The theme park has apologised after 27 passengers were left dangling in mid-air with one mum, whose two kids were on the ride, describing the incident as “terrifying”
A theme park has apologised after 27 people were left stranded on a rollercoaster for three hours. Fire and rescue crews were called to Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft at around 1.30pm on Monday after a car on the Wipeout ride became ‘stuck’ following power cut.
A mum whose children were on the ride described the incident as a “terrifying incident” for everyone involved, but thanked theme park and fire services for doing “a great job.”
In a post on Facebook, Karen Purkiss said: “It didn’t stall, it got stuck on the back straight and when they released it the back brake didn’t stop it from travelling very slowly back onto the loop, swinging back and forth and coming to rest on the middle section.”
Another visitor to the park told the BBC that he had been on another ride when a suspected “power cut” hit the park, affecting several of the rollercoasters. He says that those on board were trapped for three hours before being rescued by fire fighters.
Richard Lines said: “You feel sorry for the ones that were either at the front or the back who were up there for a good three hours — which is a long time.
Pleasurewood Hills have apologised for the “inconvenience” caused by the breakdown, and offered refunds to those who were trapped on the rollercoaster.
The park said: “An incident occurred today on Wipeout which, although we have always planned and prepared for this type of situation, has thankfully never happened at the park before.
The train became stopped at height on the Cobra Roll section of the ride.
The safety and wellbeing of our guests is always our highest priority, with Norfolk and Suffolk Emergency Services attending the park to work alongside our Maintenance Team to safely evacuate all the riders in line with our evacuation procedures. They also thanked the fire department for their assistance in the incident.
The situation was dealt with promptly, and most importantly, all guests were safely evacuated from the ride.”
All 27 passengers on board were safely rescued by Suffolk Fire Department via a ladder and a scissor lift, with no injuries being reported.