{"id":313325,"date":"2026-05-29T02:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313325\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T02:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:23:13","slug":"live-now-riders-stuck-on-texas-rollercoaster-as-terrifying-rescue-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313325\/","title":{"rendered":"Live now: Riders stuck on Texas rollercoaster as terrifying rescue underway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Riders were stranded atop the Iron Shark roller coaster in Galveston on Thursday evening. The ride came to a halt around 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>GALVESTON, Texas \u2014 There&#8217;s a developing story in Galveston as riders are stuck on a roller coaster at Pleasure Pier.<\/p>\n<p>A live look from a KHOU 11 camera shows the Iron Shark roller coaster stuck near the top of the ride. A ladder was stretched toward the top to help the riders.<\/p>\n<p>According to people at the pier, there were eight Houston STEM students on the coaster when it got stuck. They were on a senior trip, some of the other students said.<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.11alive.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                This story continues below.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s unclear what happened to make the ride stop, but it reportedly came to a halt at about 5:30 p.m. As of 9 p.m., the ride was still stuck.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Pleasure Pier website, the ride includes a 100-foot vertical lift and a beyond-vertical drop. It reaches speeds of 52 miles per hour, and riders have to be 42 inches tall to get on.<\/p>\n<p>The Galveston Fire Department was at the scene to help get the riders down. The process involved each person being put in a harness and bringing them down one by one.<\/p>\n<p>Terry Turney, Chief Operating Officer of Pleasure Pier, says the ride stopped as a result of a malfunction.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The ride experienced a malfunction at its initial ascent, however, as designed, it immediately stopped to keep everyone safe,&#8221; Turney said in an emailed statement. &#8220;Our focus immediately shifted to the safety of our guests. Therefore, we contacted the Fire Department to assist, ensuring all guests were safely removed from the ride. A thorough inspection of the ride will take place before it is placed back in service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pleasure Pier was evacuated due to the rescue operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"photo__main\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f8bc59bc-2767-4d59-974d-dc972fa2b62f_1140x641.jpg\"  alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story, and updates will be added to this article when they become available.<\/p>\n<p>Got a news tip or story idea? Email us at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.11alive.com\/article\/news\/nation-world\/live-now-riders-stuck-on-galveston-rollercoaster\/mailto:newstips@khou.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">newstips@khou.com<\/a>\u00a0or call 713-521-4310 and include your name and the best way to reach you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riders were stranded atop the Iron Shark roller coaster in Galveston on Thursday evening. The ride came to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-313325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}