Not all publicity is good. Sometimes, bad publicity is just bad.


Prometheus

Prometheus

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Recently, Thorpe Park (a British amusement park) went into the testing phase of a ~£20 million (~$32 million USD, ~$32 million CAD, ~$30 million AUD) rollercoaster, The Swarm, that's due to be its latest attraction.


However, it didn't go so well, and the testing dummies came back with some quite catastrophic injuries.


It's now being rejigged.


I can't say I would ever want to go on this thing even if they did claim to have fixed it, and I don't think I'd be wrong in guessing that the general public at large also might not want to take the risk, either.


It certainly puts the promotional text excerpt, of "Experience the unique head first, inverted drop from 127ft as you are flung into this merciless flight for your life.", into a new light, presumably because it means that the rest of your body won't be going down there with your head.
 
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i hate when amusement parks dont buil roller coasters for us tall people :{
 
I hate rollercosters or any rides that make you feel unwell. Previous experiences inform my descision to not avail of them anymore.Besides life is rollercoaster enough for me.
 
I was expecting to see some actual carnage.... at a MINIMUM a mannequin getting beheaded or something...


I say boo to this madam


.... the ride actually looks kinda fun
 
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If this isn't a PR stunt, I'm the freakin' pope. To believe for a second that dummies would come back with parts missing on a CAD/CAM created Rollercoaster is to believe that our future digital overlords are fallible. And if you believe that, they'll strike you down for dissent!


Those "near miss" areas are almost always next to structural parts of a Rollercoaster, not something you can just adjust slightly to stop it lopping peoples limbs off.


I call pure, unadulterated bullshit!
 
I'm inclined to agree with you there, although it could be that some clumsy builder got the fake church's size/position wrong...
 
I can see a situation where they designed the roller coaster and all supports perfectly, and someone said "ok, now hand it to marketing to make it look cool" and marketing added this church and other things to give it some flair without any consideration of the engineering behind it.
 
I must admit, I think that "publicity stunt" conspiracy theories are silly. :p Note that it's not just the mannequins who are missing parts - the outer safety-guards are just plain gone, too!


I sincerely doubt that any company, in this economy, especially not one that lives or dies by its rides, as Thorpe Park does, would spend such huge amounts for this to end up happening - it's business suicide (after all, unless you're very daft, why would you risk going on a ride like this even if it does get tweaked?). :p My understanding is that the real-world testing is pretty much a formality after the computer modelling, so for something to go wrong with it, someone obviously failed at doing their job.


In short: I agree with Stan's analysis of it. :lol: Some doofus with no clue about engineering and safety has probably done something "cool" that's ended up shearing off limbs and safety-rails.
 
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