A mother-of-two from Kentucky who was injured when the car she was in on the Sand Blaster roller coaster in Daytona Beach, Florida, plummeted to the ground last week recounted the terror of hearing the screams of other riders and feeling her body falling through the air.
Amanda Bostic, 34, and her co-worker fell 34 feet and were seriously hurt in the accident, which took place along the Daytona Beach Boardwalk on Thursday evening.
The pair, who are employed by a company that provides services for people with special needs, were on a business trip from Kentucky and decided to go on the ride together.
Lived to tell the tale: Amanda Bostic, 34, recounts the horror of plummeting more than 30 feet from the San Blaster roller coaster in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Thursday evening
This is the car that derailed (pictured) sending Bostic and another woman falling to the ground; two other people sat trapped in the car that dangled perilously off the tracks
‘I remember hearing a lot of screeching, a lot of metallic…sounds that just weren’t right,’ Bostic recalled the first moments of the ride in an exclusive interview with Good Morning America Monday.
She said from the outset, the roller coaster was shaking and did not feel stable. As it picked up speed, Bostic said it seemed to be going too fast.
Bostic and the her colleague were sitting in the first car when the roller coaster derailed after making a turn.
Alarming: Bostic said from the outset, the coaster was shaking and seemed to be unstable
The mom-of-two from Kentucky suffered a concussion, a massive bruise on her arm, an injury to her leg and chipped teeth
‘Everyone was screaming and crying, and it was terrifying,’ she said. ‘I closed my eyes, I held on. I remember being airborne, feeling as if I was falling. And then the next thing I remember was coming to, on the ground, looking up.’
Later, Bostic said she was told that on her way down, she bounded from support beam to support beam ‘like a pinball,’ but she has no recollection of that.
When she regained consciousness on the ground, Bostic said she saw other people on the ride dangling from their cars
A total of nine people were hospitalized as a result of the accident. Bostic sustained a concussion, an injury to her foot, a massive bruise on her arm and chipped teeth.
She was discharged from the hospital on Friday and returned to Kentucky to continue her recovery at home.
Her colleague, who was also thrown from the roller coaster, remained hospitalized as of Sunday.
The two Kentucky woman and a third rider have retained the services of Orlando attorney Matt Morgan as part of a developing personal injury lawsuit, reported Orlando Sentinel.
Daytona Beach Fire Department used a ladder and a crane to help save the remaining eight passengers, two of whom were stuck on the ride for half an hour
The cause of the accident on the Sand Blaster coaster is under investigation.
State officials say the 40-year-old roller coaster passed a state inspection only hours before the derailment. It had been closed for almost a month because of previous problems.
The roller coaster derailed just after 8.30pm on Thursday, with four people in the front car, which pointed straight down to the ground, barely connected to anything apart from the car behind it.
Another four were in the second car, and two more were trapped in the third car, a spokeswoman from the Daytona Beach Fire Department told the News Journal.
Two people were stuck in their car for more than 30 minutes as fire crews worked as quickly as they could to extract the passengers.
Video obtained by Fox News showed a man pleading with riders not to move as a woman, believed to be on the ride, was heard shrieking.
The crew worked against the clock as they slowly but surely helped each passenger climb off the ride and across a bridge to safety
Of the people who were on the amusement ride, nine were taken to a hospital
The ride is 40 years old and was put out of operation in February 2017 for a myriad of urgent repairs
The ride opened at the Boardwalk in August 2013, after it was purchased from a closed down amusement park.
In February 2017, the Sand Blaster had a stop operation order imposed on it after an inspector from the Department of Agriculture found ‘numerous problems’ with the ride.
The inspection report, obtained by the News Journal, listed a worn and damaged handrail, four safety cables not properly secured, three worn and damaged braces, a missing brace, 10 worn and damaged deck braces, a damaged seat bracket, two seats not properly secured, corroded fencing, cracked supports and damaged lighting fixtures.
The Boardwalk’s website claims the attraction has since been repaired, passed inspection, and become operational again.
At its highest point over more than half a mile of track, the Sand Blaster is 85 feet high.
Rescue crews and good Samaritans worked to free the trapped riders, some of whom were stuck in their car for half an hour
Pictured: A man appears to cross a bridge as he disembarks the petrifying roller coaster ride
Pictured: A daytime view of the 40-year-old roller coaster, which stands 85 feet tall