A popular attraction recently malfunctioned and collapsed with young children and adults onboard, leaving two injured.
The unfortunate incident occurred on the Shipwrecked attraction at the Isle of Wight’s Blackgang Chine amusement park, the oldest theme park in the United Kingdom. Witnesses said the attraction suddenly lurched to one side, leaving screaming children and adult thrill-seekers frantically trying to clamber to safety as shocked onlookers tried to help free the stuck Guests.
An Isle of Wight NHS Trust Ambulance spokesperson said, ‘Two people were taken to hospital by ambulance with minor injuries.’ The two men were taken to the hospital, one with leg injuries and the other with shoulder pain. Fortunately, nobody suffered any severe injuries.
In an interview with Metro.co.uk, Ellie Westlake, whose two brothers-in-law were injured during the accident, said:
My family, which includes a three-year-old, were on the ride and it began to make an odd sound.
It then collapsed, which caused them all to go to one side and be squished.
My partner ran to grab my nephew and ended up pulling everyone else off the ride.
After everyone was off, we noticed my brother-in-law, who is 20, hurt his leg and was unable to move it or feel anything in his left leg.
My other brother-in-law has done something to his shoulder. They both got rushed to St Mary’s Hospital in Newport.
My partner has also damaged his shoulders and neck from pulling people off the ride.
A Blackgang Chine spokesperson stated the following:
Here at Blackgang Chine we experienced an incident with our Shipwrecked ride on Monday.
Our team have quickly responded to the incident and all guests were quickly and safely evacuated.
The safe performance of our rides is key to what we do and we would like to reassure all guests that we have stringent safety control procedures in place that we were able to instantly deploy.
We can confirm that no serious injuries were sustained and an NHS Ambulance attended the scene.
The accident occurred at the theme park, which opened way back in 1843, in Blackgang, on Monday. The Park was shut for the rest of the day but reopened on Tuesday.
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Credit: Blackgang Chine
