Man climbs out of moving roller coaster with ‘seconds to act’ after safety bar unfastens

A man climbed out of a moving roller coaster after his safety bar unlatched as the car ascended for a drop.

Cell phone footage captured the terrifying moment that the man got up out of his seat and stepped onto the cat walk to his left side just before the car reached the top of the track.

‘I had mere seconds to act on whether I stayed on or got off,’ the man, who wanted to remain anonymous, told 12News.

The man visiting Castles N’ Coasters in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday said he could hear clicking from the chain of the Desert Storm ride as it made its way up the track.

‘We get just about to the top and I hear a click different from the click of the chain taking us up and so, I checked my lap bar one last time and it released,’ he said.

He said the ride operator did not notice the safety mishap until he made his way back down to the ground.

‘She should have been watching that car and when she saw me climbing out she should have been able to hit an emergency release, should have been able to do something,’ he said.

The man said he heard the safety latch go into place before the car began moving but that the operator did not check to make sure it was locked.

‘I pushed up on mine. She looked. She walked away,’ he claimed.

The Desert Storm ride is a double-looping coaster with a height requirement of 42 inches.

‘Test your courage as you challenge the excitement of vertical drops, loops, and spins!’ states the Castles N’ Coasters website.

The man visited the theme park to celebrate his niece’s birthday, but left with a scare and disbelief at the ‘negligence’ and ‘absolute carelessness’ of the operators.

He said amusement parks ‘basically have people lives in their hands’ and need to be subject to more regulations.

The man said he filed an incident report but the park did not give him a copy of it.

Arizona does not regulate theme parks, per the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, but state law requires that the rides be inspected by private or insurance companies every year.

Castles N’ Coasters has not publicly commented on the incident.

‘I think the worst part is having the kids there and knowing it could have been one of them,’ the man said.

‘It shouldn’t cost your life to have fun.’

It happened less than a week after two dozen Knotts Berry Farm visitors were left hanging from the Sol Spin ride for nearly two-and-a-half hours. All the riders were safely evacuated from the ride in Southern California and two were taken to a hospital ‘out of an abundance of caution’.

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