North Carolina roller coaster shuts down after crack spotted
A North Carolina amusement park temporarily shut down one of its biggest coasters after a visitor spotted a crack in the support beam. The visitor who sounded the alarm shares the story live on 'Fox & Friends.'
The North Carolina theme park where a fracture on a roller coaster support column was discovered by a park guest last week said it will replace the part after video footage of the crack went viral.
The Carowinds amusement park outside Charlotte said Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers Inc., the manufacturer of the Fury 325 roller coaster, is currently fabricating the new column and will deliver it next week.
"Following the installation of the new column, and as part of our normal protocol for rides such as Fury 325, we will conduct an extensive series of tests to ensure the safety and integrity of the coaster," the park said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "These will include an accelerometer test that uses sensors to measure any variation in the ride experience. After that, we plan to operate the ride for 500 full cycles, performing tests and inspections of the entire ride throughout that period."
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A crack on Carowinds Fury 325 giga roller coaster was spotted last week and inspectors were at the North Carolina park on Monday. On Thursday, the park said a new support column was being made to replace the defective one. (Credit: Jeremy Wagner)
Once that phase is complete, the park will ask B&M and a third-party testing firm to perform a final inspection to ensure the ride meets all required specifications, the park said.
The ride, billed by the park as America's "tallest" and "fastest" giga roller coaster, was closed after a park visitor filmed the defect in a video that went viral.
"What caught my attention was I was looking up, and I saw… what looked to be a crack, and I saw light through the other side," Jeremy Wagner told "Fox & Friends" this week.
"And I'm like, okay… you can see all the way through that," he continued. "So it's not halfway cracked. It's completely cracked… you can see light through it, and that's what caught my attention."
The roller coaster reaches speeds of up to 95 mph and has a peak height of 325 feet, which is followed by a "dramatic 81-degree drop." The park said it plans to implement additional inspection procedures in an effort to identify any potential issues with the Fury 325 in the future.
"These new measures will include the regular use of drones outfitted with cameras to access and inspect hard-to-reach areas," it said.
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A re-opening date for the ride has not been determined.
