Boy, 6, Falls 15 Feet Off 'Twister' Roller Coaster at a Theme Park in England
A 6-year-old boy was airlifted to a nearby hospital after tragically falling 15 feet off a roller coaster in England.
Thursday morning, witnesses at Lightwater Valley Theme Park in North Yorkshire said they heard screams before seeing the “boy hanging backwards outside of the actual carriage,” Sky News reported.
“He obviously got himself out of his restraint somehow,” witness Mark Charnley told the outlet. “Two seconds after that, he actually fell out of the carriage to the floor, maybe around 12-15 feet he fell.”
Charnley said that’s when everyone in line for the ride — called the Twister — began shouting and pleading with the operator to shut down the ride “as he hadn’t noticed what had gone on.”
“Two guys dove over the actual barriers to get to the lad who was on the floor,” Charnley told Sky News.
A second witness named Lara-Susan James told BBC News, “We could hear a girl screaming, and I mean screaming.”
“I thought she was just scared of being on the ride, but she was hysterical. They were part of a bigger party of people visiting the park, and they were on the ground just ahead of us,” James said.
“I saw the operator apply the emergency stop and my husband pointed to the fallen kid on the ground saying they had fallen out,” James told BBC News.
At around 11:30 a.m. local time, North Yorkshire police arrived on the scene on reports of a “medical incident.”
The child was later taken to Leeds General Infirmary by helicopter.
Lightwater Valley has since released a statement confirming the incident on their website.
“We can confirm that following an incident on one of our rides this morning, a child is receiving treatment at a local hospital,” they wrote.
“Emergency services have confirmed the child was conscious when they arrived at the scene and his condition is not believed to be life-threatening,” Lightwater Valley added.
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The ride has since been closed as it’s being monitored by health and safety experts. The rest of the park remains open.
The horrifying incident comes 18 years after a 20-year-old woman named Gemma Savage was killed after two cars collided on the Twister in June 2001, according to The Telegraph.
In response to the boy’s fall, Gemma’s mother Linda Savage told The Telegraph, “Lessons clearly have not been learnt. The ride was not fit for purpose 18 years ago and it is still causing problems.”
