Visitors taking a ride in a Nanjing amusement park got more thrill than their tickets suggested this past weekend, when their rollercoaster stopped dead on a vertical descent, leaving the ride’s occupants suspended in mid air. Turns out it had been a bit too much for one.
The incident occurred on 26 June at an unspecified amusement park in Nanjing, when one of the thrill seekers on board felt the ride to be a little too thrilling, prompting them to hit the emergency stop button.
该事件发生于6月26日，地点为南京某游乐园，当时船上一名寻求刺激的游客觉得游乐设施有点过于惊险，促使他们按下了紧急停止按钮。
Shanghai-based media outlet The Paper the next day spoke with a park attendant, who stated there was no fault with the roller coaster. “Tourists were enjoying the ride up until about the halfway point, when one of them became frightened and pressed the emergency stop button”, said the attendant. “The ride came to a halt where it did, and remained there for some time, since the release mechanism can only be operated manually.”
第二天，上海媒体澎湃新闻采访了一名公园工作人员，后者表示过山车没有任何问题。 “游客们正在享受旅程，直到大约一半时，其中一人感到害怕并按下了紧急停止按钮”，服务员说。 “由于释放装置只能手动操作，所以游乐设施停在了原地，并在那里停留了一段时间。”
“No one was hurt”, he added.
“没有人受伤”，他补充道。
That which made the park visitor on the ride scared is not clear. But there is plenty precedent for things going wrong on amusement park rides in China.
是什么让公园游客感到害怕还不清楚。但在中国，游乐园游乐设施出现问题的先例有很多。
This past weekend’s incident in Nanjing is, in fact, startlingly similar to one that occurred in nearby Wuxi, also in our very own Jiangsu Province, on 5 September, 2020.
事实上，上周末在南京发生的事件与 2020 年 9 月 5 日在我们江苏省无锡附近发生的事件惊人地相似。
There, in the Wuxi Sunac Park, approximately 20 people on a ride were left hanging upside down, after their rollercoaster malfunctioned, reported the Global Times at the time. No one was injured in the incident, which occurred just days after the park’s reopening in the wake of COVID.
据《环球时报》当时报道，在无锡融创公园，过山车发生故障，大约 20 名乘坐过山车的人被倒挂。这起事件发生在公园因新冠疫情而重新开放几天后，没有人受伤。
The same park had even experienced a similar event just over a year earlier. In August 2019, another ride came automatically to a halt, leaving its occupants stranded in mid air. It was thought the cause to be a bird which had inadvertently passed in front of one of the ride’s sensors, which, mistaking it for a serious threat, activated an emergency stop.
一年多前，同一个公园甚至经历过类似的事件。 2019 年 8 月，另一架游乐设施自动停止，乘客被困在半空中。据认为，原因是一只鸟无意中经过了游乐设施的一个传感器前面，传感器误将其视为严重威胁，从而启动了紧急停止。
Elsewhere, in Shaoyang City of Hunan Province, a swing ride crashed on 13 February of last year. A total of 16 riders and onlookers were injured, as then reported the South China Morning Post.
去年2月13日，湖南省邵阳市，一辆秋千发生事故。据《南华早报》当时报道，共有 16 名骑手和围观者受伤。
And as the BBC reported in February of 2017, a teenage girl died after she was flung out of a ride at the Chaohua Park in Chongqing Municipality. The girl was thrown on to metal railings and later died in hospital. An investigation revealed her seatbelt had broken and the fit of her safety bar had not been tight enough.
据英国广播公司 (BBC) 2017 年 2 月报道，一名少女在重庆市超华公园的游乐设施中被抛出后死亡。女孩被扔到金属栏杆上，后来在医院死亡。调查显示她的安全带断裂，安全杆安装得不够紧。
But for the biggest China thrill-ride accident of all, we need go back to 2010. It was then, on 29 June, at the Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town, that a ride named “Space Journey” malfunctioned. In crashing to the ground, the most-deadly rollercoaster accident ever left six dead, 10 injured and 48 trapped in the wreckage.
但对于中国最大的惊险游乐设施事故，我们需要回到2010年。就在那时，6月29日，在深圳华侨城，一个名为“太空之旅”的游乐设施发生故障。在坠落地面时，这是有史以来最致命的过山车事故，造成 6 人死亡、10 人受伤、48 人被困在残骸中。
