Key Points
Wonderland Amusement Park’s Texas Tornado roller coaster appeared to derail mid-ride over the weekend.
The “roller coaster stopped while riders were on board,” a park representative said in a statement.
Emergency crews responded and evacuated riders from the 41-year-old, double-looping steel coaster.
Weeks after a 103-year-old British roller coaster derailed mid-ride, a double-looping steel roller coaster in Texas appeared to experience a similar incident, per imagery shared online.
After images surfaced on social media showing two of five cars on the Wonderland Amusement Park‘s Texas Tornado roller coaster in a misaligned position, the owner of the Amarillo, Texas-based park told Entertainment Weekly in a statement that the “roller coaster stopped while riders were on board” Saturday night.
“The Amarillo Fire Department responded and assisted with safely evacuating guests from the ride. No injuries were reported,” wrote park CEO Jimmy Holmes in an email to EW.
Wonderland Amusement Park’s Texas Tornado
Credit: Wonderland
He confirmed that the Texas Tornado, which opened in 1981 and features an 80-foot drop and a pair of vertical loops, “will remain closed while we conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause and complete any necessary repairs.”
Holmes explained that “the safety of our guests and team members is always our highest priority” at the Wonderland Amusement Park, and thanked “the Amarillo Fire Department for its prompt assistance and thank our guests for their patience and cooperation.”
Local news reports indicated that 18 riders were on the coaster at the time of the incident, with all being evacuated from a high point on the coaster’s 2,050 feet of track. The region’s ABC7 station reported that “three engines and a ladder truck responded” to the scene, where “firefighters used an aerial ladder to help the riders safely exit the roller coaster.”
According to the station, one person was evaluated by Amarillo Medical Services, though it was unclear if the individual was subsequently treated at a hospital or not.
EW has reached out to local authorities for more information on the incident.
Wonderland first opened in 1951, and currently operates four roller coasters. The ride has operated for 41 years and is one of only a handful of coasters ever designed by the Hopkins Rides company. Texas Tornado marked the company’s first-ever coaster, while their last of seven total builds opened in 1996.
Accidents of this nature are extremely rare on modern theme park and amusement park attractions; however, in July, Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s wooden Big Dipper roller coaster, which opened in 1923, also appeared to derail. One rider who said she was on board the coaster at the time of the reported incident described the ordeal in a TikTok comment, writing, “As we were going down the track split slightly sending the last cart sideways as you can see in the video.”
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She continued, telling one commenter underneath her video of the alleged incident that the split led to “breaking all the rails up the way,” and since “the last cart was pulling along the track,” the ride vehicles “slowed down and we all went backwards” before she said another car collided with the one she was in.
At the time, a Blackpool Pleasure Beach official told EW via email that an “internal investigation is currently taking place to determine the root cause. As is most important in these scenarios, all riders were checked by first aid trained staff and no injuries were reported.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly