As covered in the past weeks Big Thunder Mountain was closed from late afternoon on October 27 till midday October 31 (when it re-opened after Disneyland Park received all required approvals and permissions to do so from the authorities) after one car derailed on what is assumed to have been the ride’s second lifthill. Now the french website Midi Libre has published the first photo taken on-site of the derailed car.

When the attraction reopened on October 31st capacity was significantly reduced with only three trains operating. However, one of the three trains runing was a train retrofitted earlier this year with enhancements to the lap-bar system in all carriages. As can be seen in the photos on board of this train all lap-bars feature a vertical bar going down from the actual lap-bar in the middle of it. Also a forward extension of the seating has been installed featuring a ”hump” right under the position in which the new vertical element of the lap bar comes down. This two element-system adds a separation between the two guests in each row, prevents sliding on the seats and makes it more difficult especially for smaller guests / children to wriggle out of the lap bar system – thus increasing further guests safety. A predecessor of this new system had been tested in selected carriages at the end of at least one train in the past year already.

The new system should have no impact on the ride’s capacity as on October 31st repeatedly parents with one young / small child were seated in one row nevertheless with the kid being placed with one leg to each side of the “hump” thus in an especially safe position.