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A park visitor at Carowinds spotted a crack in a steel support column on the Fury 325 roller coaster before the ride's inspectors caught it. The ride stayed shut for more than a month while engineers
spacedaily.com • • science
Key Points:
- In summer 2023, a visitor at Carowinds theme park filmed a nearly severed steel support column on the Fury 325 giga coaster, revealing a serious structural crack missed by routine inspections.
- Fury 325, standing 325 feet tall and reaching speeds of 95 mph, relies on steel columns to support its heavy trains; a cracked column compromises the ride's safety margins significantly.
- Despite annual and regular inspections by the state’s Amusement Device Bureau and maintenance staff, the crack went undetected until a guest's video surfaced, highlighting limitations of scheduled inspections versus continuous public observation.
- The ride was shut down for nearly six weeks for extensive repairs, including replacing the fractured column and addressing a second weld issue discovered during the process, before reopening in August 2023.
- This incident underscores a shift in safety monitoring, where visitors' smartphones and real-time documentation can sometimes detect critical issues before official inspections do, though they do not replace professional engineering assessments.
