Boy Hit by Bird on Roller Coaster Lucky Not to 'Lose an Eye'
A young boy on a roller coaster got more than he bargained for after he was hit by a bird, nearly striking him in the eye.
Shane Matus was on a roller coaster at Six Flags-Great Adventure in Jackson Township, N. J., and was in the front car with his friend on the Kingda Ka roller coaster around 5 p.m. when he was struck by the bird.
"When it hit me I was like, 'what the, did somebody through a ball or something?' When I started spitting out feathers, I was like, that was a bird," Matus told WCAU.
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The bird, thought to be a pigeon, left bruises and scratches on Matus' neck and face from where the bird struck him, but if it wasn't for a car alarm that went off, causing Matus to turn his head ,he might have lost an eye.
"They say the bird exploded … It hurt a lot for like three seconds. People behind us had feathers and blood all over them," Matus explained. "If that car alarm didn't go off, it would've hit me dead in the eye."
Six Flags spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher stated that after the incident was reported, the ride was shut down and state regulators were notified. They investigated the incident, then allowed the ride to open about 30 minutes later.
"We immediately shut the ride down and notified the state Department of Community Affairs, which is protocol," she wrote. "They cleared us to reopen the ride approximately 30 minutes later," Siebeneicher said.
An ambulance took Matus to a nearby hospital where he was met by his father, Adam Matus.
"I couldn't believe it," his father told local media. "I mean what kind of freak accident is this?"
The roller coaster, Kingda Ka, is 45 stories high and its train cans reach speeds as high as 128 miles per hour, according to Great Adventure's website.
