Amanda Bostic was enjoying a weekend on Daytona Beach with her sons and co-workers when she decided to take a ride on the Sandblaster, a rollercoaster at the boardwalk’s amusement park. Sitting next to a friend in the front car of the ride, Bostic claims everything seemed normal; the seatbelts clicked into place and the ride attendant checked them.
Once the ride begun, Bostic knew something was wrong.
"As we went around the turn [the car] felt like it wasn't completely attached to the tracks,” she told ABC News.
Soon Bostic was thrown out of her seat and back and forth between support beams before hitting the ground.
“I remember hearing a lot of screeching. A lot of metal. A lot of sounds that just weren't right.”
After a 34-foot fall, Bostic and her friend lay underneath their former car, which was left “completely off the track” and hanging toward the ground.
The Daytona Beach Fire Department arrived around 10 p.m. that night, rescuing the other eight passengers trapped on the Sandblaster.
DB Firefighters working as fast as they can to rescue 2 riders that are in a dangling rollercoaster car pic.twitter.com/v0UrChJdHC
— DaytonaBeachFireDept (@DaytonaBeachFD) June 15, 2018
The rollercoaster had been repaired just under a month before, serviced for “excessive corrosion,” “bracing cracked,” and “track cracked,” according to the Florida Department of Argiculture’s event report.
The Sandblaster’s record of repairs is a long one, with numerous fixes dating back to 2016. Despite the rollercoaster’s trauma, Bostic was able to leave Halifax Medical Center just one day after the incident. While she was concussed, bruised, and cut “head-to-toe,” Bostic feels lucky to have left with more minor injuries.
Still, she has sworn off rollercoasters for the rest of her life. We can’t blame her.