In an accident on a roller coaster at Legoland in Günzburg, Swabia, 31 people were injured, two of them seriously. A police spokesman said on Thursday the German Press Agency.
Ten children and one teenager are among the injured. 16 people were taken to hospital for treatment. 15 patients were able to leave this again on Thursday evening.
A roller coaster train braked sharply on Thursday and another train drove onto it. The cause is not yet clear. According to the police, a total of 150 emergency services from the police, fire brigade and rescue services were deployed – including the height rescue service from the Augsburg professional fire brigade and three rescue helicopters.
According to a spokeswoman for Legoland, the accident happened in the station area of the “Feuerdrache” roller coaster.
Since the safety bars of the trains, each with up to 20 seats, could not be opened after the accident, it took some time to rescue the passengers, including children. According to the police, due to the situation on site, the passengers first had to be completely recovered from one train in order to then be able to free those from the other.
The amusement park initially remained open despite the accident. It was initially unclear why the trains on the roller coaster collided.
The “Feuerdrache” roller coaster first leads through a covered, darkened area of the park. In the course of the ride, you then go in the fresh air over a stretch with slopes and a few curves.
According to park information, the roller coaster travels at speeds of up to eight meters per second, which corresponds to around 29 kilometers per hour. As a police spokesman explained, neither a wagon derailed nor people fell out in the accident.
Last Saturday there was a fatal incident on a roller coaster ride in an amusement park in Klotten on the Moselle in Rhineland-Palatinate. A 57-year-old woman fell out of the moving attraction. She suffered fatal injuries.
It is still unclear why the woman fell off the roller coaster. The park has been open to visitors again since Tuesday, but the roller coaster initially stopped. The reason for this was that the district had temporarily prohibited the operation of the railway.
Legoland was opened in 2002 on Autobahn 8 (Stuttgart-Munich). Günzburg prevailed against around 300 other possible locations around the world – including Tokyo. There are now ten themed areas with more than 60 attractions in the park. Legoland also has its own holiday village for short breaks.
Around 1,100 employees work in Günzburg’s Legoland during the season. After opening, the park initially reported around 1.3 million guests per season, but the company later no longer announced the exact number of visitors.
In addition to the German Legoland Park, the operator Merlin Entertainments, based in England, also owns numerous other amusement parks. According to the company, 140 facilities belong to the group.
