A roller coaster abruptly stopped in the middle of a loop at the Forest County Festival in Crandon, Wisconsin Sunday (July 2), causing eight people to get stuck upside down on the ride for several hours.
The Crandon Fire Department told WFJW an unspecified mechanical failure stalled the ride. But because of its height and release mechanism, specialized rescue teams and aid equipment were needed to remove the riders, the fire department added.
The Rescue
It took about 45 minutes for a ladder truck with a 100-foot (30-meter) platform to arrive at the scene. Luckily, an off-duty firefighter with ropes rescue training was at the scene to assist and advise how to pull the people out of the ride.
In a video shared on social media, firefighters talk to passengers to keep them calm while others grind metal to help release the riders. One by one in the span of about two hours, the riders were safely lowered and taken to the hospital for treatment.
Days before the incident, a local man reported a crack in a steel support beam of the Fury 325, a 325-foot-tall (99-meter) roller coaster at the Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte last week. Fury 325 was reportedly the "tallest, fastest, longest giga coaster in North America", and it was closed for inspection and repair.
