Viral

Giant slide forced to close just hours after opening because of dangerous design error

Giant slide forced to close just hours after opening because of dangerous design error
Giant slide at Belle Isle Park reopens after bumpy start
YouTube

A giant slide in Detroit was forced to close down after a seriously bumpy start.

The historic ride in Belle Isle Park, Michigan, re-opened on Friday – and was closed just hours later. A clip of the chaos has since been shared on Twitter, showing several people riding the slide which flung them into the air and sent them crashing down with a thud...and so on.

Kenyatta Mcadney explained to ABC13how the fun was soon overshadowed by fear.

"What I noticed was the impact they were hitting the ground with coming off the hills," he said, adding that he ended up selling his tickets, "If they would have kept riding on that slide, somebody would have got hurt."

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His child Keymarr added: "I was going down way faster than I thought I was. Gravity hurts."

It is said that it took operators four hours to shut the slide to re-touch the wax.

"Hopefully, after our small adjustment we will be back up and running and the slide will be slower for more enjoyment," read a statement.

"For this evening, we're giving it a little scrub down, and we will be back open at 11 tomorrow," said Joel Thomas, Belle Isle supervisor for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The people of Twitter were astonished that it took so long to realise its safety concerns. Meanwhile, others found the viral clip hysterical.

"This made me laugh out loud hard," one said. "Sorry but 4 hours to notice this was not ok? Omg."

"This is one of the best illustrations I’ve seen of why math calculations and engineering is so important," a second tweeted.

One local joked that people were being "haters," adding: "The Giant Slide on Belle Isle is the BEST and it’s functioning exactly like it’s supposed to. You haven’t had a real 313 childhood unless you bounced down the Slide and got a 3rd degree let burn on a summer’s day."






The slide was said to have reopened on Saturday evening – and thankfully, there were no injuries.

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