A group of guests have been banned from Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, after engaging in extremely hazardous behaviour that could easily have led to serious injuries on the Jurassic World VelociCoaster.
The Jurassic World VelociCoaster premiered today for guests of the park, and it replaced the Triceratops Encounter attraction in the same area. The ride is an absolute must for thrillseekers as the first launch takes riders from 0 to 50 miles per hour in three seconds and the second launch then accelerates from 40 to 70 miles per hour in only 2.4 seconds. It also possesses 12 airtime moments - the points at which the riders feel weightless due to the extreme G forces at play - and a drop of more than 40 metres at an 80 degree angle. For fans, the queue line follows through the bottom floor of the Discovery Centre, featuring presentations on the science of resurrecting velociraptors from Mr. DNA and Dr Henry Wu from the films. Guests must ensure that they don't have any belongings in their pockets because the high speeds of the ride make these items a possible hazard, and the fact that it has a barrel roll section over water means that anything you do lose, you've likely lost for good.
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In a report from Inside The Magic, it transpires that a group of teenagers were waiting at the barrel roll section in order to throw ice at the ride. Yes. Ice. Having done the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS awareness all those years ago, getting ice dropped on you off a ten feet high wall hurts a little bit. It's more of a shock from the cold than anything else. However, getting ice thrown at you while you're travelling at 70 miles per hour, that's something else entirely. To put it lightly. According to one of the guests injured by this foolish behaviour, the ice hit those on board the VelociCoaster and even bounced off of the metal and hit people queuing in line.
"There was an obnoxious group of teenagers, clearly on a graduation trip as indicated by the purple backpacks that several of them had," said Kelly S. in a quote provided to Inside the Magic. "All of a sudden, in a coordinated effort, they threw large cups of ice as hard as they could, directly hitting a fully loaded coaster car. The sound that it made was terrifying. Ice flew back hitting myself, my daughter and several people in line near us. The group was laughing and seemed very pleased at what they had just done. I couldn't believe what I just witnessed! Ice in the path of a coaster going up to 70mph!"
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"I knew that having words with them simply wasn't enough. All they did was laugh, clearly having no compassion or empathy for anyone who could have been injured or traumatized in any way," continued Kelly S. She alerted a staff member to their dangerous games, and management took action so that the group were removed from the park immediately and have been banned for "a very long time." Her daughter was "brought to tears" by the incident, and while Universal Orlando Resort is yet to address the situation, the two claim that no one was seriously hurt. Moral of the story: Do. Not. Throw. Objects. At. Rollercoaster. Riders. You. Twerps.
Featured Image Credit: Universal