Malfunction of Valravn Dive Coaster at Cedar Point Causes Collision in Station

Small Collision Occurs at Valravn Roller Coaster at Cedar Point.

The Dive Machine roller coaster at Cedar Point, "Valravn," ran into an issue yesterday where two trains collided in the station. The longest, tallest, and fastest dive coaster in the USA seemed to stop as normal, but then moved riders into the station where it likely collided with the train that was currently waiting to be dispatched. Today, a train still sits empty on the mid course brake run.

The Valravn coaster is one of the tallest at Cedar Point, at 223-feet. The MCBR (Mid Course Brake Run) can be seen behind the drop in this photo. Today, an empty train that was evacuated after the incident still remains on this section of track.

Kaitlyn Goodwin was on the ride and shared the following on Twitter, "we came to a near stop at the end and then accelerated, slamming into the car in front of us."

Scary moment at @cedarpoint. While waiting for Valravn the ride broke down. My sister & I decided to wait, and about 20 minutes later the ride resumed. However, after just one train the breaks failed and one train slammed into another in the station. pic.twitter.com/Ruf6iBI6DO

— Robbie DiPaola (@R_DiPaola16) June 26, 2019

If we had to guess, it seems the car stopped as normal, but then for some reason the drive tires and/or brakes mounted to the track allowed the train to move forward when it shouldn't have (the computer system may have thought the station was clear for entry when it clearly wasn't, or brakes did not fully engage when they should have.) While many accounts say the train was travelling quite quickly during the crash, coming to a dead stop from something as slow as 5-10 mph can be quite jarring and cause riders to think it was faster.

You can also see in the photo above that the retractable floor used for loading riders was in place during the incident, so the train may have caused damage to this loading feature of the ride, which could require weeks of work to replace.

This is the second small collision occurring at Cedar Point in the last two years, with Steel Vengeance bumping trains on its opening day last season.