We’ve all had that moment at a theme park – probably one of those neighborhood pop-up ones – and someone you’re with wants to go on a ride. The only issue is you can see the nuts, bolts, and shaky track in all its tethering glory and what you can only imagine is a lack of engineering thought.

You say to yourself, “No way I’m going on that death contraption. That thing is definitely breaking down!” 

Well, that exact scenario unfolded for some riders in California, except not at one of those rinky-dink traveling fairs. Visitors at Knott’s Berry Farm, ranked seventh on Trip Advisor for top theme parks in the heavily-populated state, were stuck for hours mid-ride on Sol Spin. There were 22 people on the ride at the time of the malfunction. 

Now I’ve never been to Knott’s Berry Farm so I can’t speak first-hand, but from what I can gather, Sol Spin (as its name suggests) certainly fits the bill for one of those rides you’d see and question how it’s actually safe. There’s a lot of spinning, tilting, and gravity-defying orchestration to it. There’s even a tagline attached explaining the ride is “one for the brave.” 

That certainly seems true. 

Two of the riders stuck on the contraption were taken to a hospital after being rescued, according to The Los Angeles Times. From all accounts, the incident happened around 2 p.m. and was resolved around 4:30 p.m. That’s a long time to be stuck!

They don’t call them thrill rides for nothing. There’s always that risk of something going sideways with so many moving parts involved. Fortunately, it doesn’t sound like anything of grave concern happened to the riders, particularly the few checked out by doctors out of an abundance of caution. Though I can’t imagine any of those 22 guests will ever step foot on Sol Spin again.