A couple of Minnesota families had a frighteningly close call on a Wisconsin Dells ride this week. Carrie Sueker and Trevor Larson were getting ready to try “The Catapult” slingshot ride at the Mt. Olympus Theme Park and Resort, and the incident was all caught on video. Luckily, nobody was injured, but things could have gone a very different way.
Kare 11 shares the story of Sueker and Larson’s close call. The two were having some laughs as friends and family heckled them during the safety checks and preparation for the ride. Carrie and Trevor were traveling with a group to a basketball tournament, and it seems they stopped in the Wisconsin Dells for a bit of fun at the Mt. Olympus Theme Park and Resort.
Trevor’s dad, Dru Larson, shared the video on his Facebook page. As Trevor and Carrie were being strapped in, people can be heard in the background joking about the ropes looking frayed, insurance waivers, and other buzz about how scary the ride looked. Just as the ride was about to begin, the bungee cords on one side snapped and came crashing down.
The snap was so fast and violent that there was a hole left in the concrete, and the spectators were stunned. Sueker and Larson themselves didn’t quite realize what had happened as they sat there. Carrie notes that they just knew that something had gone wrong, but it took a moment to grasp just what could have happened.
While Sueker didn’t initially realize the magnitude of how serious the incident was, or could have been, the reality wasn’t lost on Dru. He says that at first it was just disbelief, then relief that the two were fine. Nobody got hit by the crashing bungee cords, and naturally many can imagine how far worse things would have been had the Catapult ride have been airborne when the cords snapped.
Larson says that he did talk to the ride’s owner after the incident, who said that they’ve never had a problem like this with the Catapult. Apparently, however, the bungee cords did break once before, about four years ago. The families were reimbursed for their Mt. Olympus stay and the ride cost. Apparently they were also offered another chance to ride the Catapult, but neither were up for trying it again.
This seemingly isn’t the first ride incident at the Mt. Olympus Theme Park and Resort. A roller coaster was permanently removed last year after a man fell due to a safety bar that came unlocked. He fell 17 feet and suffered a brain injury and multiple fractures. It’s not entirely unusual to hear of theme park ride incidents these days, though at least in this case, the riders were lucky and uninjured.
According to WSAW, the theme park has now indicated that the Catapult ride will be removed as well. It seems that the ride is owned by a separate vendor, Casco, Inc., not the resort itself. Mt. Olympus indicates that after reviewing the incident, they are requiring that the vendor cease operation of the ride and remove it from the Wisconsin Dells park.
[Image via Wikimedia ]