A fun-filled rollercoaster ride turned into a nightmare for eight riders, which included an 8-year-old girl, after they were stuck at the top of a 72-foot-high rollercoaster which was stalled at an amusement park in United Kindom.
As per SkyNews, the unfortunate incident took place at the Adventure Island theme park in Southend, Essex on Friday (July 28). The riders were stranded on the ride and were hanging vertically for around 40 minutes before the officials rescued them and brought them back to the ground.
A video of the riders stranded at a 90-degree angle and facing skywards at the Rage attraction at the Adventure Island theme park was going viral on social media platforms. The riders were stranded that the ride’s highest point, which has been advertised as the “biggest and best” rollercoaster of the Adventure Island, with “loops, twists, and flat-out speeds”.
“Just after 2 pm today, a carriage on Rage stopped on the lift,” said Marc Miller, managing director of the Stockvale Group – which has been running the Adventure Island.
“Our highly trained team immediately initiated our ride evacuation plan, which has been certified by the Health and Safety Executives and Essex Fire and Rescue. All passengers were returned to the ground, safe and sound and reunited with their families within 40 minutes,” Miller stated.
Speaking about the incident, an eyewitness, meanwhile, said that the people on board the ride were harnessed and saved from the frightening predicament at the amusement park.
According to the New York Post, one mother, who had visited the amusement park with her six-year-old daughter, while talking about the situation said that the rollercoaster was stuck during its ascent just before 2 pm local time.
“It was all quite calm to be fair, the park seemed to handle it really, really well,” said the woman. “They were reassuring them, there was no screaming or mass hysteria, though obviously there was a large crowd of people around and lots of people there,” she stated.
