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Becca Monaghan
Aug 22, 2022
Giant slide at Belle Isle Park reopens after bumpy start
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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.
\u201cThe giant slide at Belle Isle Park in Michigan was open for only 4 hours before workers shut it down to make adjustments. \n\nI wonder why they decided to do such a thing \ud83d\ude33\u201d— Art (@Art) 1660946823
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."
\u201cDetroiters be like "That was fun....let's do it again!"\u201d— \ud835\udcd0\ud835\udcf5\ud835\udcf5\ud835\udcee\ud835\udcf7 \ud835\udce1\ud835\udcea\ud835\udd02 now with EXTRA Cynicism! (@\ud835\udcd0\ud835\udcf5\ud835\udcf5\ud835\udcee\ud835\udcf7 \ud835\udce1\ud835\udcea\ud835\udd02 now with EXTRA Cynicism!) 1661038370
\u201cWelcome to the 1980s, kids\u201d— Nu Wexler (@Nu Wexler) 1661036258
\u201cTaking my family to this when it reopens.\u201d— Benji Poppins (@Benji Poppins) 1661031258
\u201cMore brutal than Brexit.\u201d— Gary Burton (@Gary Burton) 1661028826
\u201cIf 2022 was a slide.\u201d— Mechanical Frog (@Mechanical Frog) 1661021578
\u201cI feel like this should have been a water slide?\u201d— Anthony Brian Logan (ABL) \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Anthony Brian Logan (ABL) \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1661013403
\u201cI'm genuinely thinking of starting a Twitter account on bad slide design \n\u201d— Jeremy Vine (@Jeremy Vine) 1661114276
The slide was said to have reopened on Saturday evening – and thankfully, there were no injuries.
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