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Accident on Bullet Coaster at Happy Valley Shenzhen

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Apparently one of the trains rolled back after the launch and failed to engage with the anti-rollback brakes hard enough, causing it to collide with another train parked behind the station. Reports go around of 8 people with serious injuries, but their conditions appear to be stable.

www.instagram.com

Coaster Hub on Instagram: "Today, an incident occurred on Bullet Coaster at Happy Valley in Shenzhen, China. This S&S Compressed Air Launch coaster opened in 2012 and was cloned as a mirror at Happy Valley in Wuhan. The incident took place as a train

1,260 likes, 43 comments - coasterhub on October 27, 2023: "Today, an incident occurred on Bullet Coaster at Happy Valley in Shenzhen, China. This S&S Compressed Air Launch coaster opened in 2012 and was cloned as a mirror at Happy Valley in Wuhan. The incident took place as a train rolled back...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/17hrk2i
 
I was at their Nanjing park yesterday, and Light of Revenge (Cheetah Hunt clone) was closed even though the website had it as open.

I'm going to hazard a guess that it's because of this accident even though "having a launch" is the only thing remotely similar.

I'm about to head to a park with another launched coaster (Vekoma this time), so I'm hoping this hasn't become a "China" thing.
 
The accident report has been released. Seems it was an issue miss alignment of the brake fins on the launch track. This caused the reversing train to smash into them and tear them from their mounts.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1744184279217889511

From my own reading of the news recently it seems a third party was brought in around June/July to do a full inspection of the ride.
Which begs the question how did such a serious accident happen so shortly after really.
 
Update - An investigation team of members from various government departments identified three key figures responsible for the tragedy, resulting in legal charges against those individuals and administrative penalties for nine others. The manager of Shenzhen Happy Valley surnamed Yue; the manager of the amusement park's equipment department surnamed Liu; and Zhou, the project technical leader of Runchang Corp, the maintenance firm, will face legal repercussions.
They are accused of failing to uphold safety management standards and neglecting equipment maintenance while being responsible for design and construction flaws in the roller coaster itself. In contrast, nine government officials responsible for the accident received administrative sanctions.
The report released by the Shenzhen city government found that the accident was mainly caused by poor equipment maintenance. A jaded bolt in the braking system snapped. This failure disabled the braking system, leading the coaster train to slide back down and hit the other.
The accident caused direct economic losses of 3.975 million yuan ($560,000), with 28 people taken to hospital, including three people severely injured and seven with minor injuries.
The report also highlighted several underlying issues when dealing with the tragedy.
The initial reports about the incident were inaccurate and contained discrepancies. The public was not promptly informed about the full extent of the situation. It said that relevant government departments failed to conduct thorough investigations of potential safety hazards before the accident.
Shenzhen Happy Valley Park has remained closed since the incident, with no confirmed date for reopening. Source
 
I'm bumping this topic just to say that all five S&S launch coasters in China (including one which has never even opened to the public) remain SBNO since this accident:

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Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.
rcdb.com

I have been on Extreme Rusher and it was great so I'm hoping they can reopen, but three years is an awfully long time for them to just be left sitting there - what are they waiting for? Do they perhaps need some costly modifications or upgraded? Or are they all condemned and waiting to be torn down?
 
Has there ever been any confirmation of this “20 year rule” or whatever China are said to operate for coasters? Or is this simply conjecture because we’ve had some Chinese coasters not operate for a terribly long time?

It is certainly odd that all of the S&S launchers in China are closed, though… and an unopened one being closed would imply that operating lifespan isn’t the main factor here.
 
Matt N said:
Has there ever been any confirmation of this “20 year rule” or whatever China are said to operate for coasters? Or is this simply conjecture because we’ve had some Chinese coasters not operate for a terribly long time?
Click to expand...
It's more hearsay, but it's reliable hearsay: I know a guy that works at S&S, he's confirmed that the "20 year rule" is basically just giving the ride a small refurb if necessary and getting the manufacturer to sign a bit of paper to say it's okay.
 
Matt N said:
Has there ever been any confirmation of this “20 year rule” or whatever China are said to operate for coasters? Or is this simply conjecture because we’ve had some Chinese coasters not operate for a terribly long time?

It is certainly odd that all of the S&S launchers in China are closed, though… and an unopened one being closed would imply that operating lifespan isn’t the main factor here.
Click to expand...
A lot of newer coasters in China have manufacturer plaques listing the lifespan of the coaster and sometimes the train. Cloud Shuttle at Fantawild Wonderland for instance is listed as having a 15-year lifespan:
IMG_1047.jpeg
(source: RCDB)

This doesn’t mean it’ll be shut by 2038, but from what I’ve been led to believe at some point Chinese coasters are required to undergo a mandated inspection and would need to be refurbished to meet modern requirements if necessary. This could be a costly endeavour if it’s an older coaster built under looser standards, hence why Happy Valley has been willing to close older foreign-made coasters and replace them with presumably cheaper Chinese-made variants.
 
At the same time as noticing that Extreme Rusher is still SBNO I also saw that Happy Valley Beijing removed their Vekoma mine train just before its 20th birthday and replaced it with a rather similar looking Jinma model with the same name, which would be a very odd thing to do if there wasn't a 20 year rule.
However Crystal Wing and the Vekoma SLC are now just over 20 years old and according to rcdb both still operating, so either there is some way around the rule, or rcdb is not up-to-date on this. Crystal Wing is integrated into a huge mountain facade so would be very difficult to replace even like-for-like.
 
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Matt N said:
Has there ever been any confirmation of this “20 year rule” or whatever China are said to operate for coasters? Or is this simply conjecture because we’ve had some Chinese coasters not operate for a terribly long time?

It is certainly odd that all of the S&S launchers in China are closed, though… and an unopened one being closed would imply that operating lifespan isn’t the main factor here.
Click to expand...
As for the 20 year rule itself.

roomraider

Thread 'Does China Have An Enforced 20 Year Service Life On It's Coasters?'

Note: Before we dive in I dont have a conclusive answer for this but its been an interesting bit of research for me so thought I'd put some notes down on here.
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This has been an interesting question thats been floating around the internets for a while. And after the unexpected closure of Chimelong Paradise's Vekoma Motorbike coaster after just 17 years it has popped up again.

Do major coasters in China now have a maximum 20 years of service life before they must be...
  • Like

This thread has a lot of info about it.

For example this on a B&M wing coaster Falcon.Falcon Sunac Land Wuxi ride plate (3).jpg
Service life is 20 years but train is only 15

As for the S&Ss while I suspect they might be done, it wouldn't be out of character for China to open a ride after years of it sitting fallow.

As for Bullet Coaster itself, yeah that one's done.
Screenshot_20261021_142602.jpgScreenshot_20261021_142550.jpg
 
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