A "traumatised" family has left a scathing review after being stranded on a rollercoaster in Southport.
The family had gone for a day out at Pleasureland in Southport, but their trip was left in tatters with the Rocket rollercoaster came to a dramatic halt halfway through its run.
The incident saw the rollercoaster grind to a halt, leaving thrill seekers stranded. Staff at Pleasureland eventually had to use a cherry picker to rescue 19 people from the ride, the Liverpool ECHO reports.
An unconscious child also had to be rushed to Alder Hey hospital after being rescued from the rollercoaster.
Terrified passengers were left dangling 20ft above the ground, with one furious passenger taking to TripAdvisor to share their anger over the incident.
In the scathing review, they wrote: "We returned and the look of sheer horror on their faces was instantly noticeable.
"We ascertained that the ride which was alongside the Dodgems has stopped mid-ride. This ride was The Rocket. We quickly heard that two youngsters had taken ill on the ride and passed out due to the ride being, in onlookers' opinions, operated incorrectly and too fast.
"There was talk of how the carriage had come off the tracks. Unfortunately, I personally witnessed three members of staff laughing and making jokes about how the ride was stuck yet again and how 'it always happens'.
"The severity of the situation was becoming ever more clear whilst our party went on the swing ride."
"The owners said they had not received any claims from other people of staff acting inappropriately and said they "normally have nothing but positive comments about how helpful and polite our staff are."
They continued: "Numerous paramedics, ambulances and the fire brigade were present on site. Again I heard staff mocking people who were in the carriages which I found wholeheartedly disgusting.
"The ride remained closed for the duration of our visit however on the website it was showing that both the rocket and the rollercoaster were closed on the 27th for maintenance. I can confirm both rides were operating when we were there, the rollercoaster in particular was operational throughout the day and closed once.
"During the visit, many more rides were stopped due to malfunctions (the swing, the rollercoaster, the log flume, the small cars rides at the outside of the park...) These were just what we witnessed."
A spokesperson for Southport Pleasureland said: "Our response thanked the customer for taking the time to email us and for such detailed feedback. And we apologised that guests were disappointed after their recent visit.
"We have already given a statement explaining that carriages on one of our coasters stopped (they did not come off the tracks) on Saturday morning and our investigation into this is ongoing. Its safety shutdown mechanism triggered minutes into the ride, something the system is programmed to do – bringing the ride to a halt should any fault be detected. This is an important, standard safety mechanism.
"All routine maintenance checks had been carried out, as they are on all rides each morning, before the ride went into commission. The ride did exactly what its safety settings are programmed to do and stopped on detecting a fault. It was the first run of the day.
"No one was at any risk of falling from the ride, the carriages were secure on the track and the park’s Operations Director immediately made his way up the gantry to speak to riders and explain that they would be brought off the ride safely, as part of the park’s instant response safety process.
"At the same time, the maintenance crew was further immobilising carriages to ensure passengers’ safe exit from the ride via one of the park’s cherry pickers. This was done by our team and not by the fire service. On seeing how the park was handling the situation and safely retrieving passengers, the fire brigade commended the team, took no action and left the scene. Ambulance and Fire services are called automatically as part of our response.
"As a consequence of calling maintenance staff to attend the coaster, one or two of the other rides were off for a very short while during the day as we carried out additional checks. This is because rides’ systems require reset buttons to be pressed – something that is maintenance’s responsibility. We apologised for the short disruption this presented, which was done to ensure the safety of all our guests. As per the terms and conditions of ticket purchase we do not offer refunds if some rides are not operational (and those that were out of commission for a short time).
"We have had some other emails but none of them have mentioned any of our staff making inappropriate comments, however, we do take this matter very seriously as we normally have nothing but positive comments about how helpful and polite our staff are, so we will certainly use this customer’s feedback to reinforce the importance of this at all times, and can speak in particular to the operator of the trampolines in relation to the guest’s account of her experience.
"With regard the information required for the carer ticket, this is standard procedure at all parks and helps us to ensure that the tickets are going to those who qualify and deserve them, however in response to customer feedback we have updated our website to make it clear that we can accept digital images of the documents, and thanked the customer for this useful feedback.
"The park was busy and that is to be expected over the bank holiday and so unfortunately short queues were inevitable, but the many seating areas and picnic spots around the park are there to assist enabling one family member to queue and others to rest. The busy nature of the park and some staff shortages will also have led to our housekeeping team being slower to respond.
"We will improve on this going forward. We do try to enforce our no-smoking policy and are having additional signs made. Our team are trained to politely ask guests to go outside of the park if they wish to smoke, but having asked a guest once to do so it is not within our ability to physically remove them if they decline to do so, however, we will continue to reinforce the importance of asking our team members to continue to be vigilant and make the polite request of our guests.
"Correct fitting of wristbands by staff is standard procedure as they are not transferable, or refundable if lost. If guests prefer to fit them themselves then this is permitted but we do try to assist all guests to ensure they have them correctly fitted.
"The website is updated daily to make guests aware of any rides that are not operating for any reason even for a short time, but it is not always viable to update the website multiple times each day, and so when a ride is made operational again even though we will endeavour to remove the closure notification as soon as possible on our website this may take some time to be actioned."
