Videos from COTALAND's opening weekend appear to show riders being evacuated from the amusement park's Circuit Breaker tilt coaster and brought to safety after
Videos from COTALAND's opening weekend appear to show riders being evacuated from the amusement park's Circuit Breaker tilt coaster and brought to safety after it stopped at the top of a vertical drop on Saturday.
In a video posted to Instagram by user @lone_starr_rider, Nicholas Thomas, riders appear to face the ground at the top of the coaster, but the ride does not continue.
Within seconds, Thomas realizes the ride is stuck.
“What? Oh my God. No way,” he said. He waves down to friends, who ask if he is okay.
“I’m good! We’re just a little stuck," he responds.
COTALAND employees are then seen assisting riders off of the coaster. They urge passengers to watch their step as they get off the coaster and hold the railing along a metal staircase alongside the track.
In a statement to CBS Austin, COTALAND described the stop as part of the ride's safety systems and confirmed a second brief stop on Sunday, writing:
On Saturday, Circuit Breaker experienced an unplanned stop while 19 riders were onboard. The ride stopped while the vehicle was in its vertical tilt position, where riders remained safely secured in their seats for approximately nine minutes. The vehicle was then returned to a horizontal position, and ride attendants assisted guests in exiting. No injuries occurred and no medical treatment was required.
Circuit Breaker experienced another operational stop on Sunday while riders were onboard. Riders remained safely secured throughout the delay. The ride vehicle returned to its normal horizontal position in approximately two minutes, and guests exited normally. No injuries occurred and no medical treatment was required.
Circuit Breaker, like modern roller coasters and other major thrill rides, has numerous sensors and safety systems that continuously monitor operating conditions. If a required condition is not satisfied, the system may automatically stop the ride rather than allow it to continue. When that happens, riders remain safely secured while attendants follow established procedures, complete the necessary checks and verification cycles, and return the ride to service once those checks are satisfied.
Occasional operational stops are a normal part of operating sophisticated amusement rides. Our goal is to complete the necessary checks efficiently, minimize the inconvenience to our guests, and get everyone back to enjoying their day at COTALAND.
"Everyone was ok and the COTALAND team did an amazing job getting us down safely, and the ride worked as designed to keep us safe," Thomas told CBS Austin.
Thomas said he received multiple items from the amusement park after leaving the ride, and then went back on after it reopened.
"This shirt, season passes, free hot lap on the racetrack. It was truly a blast. They did a very good job of apologizing and all that," he said. "For me, it wasn't really that big of a deal."
The same ride is the subject of a lawsuit against Circuit of the Americas following a stop in December 2025.
A rider filed a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million in damages after he was left suspended at a 90-degree angle on a roller coaster at COTA for more than an hour, according to court documents filed in Travis County.
At the time, COTA attributed the stop to a sensor pin malfunction that disrupted communication between mechanical and computerized components of the ride.
EDITOR'S NOTE: COTALand is an advertiser with CBS Austin. CBS Austin's newsroom independently determines its coverage and editorial content.
