One dead, three injured in Adventureland Raging River accident

[Omaha Steve]

Source: KCCI

By Beau Bowman

ALTOONA, Iowa —
Adventureland Park officials confirmed Sunday night that one of the people injured Saturday on the Raging River has died.

A total of four people were injured while they were on the water ride. Officials say one of the rafts flipped.

Adventureland says the ride remains closed and the investigation is ongoing.

Names of the victims have not been released.

Read more: https://www.kcci.com/article/one-person-injured-on-adventureland-park-ride-has-died-altoona-iowa/36924429#

[LudwigPastorius]

1. That type of accident has happened before.

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1999-08-15-9908150051-story.html

[mainer]

3. Yikes. I had no idea they were repeatedly in accidents

I will avoid in the future.

[forgotmylogin]

9. I think they are safe when new and in good operating order; these attractions are legacy.

"The Raging River ride has been in operation for nearly four decades. Former Governor Terry Branstad took one of the inaugural rides on the Raging River ride in 1983," Cook said in the statement. "It is a safe ride. The ride was inspected by the State of Iowa the day before the incident and was in good working order."

And 20 years ago (August 15, 1999):

Rafting-style rides had compiled a solid safety record since the first one opened in Houston 19 years ago, and amusement industry experts say they can't explain the recent serious accidents.
https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1999-08-15-9908150051-story.html

Most of the big installs are reliable and have been at parks for years, but it's possible they are running boats on tubes that have been in service for decades. And they've all been sitting in dry-dock for a year over the pandemic so could be nearing the end of their safe use-life. Rubber rots.

[rsdsharp]

2. I've been on that ride, in that park, many times.

For the life of me, I can’t see how you could capsize one of those rafts. The are essentially large inner tubes with a floor and six seats on top. The seats, and handholds are spread evenly around the circle. They float on the water, spinning and bouncing off the walls of the ride.

I’d think you’d have to overload one side heavily to get it to flip, unless the tube was damaged.

[Warpy]

5. I just looked for video of the ride

because "raging river? In Iowa?"

It looks like a very well done simulated white water ride, a lot safer than the real thing. Even the real thing has a fair safety record.

Either something was very wrong with the raft or one of the occupants did something "hold muh beer" stupid. I think you'd have to work very hard to flip one if it was in good repair.

[rsdsharp]

6. There actually is a man made white water course in Iowa.

It’s on the Cedar River in my hometown of Charles City. It was opened in 2010 or 2011, I think.



The bridge in the background is a block southwest of the house I grew up in.

[Warpy]

7. Yeah, man made

White water here is 100% natural. I might have tried it in my 20s but not now.

[forgotmylogin]

8. What I suspect...

(This is all speculation based on my experience riding and seeing these rides, I am not an expert.)

The amusement park raging rivers attractions are very shallow water channels, and the passenger boats have seats in a ring like a "crown" on top of a large flat inner tube. The crown is made of fiberglass which is likely lightweight in comparison to the heavy rubber tube which keeps the raft bottom-heavy and mostly upright and gives a wide base to prevent it from tipping over. It's designed to glide along a relatively shallow river with swift rapids to make the raft wobble and splash but remain mostly upright. It would be very difficult if not impossible for a properly-inflated boat to tip over and the ride is relatively safe.

I don't know if the tube is one air chamber or several, but I imagine what can happen if the tube is punctured and depressurizes and half of it begins to go flat, the weight of the passengers causes the crown with the heaviest seats to sag on one side into the water. Since the channel is designed to be shallow and fast moving, a flattened boat tube tilts the crown into the water and the tube may bottom out and get stuck on the rock work, causing the fast current of the water to spray up into and across the boat, swamping it. Depending how it lands, the passengers will likely have a difficult time since they are wearing seat belts and dealing with a high pressure current of water through the crown running lower than it should on a flat or partially flattened inner tube. With that much water current and a depressurized inner tube sinking the seats partially, it's very likely the fast current could flip the crown into the water.

[SunSeeker]

4. The raft flipped. Wow.