August 26, 2022, 12:08 AM · There's been another incident on El Toro, Six Flags Great Adventure's award-winning Intamin wooden coaster.
Several riders reported injuries, with five people taken to local hospitals for evaluation, according to officials at the New Jersey park. Social media reports said riders reported a "pothole" on the track that left jaws and backs hurting.
Six Flags closed the ride for inspection after the incident. Last summer, a partial derailment of El Toro on June 29 led to the ride remaining closed for the rest of the 2021 season. After modifications, reportedly to address an issue with up-stop wheels, the coaster reopened this spring.
El Toro ranked among the top 10 coasters in our Theme Park Insider survey last year and was a two-time winner of our Theme Park Insider Award for Best Coaster.
* * * For more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
And to help support Theme Park Insider while saving money on discounted theme park and attraction tickets, please visit our nationwide Attractions Discounts list.
Well, I’m glad I grabbed a few rides on this earlier this summer, because this might be the end for the best woodie in the world.
The fact that SF seems to be in more turmoil now than ever is really saying something.
I rode El Toro for the first time exactly 1 month ago, and for me the lap bar was more like a “torso bar” clamping down right at the bottom of my rib cage. I really felt nervous about sustaining a rib injury. Let me tell you too, going on that ride while being nervous is a perfect recipe for a miserable experience.
It’s clearly on another level as far as wooden roller coasters go, but no way I would ever go on it again, even if it reopens.
I just got back from Cedar Point yesterday night, where I haven’t been since 2015, and what a difference in park operations between there and Six Flags Great Adventure. I’ve only been to 3 of the Six Flags parks, but I now completely understand why they have the “bottom of the barrel” reputation that they do.
@chopper31 … I agree on the lap bar. I have never been pinned into a seat so hard as I was on El Toro. Not a pleasurable experience. On the complete opposite end of the scale … I absolutely loved Phoenix at Knoebels. Now that’s how riding a woodie should be.
That’s unfortunate, but it seems like it was all pretty minor injuries. I would be shocked if it was closed for any extended period of time.
Are we married to the term "woodie" ("best woodie in the world", "riding a woodie", etc)?
this is concerning and i'd like to know more about this "pothole"...sounds very dangerous. i have only experienced ET once in 2009 and it was a stunner (was gonna go for a second ride but they dropped to one train operation and the wait was too painful). i wondered then, as i watched the trains get punished over each drop, how long this ride could stand the test of time.
As easy as it is to jump the gun here and point fingers and blame the ride itself We still dont have all the facts yet. Perhaps it was the ride operators at fault? For example, the incident at El Loco at Adventuredome Las Vegas was someone being allowed to ride who should have not been all to if ride operators had done their due diligence. And theh there is the tragedy at Icon Orlando Drop Tower which I won't go into obviously.
why jump the gun and blame the ride when we can jump the gun and blame the people running the ride?
"Best woodie in the world."
I highly doubt this is the end of EL Toro, maybe for the end of this season yea, but not indefinitely. Let's not forget the GP has an extremely short memory, especially given the reports of the injuries. Nevertheless this is still very unfortunate but thankfully it wasn't worse. I would have to disagree with others in the comments as I had no problems with the lap bar at all this season.
I am seeing far too many people jumping to the conclusion that El Toro will likely be deemed unsafe and permanently closed by the state of New Jersey as a result of this. However, we know next to nothing about what actually happened and the severity of it, so such conclusions are absolutely baseless. The biggest question that really needs to be answered is "Was this at all related to last year's incident, or was it an isolated occurrence, and if so could it reasonably be foreseen?" If it is the latter, chances are the ride will reopen once the root cause can be fixed and repairs made. If the former, particularly if it was caused by substandard repair work after the derailment, then the ride and park could be in a whole lot more trouble. But until we have more details on what exactly happened, any conclusion about the fate of the ride at this point is completely baseless.
Agreed that not enough is known to jump to conclusions. El Toro is my favorite coaster of all the ones I've ridden and I'm tempted to think that this latest incident is a failure of proper maintenance but again that's speculation. I do hope that once the problem is identified Six Flags will make an effort to restore this treasure to mint condition. It's not only one of the park's premier attractions but a masterpiece of design. It comes close to being perfect. Also, to the best of my knowledge, it's only one of two wooden coasters to utilize a cable lift, the other being T Express at Everland in South Korea.
You must be registered and logged in to submit a comment.