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Fury 325 Closed - Support Fracture

Another view of the cracked support column here, lifted from Fb comments, source unknown:

Screenshot_20230701_100130_Messenger.jpg

Yikes!
In a way, it's kind of impressive that the ride still ran at all without collapsing. Just goes to show how much redundant strength is built into the track and surrounding supports. But yeah, still pretty shocking.

In another twist, it seems that early signs of the crack were visible from a week ago (June 24th).

received_1231636100885266.jpeg

^If that's true, you do have to wonder why this wasn't picked up on daily inspections, and why it was apparently left to a park guest to raise the alarm.
Really rather concerning if you ask me.

Anyways, ride is now closed until further notice, obvs:

Screenshot_20230701_102950_Facebook.jpg
 
Howie said:
Another view of the cracked support column here, lifted from Fb comments, source unknown:

View attachment 25576

Yikes!
In a way, it's kind of impressive that the ride still ran at all without collapsing. Just goes to show how much redundant strength is built into the track and surrounding supports. But yeah, still pretty shocking.
Click to expand...


I was thinking the same thing. Obviously it’s terrible that a support has been allow to crack like that but also pretty impressive how strong B&M track is.

Makes you wonder if such a blatant cracked support wasn’t picked up on inspection what else is being missed around the park?!

Lucky guests spotted it and it happened on a visible support. Catastrophe has been avoided as this could have been a real disaster.
 
Howie said:
^If that's true, you do have to wonder why this wasn't picked up on daily inspections, and why it was apparently left to a park guest to raise the alarm.
Really rather concerning if you ask me.
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spicy said:
Makes you wonder if such a blatant cracked support wasn’t picked up on inspection what else is being missed around the park?!
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While this failure is pretty shocking, I wouldn't be concerned about Carowinds' maintenance. There is not really any reason why the maintenance team would ever notice this during a daily inspection. Steel support structure like this generally does not require any sort of regular inspection or maintenance. Plus, the crack would have started in the top of the weld where the diagonal joins the vertical column:
1688226974561.png
It's nestled up there and pretty well hidden. You'd really only notice it if you were doing an inspection on those bolts, which is probably an annual inspection at best. Plus, the column is located in an area where employees are unlikely to be walking and most guests are likely to be oblivious. It doesn't become noticeable until it's propagated quite a bit (like it did).
 
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Looks like they're getting on it quick (I mean, obviously...). Pretty sure this tape is just temporary to prevent water from getting in between the cracks while they talk about a possible fix.

1688227532613.png
 
On account they wrapped tape around it to prevent water getting in, does that mean they will just weld it back together instead of getting a completely new support?
 
In the long term a new support will be cast, but they might weld it in the short term, depending on how long it will take to make/deliver the new support.
 
I would think they need to do more than just put the support back together, or put up an identical one. Something is apparently wrong with the transfer of forces here, which means the geometry of the whole thing might need to be redesigned. Worst case scenario, they have to tear up the whole support from the footer up and make a new one. Best case, the flaw can easily be compensated by making a replacement segment of the support that's a few centimeters longer or shorter.
 
Really odd for a b&m. Did they assemble the ride as well? They may need to make the footer a little bigger so the support isn't taking as much sideways stress
 
Pokemaniac said:
I would think they need to do more than just put the support back together, or put up an identical one. Something is apparently wrong with the transfer of forces here, which means the geometry of the whole thing might need to be redesigned. Worst case scenario, they have to tear up the whole support from the footer up and make a new one. Best case, the flaw can easily be compensated by making a replacement segment of the support that's a few centimeters longer or shorter.
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Is the problem not maybe that the support in question isn't flexing as it should?

I don't know anything, but I remember when Silver Bullet had (still has??) those weird braces for a crack on the box section, I read a structural engineer suggest the cause is likley "too many" supports not allowing that section to flex as it turned out needing to. I mean they were just spitballing too, but that makes sense to me.

I feel like this instinctively looks like the opposite issue - that Fury doesn't have enough supports there to distribute the stress? Or that this support is not distributing stress correctly?

It makes me wonder if they'll put braces on this in the meantime to keep it open - I guess it depends how valuable Fury is to the park? And also whether it's even possible with it moving so much?

I am worried they'll castrate Fury with trims. I can't share much detail, but I once spoke to someone involved in a later B&M, who said the company were resistant to intentionally trying to design a ride like that again. I think we all assume the designers and engineers know how they're gonna turn out 100%, but clearly there's some discrepancies or you wouldn't get Intimidator 305, or Maverick's inversions, etc. I guess the real issue is translating the numbers to the human experience? But this support proves it's about numbers, too.

I'm glad to see here on CF people aren't blaming Carowinds inspections really - I cannot believe how many people think full track and support inspections happen frequently. That's annual, at best, unless the ride has known issues or a catwalk. Going forward I'm sure Fury will get more frequent assessment with binoculars.

Everyone was clearly perfectly safe and cracks aren't unheard of - I actually wonder if they even knew about it (as in when it was just a crack and not completely severed) and deemed it safe till end of season? I literally don't know what I'm on about other than that you could remove that entire support and the ride be perfectly safe for a lengthy period of time. These rides are built so that when they fail, it's safe. Multiple - near impossible numbers - of failures have to happen together for them to be unsafe. The issue here is the PR nightmare cuz it looks so fun and dramatic. And it doesn't help it being so soon after the fatality at Grunalund.

Oh! And it's so unfair that people are posting the old photos of the track as if the photographer noticed them at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Expecting other people to be super human is ridiculous.
 
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SaiyanHajime said:
I am worried they'll castrate Fury with trims
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Luckily, that's not how this works. There's zero perfectly straight track on the layout (which is needed for a B&M magnetic trim) until you reach the actual trim. I believe the most they could do is change out the wheels to a different, higher friction material to slow it down, if needed. But adding a mag trim without reprofiling the track itself isn't really an option.
 
MLDesigns said:
Luckily, that's not how this works. There's zero perfectly straight track on the layout (which is needed for a B&M magnetic trim) until you reach the actual trim. I believe the most they could do is change out the wheels to a different, higher friction material to slow it down, if needed. But adding a mag trim without reprofiling the track itself isn't really an option.
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While I don't think they will do it, I'm still going to play devil's advocate and point out that they have the entire first drop to work with if they really want to trim it. It certainly wouldn't be unprecedented.

1688394776547.png
 
There's a lot of misinformation going around that the crack was clearly visible at least a week prior.

Here's the original post from the photographer https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...sQegBtdGPHeJ8wWakSBeVl&id=1214063528&sfnsn=mo

They were not photographing the crack, it was just a photo of the ride. They only found the crack when they went looking for it and zoomed in.

It's easy to find something you're looking for.

People have been sharing their photos without that crucial context.

This is why it's daft to assert it would have been visible from the ground and maintenance missed it during a check. Whilst it's possible they could have caught it, the likleyhood is small.

Risk assements create procedures that will minimise the chance of dangerous and/or likley events. This was neither. Now it is a known problem with the ride, I guarantee you there will be checks put in place. Only coasters with known issues have full track inspections daily and they don't last long once that starts. Volcano, Ultimate...
 
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