The 17-year-old Jochem Verzijl from Wijk en Aalburg was stuck in a roller coaster in the Belgian Plopsaland for hours on Saturday at a height of 32 meters. With a body temperature of 33 degrees and numb legs, he had to be rescued by the fire brigade. “I felt very alone,” he tells RTL Nieuws.
The emergency services of our southern neighbors sounded the alarm on Saturday when carts of the popular roller coaster The Ride to Happiness came to a stop at a great height. There were nine people in the carts. RTL News spoke with 17-year-old Jochem from Wijk en Aalburg. He is a real amusement park fanatic.
He was on the tenth ride on the roller coaster that opened last year, in which people are catapulted and flipped five times. His father had had enough and stood waiting downstairs, unaware that he would not be holding his son again for about six hours.
After being shot away, the roller coaster suddenly stopped at a height of 32 meters. “In the beginning, everyone still liked it,” says de Brabander. “We all cheered,” he told the news station. That laughter disappeared quickly for the occupants. The torrential rain and aftermath of Storm Eunice made it feel icy cold. “Luckily I had a good jacket on, but I didn’t have gloves.”
The fire brigade had great difficulty in freeing the daredevils. Due to the strong wind, the bucket of the aerial platform where the rescuers were sitting was spinning. “That hit the roller coaster all the time,” says Jochem. But after a total of 5.5 hours, the firefighters succeeded. One by one they brought the visitors in.
That didn’t happen by itself. “I was harnessed while I was still trapped in the cart. Then they released me and let me slide into the tray. But my legs were numb. So I had to be helped on all sides.” Jochem was hypothermic and was placed on an IV completely wrapped up. He went to the hospital with his father.
After having spent a free night in the Plopsaland hotel, according to Jochem, he is doing ‘fine’. “It all has yet to sink in a bit. My fingers are still bent and stiff.”