Officials say two people were hospitalized, one seriously, in a roller coaster accident at California’s Great America amusement park in Santa Clara.
The roller coaster is called Flight Deck because it was designed to resemble the experience of flying a fighter jet, including hanging upside down for much of the swoops. The roller coaster opened in 1993 as Top Gun.
The ride, which lasts two minutes, will reopen after the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration completes its probe, said Roger Ross, a Great America spokesman. Park officials explain in a statement, a park employee was hospitalized for traumatic injuries after being struck by a train returning to the station of the Flight Deck coaster. The passenger, whose legs were injured as well as his pinkie, was rushed into surgery to save the finger and released Saturday. Apparently, the employee entered a restricted area to retrieve an item.
No further details have been released.
This isn’t the first time Great America has accidents occur. Here’s a list:
1980: A 13-year-old boy was killed while attempting to board the Willard’s Whizzer roller coaster when two trains collided. Eight other passengers were injured.
1989: Two boys intentionally jumped out of the Loggers’ Run ride. One was killed and the other fell onto a platform and was injured.
1991: Two couples were injured on the Yankee Clipper as their boat hydroplaned and then capsized, leaving the riders temporarily trapped under the upside-down boat. The attraction was later modified to include a bump at the bottom of the drop to prevent hydroplaning.
1998: After riding Flight Deck, a 24-year-old Spanish-speaking man from Hayward who could not read the English-language warning signs, entered a locked, gated area underneath the ride to retrieve his hat. He was hit by the foot of a passenger on the Flight Deck train and later died. The passenger suffered a broken leg.
1999: A disabled 12-year-old boy fell to his death on Drop Tower after slipping from the ride’s restraints, which were still locked at the end of the ride.
2007: A 4-year-old boy drowned in the Boomerang Bay’s Great Barrier Reef wave pool.
SOURCE: SAN JOSE MERCURY
