July 2 (UPI) — Carowinds, an amusement park in North Carolina, has closed its popular Fury 325 rollercoaster after cracks appeared while people were riding it.
The crack in the Fury 325, which Carowinds bills as the tallest and fastest giga coaster in North America, was apparently first spotted Friday by a former paramedic while waiting to pick up his children in the parking lot.
Jeremy Wagner, the paramedic, told WBTV he alerted officials to the damage and has since shared a video he took of the crack to Facebook. The video shows unaware riders screaming as they flew past the crack.
After news of the crack made headlines in Charlotte, a woman named Tiffany Collins Newton who had visited the amusement park a week prior shared a photo on Facebook from June 24 that appeared to show the crack forming.
“I decided to look back and see if the crack was visible last week,” Newton said. “Well, it was.”
Newton said she hopes that the incident will lead to more inspections and extensive checks of rollercoasters in the future.
A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Labor’s Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau confirmed to The Charlotte Observer that inspectors plan to visit the park Monday to investigate.
The amusement park has since shut down Fury 325 and is conducting its own thorough inspection, a spokesperson for the park told The Charlotte Observer.
“Safety is our top priority, and we appreciate the patience and understanding of our valued guests during this process,” spokesperson Courtney Weber said.
Weber said the amusement park inspects all rides including Fury 325 daily. It was not immediately clear how the park missed the crack during its daily inspections.
