Watch: Crowd catches and saves teenage girl in scary fall from amusement park ride
‘It was just good to see people band together to do what they could do.’
A teenage girl survived what could have been a debilitating or even fatal fall from a ride at a US theme park when she was caught by a crowd that had gathered to allow her to jump into their arms.
The dramatic footage above reveals what happened at Six Flags Great Escape amusement park in Queensbury, New York.
A group of men banded together to make sure they could catch her at the right time as she let go, and others helped by climbing a tree and removing branches which were interfering with the rescue effort.
In the video, the 14-year-old girl is seen screaming as she dangles from the gondola ride. Onlookers and witnesses shouted in worry as it looked like she could fall.
“I was sitting there waiting and I heard the people screaming,” Loren Lent, who was among those present at the site, told The Washington Post.
Members of Lent’s family were on the ride. He commented on the rescue effort, praising everyone who acted quickly to help the girl. “It was just good to see people band together to do what they could do.”
According to Lent, she was holding on for at least 90 seconds, and possibly a few minutes. Local police called the Sky Ride a “very slow-moving, gondola-style attraction that spans several hundred feet across the park.”
Staff members stopped the ride after discovering a passenger was in danger.
The crowd was seen cheering after the teenager was safely caught. She was treated by emergency staff at the location before being taken to a local hospital. She was later moved to a medical centre where she was in a stable condition.
Meanwhile, authorities have cleared the ride for operation but the park has chosen to keep it closed until a proper internal review is completed.
In 2013, a woman from Dallas, Texas, died in a roller coaster accident at the same amusement park.