Florida roller coaster derails, dropping two riders to ground
(Reuters) - Two roller coaster riders were hospitalized after falling 34 feet (10 meters) to the ground when their car derailed on the Daytona Beach, Florida, boardwalk on Thursday, the fire department said.
The condition of the riders who fell was not known, and calls to the Halifax Health hospital, where they were taken for treatment, were not immediately returned.
Six of 10 riders on the three-car "Sand Blaster" roller coaster were taken to the hospital after the incident, which began at about 8:30 p.m. local time (00:30 GMT), the Daytona Beach Fire Department said in a statement on Friday.
The two people who fell had been in a car that derailed and was left dangling in the air, the fire department said.
It was not clear whether the ejected riders were wearing safety belts.
Two other people in the same car were rescued by firefighters who created a pulley system to lower them to the ground, the statement said. Local media reports said they were dangling for half an hour, held in place by seat belts, before being rescued.
A second car carrying four riders partially derailed, while the third stayed on the tracks.
Arthur Ellis, 62, a computer technician from Daytona Beach, said in an interview on Friday that he saw two men working on the tracks of the Sand Blaster on Thursday morning.
"I'm not sure what they were doing," said Ellis, who noted that they were in one of the cars that was moving slowly on the elevated tracks.
"I just wanted to report it so the investigators knew that the company had people looking at the tracks in the morning," he said, adding that the ride is relatively small compared to those at major roller coaster parks.
The ride's operators could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to the Roller Coaster Data Base, the Sand Blaster was built in 1975 and had been at several amusement parks before it opened in Daytona Beach in 2013. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that the ride was purchased by a Daytona Beach operator in 2012 from a closed amusement park in Delaware.
The Sand Blaster ride does not include an inversion, during which riders are turned upside-down, according to the database.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, the agency that regulates amusement park rides in the state, did not immediately respond to emails and calls seeking comment.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Bill Berkrot)
