Earlier this month, six people were hospitalized after a car on the Sandblaster rollercoaster in Daytona Beach’s Mardi Gras Fun Center derailed. According to a local news report, the coaster was carrying ten people in three separate cars when the front car derailed and fell off the tracks.
The front car that derailed fell to the ground, leaving the other two cars dangling over 30 feet in the air. Emergency responders rushed to get the remaining occupants down safely. In all, six people were hospitalized, two with serious injuries.
Another news article interviewed one of the victims who was riding in one of the rear cars, who opened up about her experience. She explained the sensation of dangling from the coaster as she watched her co-worker fall over 30 feet to the ground below. The woman, a mother of two, told reporters that she was in an extreme amount of pain and thought that she was going to die. She suffered nine broken ribs and spinal injuries as a result of the derailment.