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| Designer / calculations | Stan Checketts | ||||||
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| Capacity | 6 riders per cycle | ||||||
| Height | 110 feet | ||||||
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Crystal Tower (originally known as Haunted Mine Drop) is a Drop Tower located at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA. It originally opened on July 31, 2017.[1]
History
In April 2022, the park announced that the ride would be modified. Changes include a new seat belt system with shoulder and lap belts, an enclosed ride vehicle, and an altered queue and loading area to improve visibility.[2]
The ride reopened in 2023 with a new name and theme. Other modifications included an enclosed ride vehicle and adjustments to operator protocol.[3]
Design
Crystal Tower is the first and only underground drop tower. It is situated within a 120 foot hole which was excavated for the ride.[1]
The ride was designed by Stan Checketts, who had previously founded and sold S&S Power.[4]
Incident
On September 5, 2021, a 6-year-old girl fell from the ride to her death as she had not been wearing either of the two seatbelts.
The seat in which she was sitting was empty during the previous ride cycle and the ride operator had not unbuckled the seatbelts. The girl sat down on top of the seatbelts, which were still fastened. The control system detected this and prevented the ride from starting, prompting the operator to tug all the seatbelts to check that they were fastened. The operator did not notice that the girl was sitting on top of the seatbelt. As the ride would still not start, another operator was brought in who used a manual override. The seat belts were checked once more, however, the operators again failed to notice that the girl was sitting on top of the belt. As the control system had been overridden, the operators were able to start the ride.[5][6]
Following the incident, the park was fined $68,000 by the state of Colorado for failing to adequately train ride operators.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hernandez, Philip (2018-02-04). "Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park dives into a mine's haunted past". Blooloop. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
- ↑ Todd, Jeff (2022-04-22). "Changes Planned To Haunted Mine Ride At Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park After 6-Year-Old's Death". CBS Denver. Retrieved 2022-04-30.
- ↑ "[Crystal Tower, Glenwood Caverns] cannot find almost ANYTHING online about their retheme/reopening of the Haunted Mine Drop ride now called Crystal Tower. So here's some pics. Will post a vid in a bit too". Reddit. PatMickelwaite. 2023-06-26. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
- ↑ Lamanna, Dean (August 2017). "Catching up with the man behind a billion screams: Stan Checketts still innovating, diversifying via Soaring Eagle". Amusement Today. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
- ↑ "Seatbelt was never properly secured around 6-year-old who died on Colorado amusement park ride". 6ABC. 2021-09-25. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
- ↑ Vera, Amir (2021-09-28). "6-year-old girl's death at Colorado amusement park due to seat belt issues and inadequate staff training, government agency says". CNN. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
- ↑ Migoya, David (2022-02-01). "Prosecutor declines to charge workers in girl's Glenwood amusement park death l's death". The Gazette. Retrieved 2022-04-07.