Roller coaster Monday
As I type, 24 people are trapped on the Invertigo roller coaster at California’s Great America, a theme park in Santa Clara.
Let’s see…
Suspended four stories off the ground…
On a roller coaster…
With no foot supports…
Or protection from the blazing sun…
On a 100-degree day in August.
This sounds like a dreadful way to begin one’s week.
I’m reminded of a similar incident here several years ago, when a bunch of tourists were stalled on a coaster at what was then Marine World (it’s now called Six Flags Discovery Kingdom) in Vallejo. In that circumstance, the coaster was a corkscrew model, and several of the passengers were trapped in upside-down or sideways positions.
Not that this will be any comfort to the guests-slash-victims at Great America.
I drive past Great America every Tuesday night on my way home from chorus rehearsal. If these poor people are still hanging there when I cruise by tomorrow, I’ll report back.
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SwanShadow Thinks Out Loud 
August 11, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Wait, now it’s *California’s* Great America? I still have problems with simply calling it “Marriott’s”!
Also, that is seriously scary. I’d probably die from getting all wigged out and worked up. 😉
August 11, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Hilly: Funny you should mention that. I still think of the place as “Marriott’s” too, even though it hasn’t had that name in about 15 years.
Paramount Pictures bought the park in the early ’90s, during its ill-fated excursion into the amusement park business. So it was “Paramount’s Great America” for a decade or so.
Then, a couple of years ago, Cedar Fair — a company that owns theme parks all over the country — bought the entire Paramount Parks division from CBS. Cedar Fair changed the name of the Santa Clara outlet to just plain “Great America” for a while, then recently added “California’s” to distinguish it from other parks they operate under the same name.