Amusement Park Ride That Swings People 125 Feet In The Air Shut Down After Cable Snaps

The Skyhawk (via Cedar Point)

The Skyhawk (via Cedar Point)

The last thing you want to have happen when you’re flying 125 feet above the ground at 60 miles per hour is to have something break. So when a cable snapped on an Ohio amusement park’s ride while visitors were in mid-air, witnesses say things got a bit scary.

Two people were injured when a cable snapped loose on the Skyhawk ride at Cedar Point on Saturday, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The ride swings people 125 feet into the air at high speed.

One visitor described it as “something whip, then bang and screaming,” right after the cable broke loose.

“After the cable broke, the ride slowed down and eventually stopped. Everyone was screaming and very scared,” he recalled.

He said at least one of the injured people was not on the ride but was watching when he was apparently hit with wood debris after the cable broke through the fence where spectators often watch the giant arms swinging people through the air.

“At approximately 10 p.m., a cable on one of the Skyhawk swing ride’s carriages disconnected. The ride’s crew immediately shut down the ride and notified the park’s emergency personnel,” the park said in a statement. “The cable came in contact with two guests. One was treated and released at the scene. As a precaution, the other was transported to a local hospital for evaluation.”

A Cedar Point spokesman says that the guest who was taken to the hospital has been treated and released, and that the ride will be shut down for the time being.

The same ride was shut down for a few weeks in 2013 for mechanical problems that the park says are unrelated to the latest incident.

Two injured in ride accident at Cedar Point; Skyhawk has had problems before [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

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