“It could have come unhinged and just went like a steamroller through the parking lot, plowing over pedestrians and cars and anything in its path,” he told The Washington Post.
Tragedy did not strike. Wagner’s report led Carowinds to shut down Fury 325, which the amusement park describes as “the tallest, fastest, longest giga coaster in North America.” One of the park’s marquee attractions, the 1¼-mile ride reaches speeds of 95 mph and climbs to a peak of 325 feet before plunging riders into a dramatic 81-degree drop and a 190-foot-tall barrel turn. In a statement, Carowinds said the park’s maintenance crew is conducting “a thorough inspection” of the ride, which will “remain closed until repairs have been completed.” A spokesperson did not give a timeline for when the ride is expected to reopen.
“Safety is our top priority and we appreciate the patience and understanding of our valued guests during this process,” spokesperson Courtney Weber wrote in a statement to The Post. “As part of our comprehensive safety protocols, all rides, including Fury 325, undergo daily inspections to ensure their proper functioning and structural integrity.”
Weber did not address questions about how long it took Carowinds to shut down the ride after receiving Wagner’s report.
A season pass holder, Wagner, 45, arrived at Carowinds Friday morning with his 14-year-old daughter, 12-year-old niece, his son and his son’s friend, who are both 13. The five-person crew spent the next several hours going on rides, taking a break for lunch midafternoon, and then hitting more rides. By the end of the day, his daughter and niece had ridden the Fury 325 eight times; his son and his friend had been on it three or four times.
Around 6 p.m., Wagner was ready to call it a day. The kids, however, wanted to keep going, so he came up with a compromise. He would make the long trek to fetch his truck from the parking lot and drive to the front entrance to pick them up. Meanwhile, the kids could squeeze in a few more rides.
So he did just that. While waiting near the entrance, Wagner gazed at the roller coasters, admiring the engineering that made them possible. As he peered at the Fury 325, a car hit one of the ride’s turns, pressing into the track and exacerbating what seemed to be a crack in a steel support pillar. At first, Wagner dismissed the idea that he’d just found a flaw. He figured the crack was part of the structure’s design.
Wagner scanned the support systems of other rides to support that notion but saw nothing else like it. He turned his attention back to the Fury 325 as another car hit the turn. This time, he saw light shooting through the expanded crack before the car passed and the crack contracted. He knew something was wrong.
Wagner got out of the truck, flagged down a Carowinds employee and pointed out the crack.
“I was like, ‘Y’all need to shut this ride down. That’s bad news,’” Wagner recalled telling the man.
Unsatisfied with what he described as the man’s “lack of urgency,” Wagner went back into the park where he spoke to several more employees. He eventually talked to someone in guest services, who asked him to send her the video he’d shot of the crack. Once he had, Wagner said, she walked away.
“The biggest thing for me, there was no sense of urgency,” he said. Carowinds did not immediately respond late Sunday night to a request for comment on Wagner’s allegation about a lack of urgency.
Wagner left, unnerved. During the hour-long drive home, his dread ate at him. He knew Fury 325 was one of the amusement park’s marquee attractions and would be heavily used over the Fourth of July weekend during the park’s 50th anniversary. He feared the pillar would fail, sending a car shooting off the tracks and diving into a crowd below. If tragedy struck and Wagner hadn’t done more to shut down the ride, he knew he’d blame himself and forever wonder if he could have prevented it.
On the trip home, Wagner called Carowinds but got the park’s automated phone system, he said. After getting back, he called the fire department in Carowinds’s jurisdiction. Someone there told Wagner, who’s a volunteer firefighter, that he had a direct line to the park’s security people and would contact them. Ten minutes later, the firefighter called back to tell Wagner that the amusement park had shut down the ride.
Relief replaced Wagner’s dread.
He said he’s glad Carowinds closed down the ride, holds no ill will toward the park and that he trusts its engineers to fix the Fury 325 and make it safe again.
“It might even be better, safer than it was before,” he said.
He said his family will keep going to Carowinds and that he plans to let his children ride Fury 325 when it reopens.
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