Current:Home > ScamsA roller coaster was shut down after a crack was found in a support beam. A customer says he spotted it. -Momentum Wealth Path
A roller coaster was shut down after a crack was found in a support beam. A customer says he spotted it.
View
Date:2025-04-18 07:01:18
An amusement park in Charlotte, North Carolina, closed one of its roller coasters Friday after a crack was found on a support beam.
Carowinds shut down Fury 325, which the park's website advertises as the "tallest, fastest, longest giga coaster in North America" that crosses into both North Carolina and South Carolina.
Video of the ride showed the crack in the beam as cars packed with riders whizzed by.
Park patron Jeremy Wagner told CBS Charlotte, N.C. affiliate WBTV he was the one who spotted the crack and took the video.
He said he was waiting for his kids to finish one last ride on the coaster when, "I look up and I see a light come through the pole."
When the next car came by, he pulled out his phone and videoed it.
Wagner told WBTV what he saw when he played it back sent a shock through his chest.
"When the car came by," he said, "I saw (the beam) move."
Posted by Jeremy Wagner on Friday, June 30, 2023
(Credit: Jeremy Wagner via Storyful)
He told The New York Times that as he was shooting the video, "My hands were shaking because I knew how quick this could be catastrophic."
Wagner told WBTV he immediately showed the video to park security to have them shut the ride but didn't get a clear answer on whether park officials would. But Wagner eventually called the fire department and learned that his video did indeed prompt the shutdown of the Fury.
"My heart was like relieved because I was just afraid ... are they gonna do the right thing? I just didn't want to see something bad happen," he remarked to WBTV.
"It takes one time, just one time" for tragedy to strike, he said.
Tiffany Collins Newton told CBS News that on June 24, she took a photo that appeared to show "the beginnings of the crack" on the roller coaster. She said she did not notice the crack until after the ride was closed on Friday and she zoomed in on her recent photos.
The park said in a statement that it shut the ride "after park personnel became aware of a crack at the top of a steel support pillar. The park's maintenance team is conducting a thorough inspection and the ride will remain closed until repairs have been completed. Safety is our top priority and we appreciate the patience and understanding of our valued guests during this process.
"As part of our comprehensive safety protocols," the statement continued, "all rides, including Fury 325, undergo daily inspections to ensure their proper functioning and structural integrity."
Fury 325 first opened to the public in 2015 and cost approximately $30 million to build, according to news reports.
Carowinds didn't say how long repairs would take. The rest of the park will remain open.
State officials said they were going to inspect the ride Monday.
veryGood! (62838)
Related
- Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
- Boat crashes into Lake of the Ozarks home, ejecting passengers and injuring 8
- Listening to the Endangered Sounds of the Amazon Rainforest
- Supreme Court Sharply Limits the EPA’s Ability to Protect Wetlands
- At site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors, hope for answers
- Western Firms Certified as Socially Responsible Trade in Myanmar Teak Linked to the Military Regime
- Confronting California’s Water Crisis
- Supreme Court Sharply Limits the EPA’s Ability to Protect Wetlands
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- A Proposed Utah Railway Could Quadruple Oil Production in the Uinta Basin, if Colorado Communities Don’t Derail the Project
Ranking
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- As EPA Proposes Tougher Rules on Emissions, Report Names Pennsylvania as One of America’s Top Polluters
- Lisa Marie Presley’s Cause of Death Revealed
- New IPCC Report Shows the ‘Climate Time Bomb Is Ticking,’ Says UN Secretary General António Guterres
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- Arrest Made in Connection to Robert De Niro's Grandson Leandro's Death
- A Guardian of Federal Lands, Lambasted by Left and Right
- 3 dead in Serbia after a 2nd deadly storm rips through the Balkans this week
Recommendation
'Malcolm in the Middle’ to return with new episodes featuring Frankie Muniz
Arrest Made in Connection to Robert De Niro's Grandson Leandro's Death
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeals From Fossil Fuel Companies in Climate Change Lawsuits
In California’s Central Valley, the Plan to Build More Solar Faces a Familiar Constraint: The Need for More Power Lines
Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
Climate Change Enables the Spread of a Dangerous Flesh-Eating Bacteria in US Coastal Waters, Study Says
A ‘Rights of Nature’ Fact-Finding Panel to Investigate Mexico’s Tren Maya Railroad for Possible Environmental Violations
What’s the Future of Gas Stations in an EV World?