Annnnnnnnd I’m never going on any of those slingshot rides ever ever ever.
WOW! This woman and boy came literally within seconds from possibly being killed after the cable on a Catapult ride snapped right as they were about to be launched. Carrie Sueker and 13-year-old son Trevor Larson were at the Mt. Olympus amusement park in the Wisconsin and ready for liftoff. Before the two blasted off, you could hear people in the background jokingly yell, “We’ll pray for you,” and “Did you sign the insurance waiver,” and “Those ropes are looking a little frayed.” Seconds later one of the cables that catapults them 200-feet in the air at 60 mph suddenly snapped and nobody was joking.
How fast did that line clear?
Trever’s parents, Dru and Nicole Larson, were right there recording the nearly horrific scene. “I was numb,” Nicole Larson said. “You saw this cable and this mental piece coming at your son, and you were expecting your son to go in the air and all of a sudden this was coming back at you.”
“You look and you think ‘Oh my gosh.’ And then you think about what could’ve happened. How it could’ve went the other way,” Dru Larson said.
“I knew something went wrong, but I didn’t realize the magnitude, I think, of what did go wrong,” Sueker told KARE 11.
Dru said the owner offered his family their money back and tokens for a different ride. Well thanks, that seems proper compensation for nearly killing a young boy.
The scary part is that the park kept the ride open most of the day until closing it that night. Just reattach the cable and business as usual.
“Mt. Olympus has contacted the owner of the Catapult ride (Casco, Inc.) that is owned and operated in our park. The ride is shut down at this time. And will not be reopened until a full investigation is complete,” Mt. Olympus director of safety Jason Hammond said.
Even scarier is that state documents indicate that the ride was last inspected June 17, 2015.
Looks like it’s a summer full of bumper cars and the Scrambler for me.