UPDATE 9:26 p.m. — Silver Dollar City has gotten the green light from the Missouri Department of Public Safety to reopen the park’s train ride.
Mike O’Connell, communications director for the department, said investigators were able to determine that a single wheel and single axle caused yesterday’s incident.
UPDATE 5/26/2023 at 4:40 p.m. — The Missouri Department of Public Safety told OzarksFirst that two investigators from paid a visit at Silver Dollar City today to investigate the latest malfunction on the park’s train.
Mike O’Connell, a spokesperson for the department, said two members of the Amusement Ride Safety Unit examined the train ride after two cars became unattached Thursday. O’Connell says this has been classified as an “incident” rather than a crash.
O’Connell said Silver Dollar City is cooperating with the investigation and there are no plans to re-open the ride at this time.
“We’ll be in agreement before it ever reopens,” O’Connell said.
The state investigation will include interviewing witnesses and inspecting the train, cars and track.
UPDATE 6:45 PM — Silver Dollar City released a statement at 6:46 pm, confirming that the train went off the track by two inches today, May 25, at about 3:50 pm.
Cars two and three detached from each other, but all the cars remained upright.
“New safety protocols worked as designed, stopping the train safely and slowly with all cars remaining upright,” reads the release.
The release said one passenger reported a possible minor injury but refused medical care. All passengers were evacuated from the train and returned to the park.
Silver Dollar City says the train will remained closed to the public until further notice.
BRANSON, Mo. — Just months after a train derailment at Silver Dollar City that sent several guests to the hospital with minor injuries and prompted a multi-agency investigation, guests say the train malfunctioned again today.
A passenger on the second train car said there was a big bump in the ride, and then she looked behind her and saw the third and fourth cars missing. Photos from the scene show half the train detached in the distance.
The passenger said park employees brought a ladder to help guests evacuate the train.
At this time it does not appear that anyone was injured, although the SDC app says the train is currently closed to guests. Stone County Dispatch said they did not send any ambulances to the scene for injuries.
OzarksFirst reached out to Silver Dollar City, but they have not yet responded to the request for comment.
The train was out of commission for about five months after the October accident. State safety regulators had just cleared it to re-open at the end of March. A KOLR 10 Investigates series revealed a state inspection missed safety shortfalls on the ride prior to its crash last fall.
