Moments before Carrie Sueker and 13-year-old Trevor Larson were launched into the air on the bungee thrill ride “The Catapult” at Mt. Olympus Theme Park and Resort, friends and family can be heard teasing them.
“The ropes are looking a little frayed!” said one.
“Did they sign the insurance waiver?” said another.
It turned out that those comments made in jest should have been taken seriously.
Cellphone video captured on Wednesday by Trevor’s father, Dru Larson, shows one of the bungee cords snap just before the pair was set to be launched. According to NBC affiliate KARE 11, the force of the snapping cord tore through the cement next to the ride.
Dru says it appeared as though the connection between the bungee cord and another cable became loose. The ride’s owner claims a bungee cord had snapped four years ago, but this was the first time a cable and cord had disconnected.
“If they would have went up in the air, that would have killed them,” Dru told NBC 15.
Although the ride was not owned or operated by the Wisconsin-based theme park, the park has removed “The Catapult” from its grounds.
This is not the first time the park has had to remove a ride from its grounds due to an accident.
In March 2014, a 63-year-old man was thrown off a roller coaster due to a faulty lap bar, sending him into a coma. The man eventually woke up from the coma nearly a month later.
Sueker says she feels lucky that she wasn’t injured from the thrill ride and is able to laugh it off, but hopes it won’t happen again.
“I guess our main thought is, we want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again to anyone. And just to make sure that things are safe,” she said.
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