OKLAHOMA CITY – For the third time in less than a year, a popular roller coaster did not run properly at an Oklahoma City amusement park.
In June of 2016, the Silver Bullet stalled about 100 feet in the air and several passengers had to be rescued from the ride by firefighters.
The ride returned to normal after an inspection determined that a “momentary power drop” caused a sensor fault.
In a similar incident in May of 2017, riders had to be evacuated from the ride when it became stuck at the top of the track.
One month later, an issue with the Silver Bullet prevented the ride from working properly.
Fortunately, emergency crews did not need to respond to the scene and no passengers needed to be evacuated.
Now, we’re learning more information about what caused the latest incident with the ride.
According to a report by the Oklahoma Department of Labor, the ride suffered a drop in air pressure, which caused the system to shut down.
“A sensor found air pressure for the brake system to be below the minimum threshold and caused the ride to fault out and refuse to run as a safety precaution. Upon inspection, maintenance reset the warning system and allowed air pressure to build up, then sent the train home as normal,” the report states.
The investigator wrote that he suspected back-to-back runs in combination with the heat caused the ride to throw a low air pressure warning.
In the report, the inspector recommends more down time between runs on hot days to prevent the ride from stalling again.
Since no mechanical issues were found, the ride was allowed to reopen.
