A day out at a theme park is usually a fun-filled experience for friends and families alike. However, this wasn’t the case for some visitors at a popular theme park in the United States, who were left stranded on a broken-down ride for an “agonising” period of time. The incident, which led to angry reactions from visitors, highlights the importance of safety measures and adequate maintenance of theme park rides. In this article, we will take a closer look at what happened and shed light on how theme park operators can prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
A group of people visiting Barry Island Pleasure Park in Wales found themselves stranded on the Top Scan ride for 15 minutes while engineers struggled to fix a sudden malfunction that occurred at around 3:30pm on April 7th. The Top Scan ride is known for its circular and upside-down movements, but riders were left upright when the ride unexpectedly came to a halt.
One father, Nick Linsey, watched as his two children became trapped on the ride moments after it began. Speaking to WalesOnline, he expressed concern that the park staff had not provided any information to the passengers. One passenger on the ride was blind, which made the situation particularly uncomfortable as no one could offer an explanation for the delay or the strategy to fix it.
Henry Danter, the owner of the amusement park, expressed satisfaction with his staff’s handling of the issue. He did, however, stress that staff should have notified the riders of what was happening if the ride had been stuck for more than 30 minutes. Danter also apologized to all the riders and issued them tokens to compensate for the inconvenience.
Linsey, who is 31 years old, recounted the ordeal in detail. He saw park engineers using screwdrivers to fix seats before the ride started. The ride functioned correctly for a few moments, after which it stopped abruptly, halting the music and leaving passengers confused. After a few minutes, a woman arrived and tried to restart the ride by pressing buttons, but without success. Ten minutes passed, and another engineer arrived with a harness to examine a button, but the ride still wouldn’t restart. After several attempts, it eventually started functioning again, and the riders were safely lowered to the ground.
Despite the inconvenience, Danter offered all the riders free passes to the rides and his apologies. He attributed the malfunction to dampness or lack of use during the winter season. “Everything is checked every morning at the park, and we have a very good safety record,” he said. “I’ve been operating rides for over 70 years, and I’ve never had more than a bump, bruise, or broken nail.”
Overall, Linsey was relieved that no one was seriously injured but emphasized that the experience was unpleasant. He also expressed annoyance at the lack of timely communication from park staff and hoped that the incident would remind them of the need to keep passengers informed in a timely and detailed manner.
