- Video shows rafts piling up at Roaring Rapids at Six Flags Over Texas
- Passengers had to jump off the raft and swim to safety.
A video posted online shows the dramatic moment a family attraction at a Texas theme park appears to have malfunctioned.
A video posted to TikTok on Sunday shows four rafts piled on top of each other on the Roaring Rapids ride at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington.
Soon another raft crashed into the area, sending frightened raft-holders scrambling to safety back to the pier.
Park staff frantically tried to hold on to one of the rafts, but it pulled away, forcing its occupants to fall into the water to get back to the pier.
In a heart-stopping moment, the boy enters the river and struggles to swim to safety before being pulled up against the rapids by another man and someone can be heard shouting “Save the boy!”
The child and two adults then had to climb out onto the jetty with soaked clothes while the other rafts returned in the opposite direction.
Once they were safely back on the pier, employees were seen running out with flotation devices.
A Six Flags spokesperson confirmed that one of the rafts at Roaring Rapids became stuck.
“Passengers were instructed to remain seated in the rafts until the ride resumed. All passengers safely disembarked from the ride and no one was injured,” she said.
Some viewers argued that it's not uncommon for vehicles to break down like this.
“Same thing happened to us on the same ride,” commented user Megan Barnett. “We sat there while they drained the water and then we had to get out.”
Another user said the ride was: [Dallas-Fort Worth] A third claimed: “This ride is a death trap if it flips over,” adding: “I'm never riding it again.”
In July 2021, an 11-year-old boy and his brother were riding the same ride at an amusement park in Iowa when they died after being trapped underwater when their raft capsized.
The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Adventureland Water Park, alleging that the park was liable for the boy's death.
In Australia, a similar ride had a conveyor belt malfunction, causing the six-person raft to capsize, killing four adults.
Two men, aged 38 and 35, and two women, aged 42 and 32, were subsequently crushed and drowned.
