[LocoDriver]

Does anyone have any funny, crazy, off the wall, or even true stories or legends concerning Carowinds?

I remeber the legend of the kid who was bitten by a Water Moccasin while riding the Powder Keg Flume. Apparantly he was bitten after a snake fell from one of the trees into the flume.

Can't imagine this being true, but it sure makes me aware of my surroundings when I ride the flume. Even though Moccasins don't frequent trees.

[thfc]

I'm pretty sure the water moccasin thing isn't true and here's why:

The Water Moccasin (also known as the cottonmouth) does not live in South Carolina above the fall line. The "fall line" is basically the point where the piedmont meets the coastal plain (you might know the area as the "sand hills"). To give you an example of where this point is, imagine a diagonal line that points toward the northeast. It starts in Augusta, goes through Columbia, and follows this path up through North Carolina.

Carowinds is FAR from the coastal plain. The only pit vipers in the PC area are rattlesnakes and copperheads.

hope that helped,

THFC

[LocoDriver]

I'm very familiar with the Charlotte/Carolina's area as I grew up here. I had a pretty good idea that this story was just a legend. However there are Cottonmouths in the Charlotte area. I've seen them over the years in and around several lakes and ponds. Don't see many Rattlesnakes other than the occasional Timber. I do see a lot of Copperheads.


Getting back on topic though, I was just curious as to what other legends are out there, and if anyone else had ever heard the Water Moccasin legend.


One other thing. Although their not indiginous to the Charlotte region we have several Alligators living in Lake Wylie and Lake Norman. This has been documented on the news with film footage.

[Trev32]

Here is a legend that i have no clue if it is really true,

i heard a man died on drop zone at carowinds from a heart attack,he did not follow the common rule for parks to"not go on this ride if you have heart problems"

like i said i have NO CLUE if it is true.

[Top Gun]

Here is a legend that i have no clue if it is really true,

i heard a man died on drop zone at carowinds from a heart attack,he did not follow the common rule for parks to"not go on this ride if you have heart problems"

like i said i have NO CLUE if it is true.

Yes, and last year on the news (CNN) there was a boy that they let on that was too small so he fell out. That ride must be cursed. :blink: Anyway, I'm not sure about the snake, never heard of that one.

[winthropjr]

To clarify everything on this "legend": there has only been ONE death at Carowinds. WHen team leaders go through training we were told the statistics. There was a little boy in the wave pool at Water Works. He was accidentally shot by a local hunter around PC. The bullet went stray and hit the boy. I was NOT PC's fault. The rumors with DZ with the boy falling out was not at Carowinds, it was at Great America. It did happen there. Being the TL for Hurler and DZ, we had new seatbelts installed on it for 03 because of that problem PGA had. No one has ever died on DZ, the most action we have had was someone passing out in that long queue, and my crew put on the wish list that the queue for DZ get fans with misters--now whether that happens?

[KarowindzKat]

I had thought the only death @ Carowinds was that stray bullet @ the Water Works Wave Pool! I thought however it was a girl?! :unsure: Doesn't matter anyhow! I had heard the Moccassin/ LogFlume Story too and heard that it was just an urban legend! There's tons of storys about Disney World & Land... I figured they be more of those type stories at Carowinds!

I hope they do get fans and misters to spray water on us in the DZ queue line! I always sweat buckets in the queue lines @ Carowinds especially Drop Zone!

[LocoDriver]

To clarify everything on this "legend": there has only been ONE death at Carowinds. WHen team leaders go through training we were told the statistics. There was a little boy in the wave pool at Water Works. He was accidentally shot by a local hunter around PC. The bullet went stray and hit the boy. I was NOT PC's fault. The rumors with DZ with the boy falling out was not at Carowinds, it was at Great America. It did happen there. Being the TL for Hurler and DZ, we had new seatbelts installed on it for 03 because of that problem PGA had. No one has ever died on DZ, the most action we have had was someone passing out in that long queue, and my crew put on the wish list that the queue for DZ get fans with misters--now whether that happens?

I was actually at the park that day riding White Lightning when that happened. There was security all over the place. At the time noone knew where the bullet came from. They thought it came from inside the park. There was a very long line just to leave the park as they were searching everyone before exiting.

After a while they did figure out that the shot came from outside the park at a nearby firing range. The person killed was a teenage girl. She was a student from Rockhill, SC.

This occured in the wave pool.

[Cephas]

A long time ago, I heard about somebody dying/passing out on the scream weaver because of the G-forces. I did not hear it from a reliable source and I doubt it is true. I also heard a crazy one about somebody falling out of Vortex. :rolleyes:

[Trev32]

people probably make up a lot of stuff just to make a extremley safe park sound dangerous,

Is it really true that Thunder Roads brakes failed once? i heard that right after the ppl were done loading in one train the other train comes up and smashes into the back of the first one,and to prevent from this happining again they had two things to control the brakes.


<off Topic> hey locodriver,what was white lightning like?was there any hangtime on the loop?<off topic>

[Jonathan]

I believe it was two summers ago when the Thunder Road trains collided. There was a problem with a brake sensor, but I don't believe there were any major injuries. Scooby Doo has also had a collision before; a good many years back I believe.

[Cephas]

I remember seing in the Observer when that happened and on the news. It was the forwards train that crashed and 7 people were sent to the hospital and nobody died.

[Dukeis#1]

Here is a legend that i have no clue if it is really true,

i heard a man died on drop zone at carowinds from a heart attack,he did not follow the common rule for parks to"not go on this ride if you have heart problems"

like i said i have NO CLUE if it is true.

Yes, and last year on the news (CNN) there was a boy that they let on that was too small so he fell out. That ride must be cursed. :blink: Anyway, I'm not sure about the snake, never heard of that one.

Actually, that DID happen on Drop Zone at Great America CA., but not at Carowinds.

Whenever a ride gets removed, there seems to always be a rumor floating around that somebody got killed on it, and thats why the park removed it.

Just the other day, I explained to a fellow employee that a chair did not come off Whirling Dervish and killed somebody, I had to tell him that parks remove things sometimes just for money issues or space. I Don't think he could understand that just because something gets removed, does not mean somebody was injured on it.

I had heard a rumor before that White Lightnin flew off the top of one of the spikes. I set that person straight.

[Trev32]

what an idiot! that coulden't of happened! there were huge things at the tops of the spikes that stopped the train if it did do that.you should have told him to actually look at the pictures of the spikes.

[coasterbruh]

Heard the one about the river boat returning next year yet!!!