Canada's Wonderland explains viral videos showing 'stuck' roller coaster

With all of the fanfare surrounding Canada's Wonderland's new record-breaking rollercoaster, AlpenFury, a lot of eyes have been on the busier-than-ever park this season.

With that comes the requisite social media posts offering sneak peeks and reviews of the ride, along with countless other videos from customers' days at the Vaughan, Ontario attraction — including, over the last few weeks, some showing another of its major coasters completely stalled with passengers on board.

A quick search on TikTok shows a handful of incidents involving the 2012-built Leviathan, on which riders ascend a whopping 96 metres/306 feet — the highest point on the property — before coming face-to-face with an 80 degree drop that takes them through the rest of the ride's hills and turns (at speeds of nearly 150 km/h).

As one of the site's larger, newer, and more visibly striking features, it is understandably one of its most popular, and often has a decent lineup to experience.

But, the wait times have, on some days, had another contributing factor beyond just the crowds themselves: delays caused by cars stopping partway up the first peak.

One clip posted on August 16 with the caption "Leviathan gets stuck again lol" shows riders strapped into the ride, sitting immobile about halfway up the initial summit. A worker can be seen beside the affected car, and the poster stated in a subsequent comment that the train was stalled for about 20 minutes.

Videos of similar incidents were posted to the platform on July 12, July 16, July 20, August 6 and August 20, among others, including a few from previous years.

But, while many jumped into the ensuing conversation on the posts to share their feelings about the ride "breaking" and express fear for its safety, a few pointed out that it is likely precisely because of its extensive safety features that Leviathan stops like this.

"Just to clarify, the ride did not break; this is a sign that it's working as intended. The sensors detected what they thought was a hazard and therefore stopped the chain lift," one person surmised.

"It stops automatically if you detach," another added.

And, a few people who claim to have experienced the situation firsthand gave further context, with one writing that "some kid and his friend thought it was a good idea to take his seatbelt off and start whipping it around. They noticed this and stopped the ride."

A representative for the park confirmed this version of the story to blogTO this week, further explaining the August 16 video, which was from an incident that took place around 8 p.m. the day before.

"This ride is designed with multiple levels of safety restraints, and a ride operator immediately stopped the ride when a guest disconnected the secondary restraint," Canada's Wonderland PR Director Grace Peacock told us over email on Thursday.

"Staff walked up the lift hill to ensure it was refastened and the ride resumed shortly after."

She added that all guests safely disembarked at the station after, as is standard, and that the individual who tampered with the restraint "was met by security and escorted out of the park for violating our code of conduct." 

Also, that safety is, of course, "a top priority at Canada's Wonderland."

So, next time you see footage of what appears to be a "stuck" or "broken" ride at the attraction, try not to fret about visiting, as incidents like these are often a result of safety protections coming into play.