{"id":672042,"date":"2026-05-29T11:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/672042\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:49:14","slug":"8-students-rescued-from-galveston-texas-roller-coaster-that-was-stuck-for-hours-at-pleasure-pier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/672042\/","title":{"rendered":"8 students rescued from Galveston, Texas roller coaster that was stuck for hours at Pleasure Pier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">GALVESTON, Texas &#8212; Crews have rescued eight students who were stuck for hours on Pleasure Pier&#8217;s Iron Shark roller coaster in Galveston, Texas on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"SkyEye13 showed riders being rescued from a stopped roller coaster at Galveston's Pleasure Pier on Thursday afternoon.\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR zFTjo hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/19189659_052826-ktrk-skyeye-TN-galveston-ride-stuck-img.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>SkyEye13 showed riders being rescued from a stopped roller coaster at Galveston&#8217;s Pleasure Pier on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Galveston Fire Department Chief Mike Varela Jr. said that at 5:37 p.m., firefighters received a call of eight riders stuck in the Iron Shark roller coaster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Houston ISD confirmed that the eight riders involved were students, who were participating in a field trip organized by Energized for STEM Academy Middle School and STEM Academy High School.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On Thursday night, HISD sent a statement that read in part:<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We are grateful that all students, staff, and chaperones are safe. School administration is in direct contact with the families of all students who were on the trip.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Eyewitness News reviewed video from our live camera in Galveston and found that the ride stopped at 5:21 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The roller coaster on the pier, Iron Shark, is the tallest and has a 100-foot vertical lift hill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">SkyEye13 showed that the amusement park was closed during the rescue operation. Galveston Fire Department&#8217;s Tower 1 engine occupied space on the pier to allow first responders to conduct the rescue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Landry&#8217;s Inc., which owns Pleasure Pier, confirmed that the ride experienced a malfunction but stopped as it was designed to do in a situation like this. The statement read in part:<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#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><br class=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GALVESTON, Texas &#8212; Crews have rescued eight students who were stuck for hours on Pleasure Pier&#8217;s Iron Shark&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[293191,178327,23,4,3,178328,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-672042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-293191","tag-abc13-live-stream","tag-america","tag-breaking-news","tag-news","tag-streaming-updates-from-houston-texas","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}