PNE roller coaster rolling again

One of Playland's biggest and oldest attractions is running again, after a mishap on Thursday that gave 15 riders a scare.

One of the coaster's cars came to an abrupt stop as the ride was getting underway, and all 15 had to walk down the side of the track to safety.

"One of the friction plates on the uphill broke. The first car in the train stopped against that. Then the rest of the cars behind it nudged it and that's what caused the ride to stop," says PNE spokesperson Laura Ballance.

It's been nearly 50 years since the first passengers climbed on the PNE roller coaster. About a dozen boards are replaced daily on the aging structure. And it gets three safety checks a day.

• INTERVIEW: B.C. Almanac's Piya Chattopadhyay speaks with Steven Elliott, an independent ride safety consultant at the PNE.

Inspectors say until now there haven't been any problems. Still they say there's always the potential for something to go wrong.

"The tracks do break. There's nothing we can say that will stop that from happening," says John Hinde, who is regarded as one of the world's top ride safety inspectors.

"It's a piece of wood. It's a piece of metal. The fatigue in the metal once it was caught by that uplift, it broke."

After a few test runs, Hinde declared the old wooden rollercoaster to be safe again.

• FROM AUG. 26, 2004: Rain blamed for dip in PNE attendance