamscape
We have a new section in our forum, "Operationally Speaking", which will be a companion to our "Ask The Experts" topic.
This forum will be interactive, requiring as much member input as possible in order to produce a definative guide to many of the day to day issues which have to be dealt with in order for a Park to operate.
So for an insight to real Park life, join in Here
| The Ride Guide is 1 year old on the 16th June, and we are planning a series of special forum events throughout June to mark the occasion. Whether it is competitions, fun topics and simple mayhem, this is the place to be. But remember, this Forum will disappear at the end of June! The Birthday Thread |  |
Cable snaps on Hurakan CondorA cable has snapped on Hurakan Condor at Port Aventura. The ride was emergency stopped, possibly preventing a repeat of an accident last year in which a girl's feet were severed by a broken cable on Superman drop tower ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.
Park maintenance workers spent nearly an hour preparing the car and its path for a safe drop. No one was injured. The ride was shut down, but the rest of the cars were running with passengers just hours later.
Discuss on our Forum
Recovering BPB Ltd suffer Blow over PleasurelandSEFTON Council is set to sue the former owners of Southport’s Pleasureland site for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Sefton bought the site from Pleasureland Ltd for £7.25m last year after the company closed the site in September, 2006, because it was no longer commercially viable to operate as a fairground.
Last night, Labour leader Peter Dowd said the council was handed back the site in a “dangerous” state, and that light sockets had been stripped from buildings.
Pleasureland declined to comment, but it is understood that the thrust of their argument is that they had permission to remove items from the site for use at its Blackpool Pleasure Beach operation, and vigorously deny any wrongdoing.
Pleasureland claim that the site was to be sold in a derelict state so that it could be re-developed.
Cllr Dowd said a hole had been left in the roof of one of the buildings after a crane had been used to remove machines from inside.
Sefton spent around £350,000 to make the site safe and secure following Pleasureland’s departure from the site, he said.
The council claims the company was in breach of the conditions of the sale and that the site had been left in a “dangerous” condition.
Buildings that the council had hoped it could lease out had been stripped and the council will claim it would not have been cost effective to repair them.
Cllr Dowd said the council would also be claiming loss of income from Pleasureland as a result of the state the site was left in.
“I don’t know what the motivation of the company was in doing what it did – that’s going to be for the court.
“But I was shocked by the extent of the damage to our asset.
“We will continue to seek legal advice and will be pushing for legal action.”
He said the loss of income to the council was at least £500,000.
In the period surrounding the handover, council officials arrived at the waterfront site and stopped workers from removing items. But then, at a future date, it allowed the company back on to the site when more items were removed.
This may limit the extent of the council’s claim.
In June last year, the council agreed a short term lease for the 25-acre site with leisure operator Dreamstorm until the end of the 2008 season.
A spokesman for Sefton Council said: “We are considering legal proceedings and a response is awaited from Pleasureland Ltd.
“We will consider our position when we receive a reply.”
A spokesman for Pleasureland Ltd said: “It is in the hands of our lawyers, so it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.”
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Incident at Drayton ManorHorrified families were left in shock when a propeller blade fell off a children's ride and cut open a man's head.
More than 200 people were queuing at the Harold the Helicopter ride in Drayton Manor Park, Staffs, when the 2ft metal blade struck a man waiting in the Thomas the Tank Engine section.
He was treated at hospital for minor injuries.
David Homer, 34, from Birmingham, who was there with wife Lisa and their two children, Jake, two, and Toby, one, said: "Blood was spraying everywhere."
Discuss this, and other stories on our Forum
FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!
UPDATE @ 4:00PM: The Park has announced that the
UPDATE @ 6:00PM: A statement has been released by the Park and the Fire crews tackling the blaze, which is still going on!
Discuss on our forum here!
Boomerang Offride VideoOur latest video is an offride look at the Boomerang roller coaster at Pleasure Island Theme Park in Cleethorpes. Using multiple angles to give you an immersive view of the coaster.
The video can be found at Youtube :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz6MOd-sxCk
Or can be downloaded as a wmv file from :
http://www.ride-guide.co.uk/video/uk/pleasureisland/boomerang.wmv
(Right click the link and save target as...)