A young girl suffered a head injury following a horrific rollercoaster ordeal during which children were left trapped 20 feet in the air for nearly two hours.
The incident took place in Southport, England, where a Pleasureland rollercoaster broke down and stopped mid-air before leaving children dangling off the ride for 90 minutes.
According to the amusement park, the rollercoaster came to a stop after detecting a fault. While park officials insisted no one was at risk of falling, one girl became unconscious and had to be rushed to the hospital after being rescued from the ride.
The child, who was one of 19 people trapped on the rollercoaster, was treated for a head injury at Alder Hay Children’s Hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
“We are sorry for the distress caused to passengers on one of our coasters yesterday. Our immediate priority was looking after everyone’s safe removal from the ride,” Pleasureland announced after the incident.
“Senior management and maintenance team members are today continuing a thorough investigation into carriages stopping on the park’s Rocket Coaster yesterday morning. All routine maintenance checks had been carried out.”
They added: “The ride did exactly what its safety settings are programmed to do and stopped on detecting a fault.
“No one was at any risk of falling from the ride, the carriages were secure on the track and the park’s operations director immediately made his way up the gantry to speak to riders and explain that they would be brought off the ride safely, as part of the park’s instant response safety process.”
Park officials further claimed that first responders tended to the unconscious child and that all other passengers had precautionary check-ups.
The ride has since been closed pending a complete inspection.
Meanwhile, an onlooker recalled the horrifying scene he and his wife witnessed while walking around the park with their 8-year-old son.
“We walked towards The Rocket and I thought something’s not right there,” Michael Bowman told the Mirror.
“We looked up and said ‘oh my god, it’s stuck all the way round’ You could see that it was on an angle and they were all leaning. The parents had hold of the children because they were leaning out of the carriage on the bend.”
As of this writing, the investigation into the incident remains ongoing. The cause of the malfunction is yet to be identified.
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