Six Flags Great Adventure Riders Briefly Stuck After Power Goes Out
JACKSON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A power outage at Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park Sunday left some thrill seekers briefly stranded on rides and a long line of customers waiting for refunds.
Officials said a faulty transformer caused the outage at the park in Jackson Township. No injuries were reported.
Great Adventure spokeswoman Kaitlyn Turi said all guests who were on rides when the outage occurred were safely unloaded within 20 minutes.
"They had looks of terror on their face," said park visitor Jackie Klempay.
William Shaunessy told CBS 2's Don Champion he and his family got stuck on the El Toro wooden roller coaster.
"All of a sudden everything just shut down and we're like OK, we're just stuck here. How do we get off?" he said.
Turi said all of the rides at the park are designed with computer systems that provide safe locations for rides to stop, and ride operators are trained to help guests safely disembark.
"We got to jump off the roller coaster kind of. It was kinda like 3 feet down," said parkgoer Kaila Negrin.
Power was restored to portions of the park a short time later, and following a safety check, some rides resumed normal operations.
"They said when the power comes back on they have to have an inspector check the ride, I believe at least twice," said another attendee.
But some parkgoers said they were frustrated by what they said was a lack of communication from the park.
"Everybody was just looking at us and nobody was like 'oh guys this ride is back on track, you can go now,'" said Laura Tovar.
By nightfall power crews were seen at the park checking out the situation.
Some visitors who stuck around the rest of the day, in turn, dealt with longer than normal lines, Champion reported.
"The lines were taking an hour to get through, so we basically rode those couple of rides," said Gary Singer.
Some visitors were given vouchers for a future visit because of the power outage.
Some park visitors took to Twitter to post photos or described the scene.
six flags great adventure - these ppl want to speak to a manager y security? pic.twitter.com/xbEgnOY6a7
— Neal Merchant (@nealtronics) September 14, 2014
power outage at six flags great adventure - the line for refunds pic.twitter.com/DcctQ3fNuW
— Neal Merchant (@nealtronics) September 14, 2014
All the rides are down at Six Flags Great Adventure. Looks like one of the electric cabinets has some issues, it's smoking.
— Princesshu (@princesshu) September 14, 2014
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