List of incidents at Herschend parks

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This is a summary of notable incidents that have taken place at amusement parks, water parks or other attractions owned and/or operated by Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation. This list is not intended to be a comprehensive list of every such event, but only those that have a significant impact on the parks or park operations, or are otherwise significantly newsworthy.

Contents

The term incidents refers to major accidents, injuries, or deaths that occur at a Herschend-owned or -operated facility. While these incidents were required to be reported to regulatory authorities due to where they occurred, they usually fall into one of the following categories:

Dollywood

Dollywood Express

FireChaser Express

Lightning Rod

Mountain Blown Glass Shop

Parking lot

Thunder Express

Timber Tower

Waltzing Swinger

Wilderness Pass

Kentucky Kingdom

Chang

Hurricane Bay

Mile High Falls

Starchaser

Superman: Tower of Power

On July 13, 2007, the victim's family filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages, claiming that the park did not properly maintain the ride. [20] On November 29, 2007, a judge in the Jefferson Circuit Court said that Six Flags could dismantle the ride beginning February 1, 2008. As of December 1, 2007, the ride's cable was still in storage awaiting lab tests. [21] On May 30, 2008, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture released their report on the accident, concluding that the accident was caused by a deteriorated cable, as well as poor operator training. Had the operator acted in a timely manner to emergency stop the ride, the report states, the victim would have only suffered minor injuries. The report also stated that the park was fined $1,000 for not properly maintaining the ride. [22] Park officials admitted in deposition that only visual inspections of the ride's cables were performed, not hands-on inspections, that cables were not lubricated monthly, and that the ride's cables were not regularly replaced. [23] However, it was not possible to determine any one factor which specifically caused the cable to snap. On November 21, 2008, a settlement to "provide lifetime care" was reached between Kentucky Kingdom and the victim's family. [24]

T3

Vampire

Silver Dollar City

Fire in the Hole(1972)

Frisco Silver Dollar Line Steam Train

Lost River Of The Ozarks

Other incidents involving guests

Outlaw Run

Thunderation

Wild Adventures

Paradise River

Former properties

Ride the Ducks

The duck boats operated by Ride the Ducks have been involved in a number of incidents. In July 2010 one of the amphibious vehicles stalled on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was struck by a barge, sinking the duck boat and killing two of the passengers, who were Hungarian tourists. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the tugboat operator's inattention to his duties. [41]

On May 8, 2015, a Ride the Ducks boat struck and killed a 68-year-old Beaumont, Texas, woman crossing the street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Chinatown section. Witnesses at the scene say that the woman crossed against a red light while viewing content on a tablet and was struck while in the boat's front blind spot. The incident is still being investigated. [42]

Ride the Ducks was sold to Ripley Entertainment in December 2017 and is no longer a Herschend property. [43] The sale occurred before the Table Rock Lake duck boat accident in July 2018 near Branson, Missouri, where a Ride the Ducks boat sank on Table Rock Lake during a thunderstorm, killing 17 passengers. [44] All locations of the attraction, outside of some locations in Guam, were permanently closed afterward. [45]

See also

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References

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  2. "Riders stranded on Dollywood roller coaster".
  3. Novelly, Thomas. "Dollywood's 'Lightning Rod' brought to a halt by recall". The Tennessean.
  4. Robert Holder (2020-07-12). "Dollywood glassblowing shop employee injured; second incident at park in 2 days". WATE. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  5. Maggie Jones and Hayes Hickman (2019-07-02). "No citations for Dollywood tram crash that sent at least 6 to hospital, police say". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  6. "18 Injured in Accident at "Dollywood" Theme Park". AP NEWS.
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  8. Associated Press (2014-12-31). "Florida woman sues over brain injury suffered in fall at Dollyworld theme park". Jacksonville.com. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  9. WBIR Staff (2020-07-11). "Dolywood decoration fell, injuring 3 people". WBIR. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  10. "Roller coaster shut down on second day".
  11. David Harten (2019-06-22). "Kentucky Kingdom: Accident on Deluge sends one person to hospital". Louisville Courier Journal. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  12. WHAS11 Staff (2018-07-28). "13 evacuated from Kentucky Kingdom water ride after incident". WHAS-TV.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. "Kentucky Supreme Court Reinstates $3 Million Defamation Verdict". Gannett. 2005-09-09. Archived from the original on 2010-10-30. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  14. "Girl who had feet severed by amusement park ride, in stable condition". KARE 11. 2007-06-26. Archived from the original on 2013-01-27. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
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  16. "Kennywood closes ride, gives extra inspection". The Daily News. 2007-06-23. Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
  17. 1 2 "Six Flags Rides Shut Down After Accident". AP. 2007-06-23. Retrieved 2007-06-23.[ dead link ]
  18. "Elitch's closes Tower of Doom after accident in Ky". Rocky Mountain News. 2007-06-23. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
  19. "Six Flags Maiming Victim Has One Foot Reattached". WLKY. 2007-07-03. Archived from the original on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  20. "Theme park sued over foot-severing". UPI. 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  21. "Kentucky Kingdom to tear down ride that maimed girl". The Courier-Journal. 2007-11-29. Retrieved 2007-12-01.[ dead link ]
  22. "Faulty Cable, Operator Blamed For Thrill Ride Accident". WKYT. 2008-05-30. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  23. "Deposition: Maintenance Guide Ignored on Ride that Injured Kentucky Teen". Insurance Journal. 2008-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  24. "Kentucky Kingdom settles with Lasitter family". The Courier-Journal. 2008-11-21. Archived from the original on 2013-01-20. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
  25. Kentucky Kingdom officials had an evacuation plan in place but unfortunately, a park visitor called 911. Once Louisville Firefighters arrived they immediately took charge and delayed the evacuation for more than two hours while they assessed the situation, leaving riders stranded. They eventually decided to allow Kentucky Kingdom to continue with its original evacuation plan. "14 stranded for hours on Kentucky Kingdom roller coaster".
  26. "T3 roller coaster at Kentucky Kingdom closes for investigation". June 2, 2018. Retrieved June 2, 2018.[ permanent dead link ]
  27. "Roller coaster at Kentucky park reopens after cars bump". WKYT. Associated Press. 2018-06-03.
  28. Laurel Mallory (2018-08-26). "Officials: Woman hit in face by 'loose article' brought onto Kentucky Kingdom roller coaster". WAVE.
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  40. "Near-drowning at Wild Adventures". The Valdosta Daily Times. 2011-06-03.
  41. "Families of Philadelphia 'duck boat' victims get $15M settlement". Cable News Network. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
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  43. "Ripley Entertainment Acquires Ride the Ducks in Branson, Missouri". Ripley Entertainment. Ripley Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2018-07-20. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
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  45. Church, Tim (2019-03-20). "Branson Top Ops to replace Ride the Ducks". Branson Tri-Lakes News. Retrieved 2024-03-16.