A Jersey Shore ride malfunction at Playland's Castaway Cove in Ocean City, New Jersey, left two 13-year-old girls hanging upside down on the Wipe Out ride for several minutes after it stalled on the boardwalk early last month.
Charlotte Hacker and Emilia Gordon said they were among more than a dozen people caught on the ride the evening after the Fourth of July. The friends, who spoke with their parents' permission, said they were trapped upside down for five to seven minutes and had no idea when they would be brought down. Hacker said the wait felt far longer than the clock suggested. Gordon said she thought she might pass out as blood rushed to her head and she struggled to lift it even slightly. Sitting beside each other, the girls tried to distract themselves by talking about ordinary things while they waited.
The pair said they had gone to the boardwalk to celebrate Gordon's 13th birthday, which was the next day. They said they often ride the attractions there and chose the Wipe Out because it was new. The ride works like a pendulum and repeatedly turns riders upside down while the passenger car spins. This time, they said, it stopped with riders suspended in the inverted position. Gordon said she feared the lap bars might open and send them falling. Family members watching from the ground were frightened as well, they said, including Hacker's uncle, who was there with cousins.
Eventually, the ride operators got the attraction moving again, though the girls said it continued operating after that and did not immediately let riders off. Once the ride ended, they said they remained on board for a few more minutes before they were released. Hacker said the ride did not close afterward, and some people stayed in line and rode it later. Gordon said people clapped when the girls finally got off, but she and Hacker did not feel the park's response matched what they had experienced.
