Twenty-four people were stuck on the Joker's Jinx roller coaster at Maryland’s Six Flags America Sunday and had to be rescued by firefighters using a bucket lift.
Seventeen adults and seven children were stuck about 45 feet above ground when the Joker’s Jinx roller coaster stopped on the tracks in Upper Marlboro, Maryland,
a Six Flags spokesperson told KHOU. Other media reports said some parts of the coaster were almost 80 feet in the air.
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The spokesperson said a computerized safety system “performed as it is designed to,” and it wasn’t clear yet what caused the incident, KHOU said.
Photos from the people stuck on the ride appeared online Sunday as they waited to be rescued.
One of the riders,
interviewed in an Associated Press video posted on YouTube, said they were sideways in the car. Most of the cars were upright, but a few were at the beginning of a twist on the coaster.
“I was afraid the thing was going to fall and we were going to die,” an unnamed rider told the AP.
It took about four hours to get everyone down.
One of the challenges rescuers faced was that when a car’s release mechanism was triggered, all the riders in the car would be released.
NBC Washington said rescuers has to harness each person and then release them from the cars.
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