North Carolina Roller Coaster Closed After Social Media Sleuths Notice Huge Cracks in Structure

A man noticed a massive crack in the support beam of a roller coaster at an amusement park in North Carolina while it was in operation.

Jeremy Wagner alerted officials when he saw the crack on the Fury 325 giga roller coaster that is located inside the Carowinds amusement park, Fox News reported Saturday.

An image shows the huge crack as a roller coaster car, full of people, zooms by on the track:

Amusement park shuts down rollercoaster after social media user discovers crack in the ride https://t.co/DsYbcJCQjs pic.twitter.com/7gRQ2XPP3W

— New York Post (@nypost) July 2, 2023

Officials temporarily shut down the ride and a spokesperson for the park said its maintenance team is inspecting the ride:

The park said it inspects rides on a daily basis, but visitors have claimed it took several days after noticing the crack for it to be shut down, according to the Daily Mail.

“Multiple park visitors posted photos on Facebook showing the crack as early as June 24 on her visit to the park,” the outlet said. “A spokesman for Carowinds did not respond to questions regarding the crack being spotted long before it closed down the ride.”

Video footage shows the moment a roller coaster car goes by the crack, which moves the two separated parts of the beam. Seconds after the car passes, the beams come back together.

The Fury 325 is described as the tallest, fastest, and longest giga roller coaster in North America, according to the Carowinds website.

Video footage from 2015 shows riders screaming and laughing as they go up on down on the roller coaster:

“Fury 325 is North America’s longest steel coaster, and is over 1.25 miles long. The average ride time is 3.25 minutes, and the ride crosses both North and South Carolina state lines,” the Carowinds site notes.

Meanwhile, the Fox reported said no one has been hurt due to the crack.