Riders Evacuated from Carowinds Roller Coaster

All riders were safely evacuated from a roller coaster that became stuck shortly before 10 p.m Saturday at Carowinds. About 20 children and adults were stuck about 20 feet in the air on the Flying Ace Aerial Chase coaster before park staff was able to get them down according to Carowinds spokeswoman Laresa Thompson.

Carowinds amusement park reps did not release the cause of a problem but said that the ride has safety features that shut it down if computers detect any kind of glitch. The ride did exactly what is was supposed to do when it detects any kind of malfunction, and that is shut down. There were no injuries reported from the incident and everyone was safely evacuated.

At just 49 feet high, The Flying Ace Aerial Chase is the tallest ride in the Planet Snoopy kids area. The ride is an inverted coaster, meaning you hang under the track in a seat as your feet dangle with nothing below. It lasts 90 seconds, and has a top speed of 26 miles-per-hour.

“With 320 million visitors to parks every year, and 3 billion rides given, you can expect to have a few mishaps,” said Brett Lovejoy, former president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

A ride being stopped by it’s computerized safety system is normal in the amusement park industry. Often guests see this happen and think something terrible has happened, but in reality the ride has done it’s job keeping everyone safe. The chance of a fatal injury at a theme park is one in 1.5 billion [Source: CPSC]. By comparison, the chance of fatal injury in a car crash is almost 15 in 10,000 [Source: U.S. Department of Transportation]. You’re about twice as likely to suffer a shark attack as you are to sustain an injury at a theme park requiring a hospital stay. So yeah, theme park rides are incredibly safe.

Carowinds just reopened to visitors last month when the park unveiled it’s new roller coaster Fury 325. We had a death in the family and unfortunately couldn’t attend the parks media day, but our friends over at In the Loop attended! Check out the video below from the big reveal.

For tickets and more information, visit the official Carowinds website here.

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