A carnival attraction in New York malfunctioned over the weekend, trapping passengers for more than 10 minutes while employees and onlookers watched helplessly.
The incident unfolded at New York’s Rye Playland, the country’s first planned amusement park, on a ride called the Music Express.
On the park’s website, the Music Express is described as “a fast-paced circular ride traveling a track with numerous peaks and valleys. As the name suggests, loud music plays and lights flash wildly throughout the ride!”
A video uploaded to TikTok shows the final minutes of the ordeal.
The trapped riders are screaming and waving their hands at a crowd of spectators who are looking on in disbelief. One of the riders can be heard shouting, “Help! Help!”
“Hey, they gotta pull the plug!” the cameraman shouts. “There’s no plug?” he asks, before a carnival worker confirms that there’s no plug.
It’s then that a group of maintenance men push through the crowd and enter the ride.
At this point the cars begin to slow, and the crowd cheers. There is visible relief from the ride’s passengers as spectators begin to disperse.
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“I had some family members on the ride and they were panicking,” Bronx-resident Giovanni Martinez told WPIX in New York. “Thank God I skipped it.”
The unfolding scene, Martinez said, was chaotic. “It was out of control. It was going faster than it should have been. Kids were crying. They didn’t know when it was going to stop.”
Luckily, zero injuries were reported. Riders looked only bemused as they disembarked.
The issue was chalked up to an electrical malfunction, according to ABC 7. After an emergency stop failed, operators called a maintenance crew to disconnect the ride's power.
Rye Playland's General Manager Jeff Davis addressed the incident in a statement to News 12. “Safety is our number one priority and as such, the Music Express ride is currently closed as we work closely with the manufacturer.”
