Coney Island's Cyclone Stuck on Opening Day

Image from HuffPost News

Coney Island's 'Cyclone' Evacuated on Opening Day.

It seems Luna Park at Coney Island isn't off to an excellent start for the 2015 season.

On Saturday, the parks opening day, the first public riders on Cyclone had to be evacuated and walked from the ride by employees when the coaster had a cable within the lift hill motor snap. This stalled the roller coaster's train on the lift-hill making it impossible to continue on it's journey. While riders were in no danger, thanks for the roller coasters anti-rollback system, it was a long walk down.

All riders were safely escorted from the ride and the staff of Coney Island have stated this is a simple fix for their classic roller coaster. They expect to have Cyclone up and running for next Saturday, April 4th, the parks second weekend of operation.

Breaking News: Busch Gardens Tampa's Cheetah Hunt Stuck!

MyFox Tampa Bay is reporting that Busch Gardens Tampa's newest coaster, Cheetah Hunt, has become stuck with riders still aboard. The riders became stuck at the top of the first hill after the station launch around 4:30pm and as of 5:50 they were still on the ride.

Tampa Fire and Rescue are on the scene to help with the evacuation, but due to the location of the track they are having a hard time getting to the riders to assist them. To complicate matters, it's apparently raining pretty good in the area as well.

Back when +Carrie H.C. and I were at the park for Howl-O-Scream, we witnessed a similar event where the train slowed considerably over this portion of the track, with the train barely making it over. At that time it was stopped in the trench before the second, bigger launch.

I'm not sure what the issue is here, but it's possible that weight and/or slick tracks could lead to the trains not getting a big enough push out of the station launch area. We'll definitely be keeping our eyes on this one as things develop further!

UPDATE 6:09pm: The 16 riders have been successfully evacuated from the ride.

Until then here's another picture that was sent in from the scene as rescue workers attempt to free the stranded riders.