Fla. Firefighters Rescue Passengers from Derailed Roller Coaster

June 15—Two Kentuckians were among six riders injured in a roller coaster derailment Thursday in Daytona Beach, according to their employer.

Alternative Outlook LLC, in Knott County said the injuries to two of its employees were not life threatening .

Firefighters pulled eight people off the Sand Blaster roller coaster when it derailed Thursday night, and two others fell 34 feet to the ground. Two of the six people who were in the hospital Friday were Alternative Outlook employees, the company said Friday.

The company did not confirm if their employees were rescued from the roller coaster or if they fell. The two employees were in Florida on a work trip and an additional employee traveled there after the accident, a spokesperson for Alternative Outlook said.

"We are very thankful that the injuries were not life threatening," Alternative Outlook LLC said in a statement. "We are also very thankful for everyone who aided with the rescue and treating the injuries; that would include the first responders, EMT's, the Police Department, the hospital and the Fire and Rescue teams. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in our group!"

Patricia Boyd Johnson, of Prestonsburg, posted on Facebook that her daughter Amanda Cook, an Alternative Outlook employee, was one of the Kentuckians who was injured.

She wrote that she had talked to Cook, who was "beaten and bruised, but nothing is broken." The family said on Facebook that Cook fell 38 feet from the coaster.

Four of the people who were rescued were in a front car that was perpendicular to the ground, four more were in the second car and two more in the third, a Daytona Beach Fire Department spokeswoman said.

All of the patients were alert as they were taken to Halifax Health Medical Center, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

It's unclear how the roller coaster derailed. It was 40 years old when it was purchased by the Daytona Beach Boardwalk in 2013 from a closed amusement park in Delaware.