Why do roller coasters get stuck

At the time of the incident, the Mumbo Jumbo was the steepest roller coaster in the world, with a record-setting vertical angle of degrees. In every sense, it figured to be an exciting run around the rails, but five passengers got the ultimate interruption — the cars halted dead, upside down , thanks to a poncho that somehow messed with the mechanism of the track.

Lesson here: Ponchos are never good. This, in a way, is a good thing. The sudden halts often aren't "breakdowns" but deliberate safety features, as was the case on the Mumbo Jumbo.

Sadly, though, that safety mechanism landed those five people a tense, dizzy 20 minutes suspended upside down, 50 feet above the ground. One of the dozen was taken to the hospital for severe neck and head pain, while a little girl, according to rider Connie McDade, was frightened and suffered a nosebleed.

This was a big one. The Demon roller coaster at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, had a hell of a shutdown in , ultimately having consequences for both the passengers trapped aboard and the company itself. The riders were stranded upside down for an unthinkable two hours , while park officials and firefighters sought to free them.

Four people ended up hospitalized. Subsequent investigations suggested that the shutdown was the result of a safety system kicking in due to a mechanical failure, a fact which Great America emphasized in their own defense. In , at an amusement park in China's Shandong Province, a roller coaster ride boasting just two passengers, a father and son, broke down mid-loop, leaving the pair hanging helplessly while park staff tried to figure out what had gone wrong.

Usually, these stories either end with the mechanical issues being straightened out, or the authorities being called in. Read more about what information we store and how we use it in our Privacy Policy.

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When he's not on stage, pretending to be a lawyer, or rooting for the Blues, he's writing for places like Humor Outcasts, Word Brothel, Points in Case, and Funny or Die. He's also the head writer and editor of the humor satire collective, Waxing Humorous.

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