'You need to shut this ride down:' Man speaks out after finding crack on Carowinds rollercoaster
Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte closed a roller coaster Friday after a visitor discovered a crack in a support pillar.
"It separated like that. Every car came through. Every time it shook. It separated like it did," said Jeremy Wagner, a Carowinds visitor.
Wagner, who found the fracture in the Fury 325 rollercoaster, says he noticed part of it moving away from a support beam. He then captured a video to show the first employee he could find.
Unfortunately, Wagner says he did not get the expected reaction when bringing it to the staff's attention.
"He said, well, I don't see anything. and I said, you don't see that crack? Because you can literally see it go around the whole thing," said Wagner. "I told him, you need to shut this ride down."
However, Wagner said that employee and the next one he flagged down had no sense of urgency.
"And mind you, he says his family, including son and daughter, were on that ride several times that day," said Wagner.
Wagner also talks about what was going through his mind knowing that he caught the crack on video.
"I could have seen not just my kid but somebody else's kid coming off that rollercoaster," said Wagner.
He says on the way home, he got in touch with the fire department in that area and told them what was going on, and someone tried to get him answers.
"He called me back within 10 minutes and said they shut the ride down for investigation," said Wagner.
Carowinds released a statement saying safety is the park's top priority and all rides, including Fury 325, go through daily inspections.
However, Wagner says he is not satisfied with that response.
Tiffany Newton, a regular at Carowinds, shared a photo with WRAL and said she happened to take the photo on June 24, a week before Wagner's video. Newton says she only noticed what looks like the beginning of that break after Wagner's video went viral online.
The ride was shut down Friday, and WRAL contacted Courtney Weber with Carowinds' communication team.
Carowinds accepted no interviews but said an investigation is underway.
