11 minutes ago, CorkscrewMcPuke said:

I'm finding no citations online regarding this situation yet. I wonder if the damage is either extraordinarily minor or the park is trying to keep this under wraps until a proper investigation has been completed.

There’s a Reddit post with photos out and about.

Dents in the track, wheel missing. Thankfully nobody was hurt but this could easily spell the end of Bat. 30 years in 2023. 

44 minutes ago, CorkscrewMcPuke said:

I'm finding no citations online regarding this situation yet. I wonder if the damage is either extraordinarily minor or the park is trying to keep this under wraps until a proper investigation has been completed.

Saw pictures. They’ll definitely need to replace a section of track.

I'm not going to declare that it's inconceivable that the park would get rid of The Bat after this, but I think some posters in this thread should be made aware of Arrow Suspended coasters reopening after worse incidents within the last decade:

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-six-flags-roller-coaster-inspection-car-derails-20140708-story.html

6 minutes ago, TombRaiderFTW said:

I'm not going to declare that it's inconceivable that the park would get rid of The Bat after this, but I think some posters in this thread should be made aware of Arrow Suspended coasters reopening after worse incidents within the last decade:

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-six-flags-roller-coaster-inspection-car-derails-20140708-story.html

De-railing due to an external object is much different than failure of a component of the ride itself as it approaches its useful life timeline...granted the wheel in question is not original, but could a failure of the track caused the wheel to come off or did the wheel cause the damage....

The Bat has had several issues this year and that certainly plays into the decision.  This won't be the first stretch of tube track replaced just this month...

If The Bat could handle the train colliding with a landscaping truck in the past, I'm thinking it can recover from this.

I don't think anyone here has said they think The Bat is done for the rest of this year because of this incident. 

Rather, they are saying they are concerned that with its age and frequent downtime and track needing to be replaced that this or next season may be its last.

Unless the damage is more extensive than the one section, it will be repaired and running in a couple of days to a week.  The last replaced segment earlier this month was down for two days to fix.

I hope it stays. But if they remove it, they sell parts of it like they did Vortex and Son of Beast. Like bolts, wheels off the train, track, ect. 

13 hours ago, WickedDragster said:

I hope this doesn’t spell the end for Bat! 

King's Island needs to keep this classic around! I know you could build a new ride but something is lost when these older rides disappear. I mean this is one of 5 left in the entire world and the last ever built of the model so it deserves to live on. We already lost Vortex and Firehawk. Let's not lose The Bat or Top Gun as the true fans know it. If the people of Chicago can save the Whizzer who knows, Cincy might be able to save The Bat if we really tried.....

 

However I do hope the damage is minimal and the ride reopens as quickly as possible. I remember when The Vortex chain broke and they had to get a new one...that repair took a couple months but they got it running again before the end of the season. 

9 hours ago, johnjniehaus said:

King's Island needs to keep this classic around! I know you could build a new ride but something is lost when these older rides disappear. I mean this is one of 5 left in the entire world and the last ever built of the model so it deserves to live on. We already lost Vortex and Firehawk. Let's not lose The Bat or Top Gun as the true fans know it. If the people of Chicago can save the Whizzer who knows, Cincy might be able to save The Bat if we really tried.....

 

However I do hope the damage is minimal and the ride reopens as quickly as possible. I remember when The Vortex chain broke and they had to get a new one...that repair took a couple months but they got it running again before the end of the season. 

Totally agree. As mentioned before, this ride is one of the last of it's kind, and I believe it should stay.

It's bad that an accident of this magnitude happened.  Park & guests are lucky that it was not worse.

I wonder if the recent track replacement have anything to do with the wheel failure (possible alignment issues??) or was it failed tubular track that caused the accident?

Failed tubular track on older Arrows is not exactly uncommon- Magnum had a decent amount of track replaced in-season recently.  Vortex reached end of service life- track fatigue likely played a large factor into that decision.  When BBW was closed the reasons were very similar to that of Vortex.

 

I would guess this is the end.  Age.  Manufacturer.  The crowds they keep pulling even after closing other dated coasters in recent years.  

2 hours ago, super7 said:

I would guess this is then end.  Age.  Manufacturer.  The crowds they keep pulling even after closing other dates coasters in recent years.  

I am sad to say it but it is looking very likely. If it does go, I will miss it very very much.

1 hour ago, super7 said:

I would guess this is then end.  Age.  Manufacturer.  The crowds they keep pulling even after closing other dates coasters in recent years.  

As much as I hate to admit it, not only these factors present an argument to demolish the ride, but also the premium real estate that The Bat sits upon. The Lion Country Safari land out there would all be opened up for a brand new large attraction or perhaps even an expansion to the park entirely if it is removed. I don't like to see any Arrow rides go away at this point, but the current events along with the real estate it occupies must at the very least entice CF executives. It's not likely we are going to see another giant coaster within the next couple years, but I could easily see large expansion taking place to decongest paths in the park.

Can't decongest without new attractions to pull people to the new areas. KI actually has enough land to build an entire new dry park the size of the existing one but that wouldn't happen for many reasons.

2 minutes ago, DoomPlague said:

Can't decongest without new attractions to pull people to the new areas. KI actually has enough land to build an entire new dry park the size of the existing one but that wouldn't happen for many reasons.

They could very easily expand the park into that land without something that rivals Orion in magnitude. What would really be interesting is if they could create a pathway going from Banshee directly to Area 72.

John Materese did a report...I am sure someone will make the joke...

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kings-islands-the-bat-closed-after-a-wheel-came-loose-while-in-motion-ride-formerly-known-as-top-gun

It has reopened.

Dang it!

Also an article on MSN here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/kings-island-e2-80-99s-the-bat-closed-after-mishap-involving-train-wheel/ar-AAYRWdf

Glad to hear no one was hurt, of course.

 

2 hours ago, gforce1994 said:

It has reopened.

Really? I didn't think it would reopen this soon. Do you have any pictures or videos?

I said in an above post that if the damage was only confined to that one spot, it would be up and running in a couple of days....

 

But I think there are more issues than the pictures show and isn't open...

2 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

I said in an above post that if the damage was only confined to that one spot, it would be up and running in a couple of days....

Well, the track could be fixed by now, but wouldn't they have to also fix the wheel that fell off and inspect all of the ride vehicles and all of the wheels?

22 hours ago, Orion13 said:

Well, the track could be fixed by now, but wouldn't they have to also fix the wheel that fell off and inspect all of the ride vehicles and all of the wheels?

The wheel is simply replaced.  They will not try to repair the wheel.  

The mechanism that holds the wheels in place probably just rotated around its axis that once a new wheel is put on it is back in alignment.  Or they could replace that whole assembly.

They inspect the rides/trains every day, so giving them Wednesday night until this morning is more than enough time to inspect the whole ride and make any fixes necessary.  It isn't like they stop working when the park closes.  We have seen maintenance completely change out an entire set of wheels from park close one night to park open the next day.  You can see this sometimes in the beginning and end of season when the Diamondback wheels change colors overnight based on if they need softer or stiffer wheels based on temperature... We saw seatbelts show up overnight on Diamondback one year.  One year we saw cameras for user POV on the seat in front of you show up on Banshee overnight and then after a few weeks they were removed overnight.  They can get a lot done overnight.  Then you throw on top of it the ride not running, and they can really move.

I have not confirmed it is open yet, but the park would not re-open the ride if they were not confident that the ride is safe.  It just isn't worth the risk.

It The Bat really open? I'm hearing it's not.

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10 minutes ago, PKIVortex said:

It The Bat really open? I'm hearing it's not.

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I just caught up on this thread after seeing the headline on Screamscape re: the wheel incident. That talk of this being the end for The Bat scared me. That's one of my favorite rides in the park; I've been riding it since I was a kid! Also, it's one of the only remaining parts of Adventure Village (Skyflyer being the other one), so losing that piece of history would be unfortunate, to say the least. Though some complain about the long walk, I enjoy The Bat's secluded location and the foliage surrounding the ride. Though Orion is faster, cooler and newer, The Bat (fka Top Gun) will always have a place in my heart,

I seen that, but hearing it's not actually open.

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^Maybe they pasted in the CW Bat wait time... 

Yeah, that could be wrong.

Also, are the lines today (a Sunday) really as short as being reported?

35 minutes ago, DoomPlague said:

Yeah, that could be wrong.

Also, are the lines today (a Sunday) really as short as being reported?

I was wondering the same thing. Orion and Mystic are 10 minute waits wow.

1 hour ago, PKIVortex said:

I seen that, but hearing it's not actually open.

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Schrödinger's Coaster