Wonderland guests got trapped on rides during Saturday's storm

Toronto.citynews.ca
May 25, 2022
Michael Ranger

A number of guests at Canada’s Wonderland ended up trapped on rides on Saturday afternoon when a fierce thunderstorm hit the park and caused a power outage.

In a video posted to TikTok, visitors can be seen stranded on a roller coaster as heavy rain and wind rip through the amusement park in Vaughan.

In a statement to CityNews, Wonderland says they began to shut down rides around 12:40 p.m. when they noticed the storm approaching. The power went out shortly after and a number of rides were brought to a halt with riders on board.

“Ride operations and maintenance staff worked to evacuate guests as quickly and safely as possible,” says Wonderland spokesperson Grace Peacock.

The roller coaster seen in the TikTok video is the Behemoth. Peacock says the individuals on board the ride were evacuated approximately 30 minutes after the ride stopped.

“We will not operate our rides when lightning is nearby,” reads the park’s safety guidelines. “The park has a lightning detection system that tells us when lightning is within 8 km, 13 km and 15 km of the park. Rides are staged to be shut down according to this information, based on their height and dynamic.”

The death toll from Saturday’s vicious storm climbed to 10 and power outages remain in several parts of southern Ontario and Quebec.

Several schools in Durham Region and one in Toronto were forced to close on Tuesday due to ongoing outages.