Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ride

[ECG]

Three people remain hospitalized in good to critical condition after a ride at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh started to move as riders were exiting, according to authorities.
The first call to 911 came around 9:17 p.m. Thursday after a ride called the "Vortex" restarted, Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said at a news conference Thursday night, citing preliminary information.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing passengers thrown off the ride while others were holding on.
"There were actually some people that were still, I think, strapped in and holding on, really hanging on for their lives," Max Byrn, 13, told ABC News Radio. "But they were falling like raindrops. It was really crazy."
The Vortex is a pendulum ride that flips passengers upside down as it heads toward the sky.
Ambulances initially rushed five victims, ranging in ages from 14 to 39, to a nearby hospital, Debbie Laughery, vice president for public relations at WakeMed Health and Hospitals, told ABC News.
Two of the injured were released overnight, Laughery said.
Sheriff Harrison said some of the victims were from the same family, but he wasn't sure of the exact relationship. The other injured person was the ride's operator, Harrison said.
No information was given on the kinds of injuries sustained.
Fair officials and Department of Labor officials are working to determine the cause of the accident, fair spokesman Brian Long said in a news release.
The accident occurred shortly before the fair was shutting down for the night.
Max said he had just gotten off the ride and turned around when he heard screaming. The teen said the ride was upside down when people began falling.
"People were screaming and a lot of people were in pain. Family members actually ran away, like they couldn't bear to look at it. They were dropping about 30 feet high up in the air," he told ABC News Radio.
Max said one person landed head first on the ground and "was completely knocked unconscious" from the fall.
Eyewitness Caleb Norris said, "We could see at least three people just laying there non-responsive."
Police questioned 35 to 40 people at the scene, authorities said.
Sheriff Harrison said everyone is working hard to make sure all the rides at the fair are safe.
"As sad as it is, we want people to come out and have fun," he said. "It'll be safe. We'll do everything we can to make it safe for the families that come and the main thing is to keep those that got hurt tonight in our prayers."
A ride operator at the fair died in 2002 when he was struck by the ride while it was still in operation, The Associated Press reported.
The North Carolina Labor Department told ABC News the Vortex is supposed to be inspected for safety three times during the annual fair.
"They will be looking at the diagnostics, all the safety systems and any piece of that ride to determine if it was indeed a malfunction of the ride," Labor Department spokeswoman Dolores Quesenberry said.
The fair is expected to reopen today as scheduled, Long said in the press release. The fair is scheduled to end Sunday, according to its website.
"The ride was manufactured by Technical Park International of Italy. This is the first time this Vortex ride has been at the N.C. State Fair," according to the release. "There are two Vortex rides on the fairgrounds. The other Vortex, located on the new midway, has been on site for many years and is manufactured by Fabbri of Italy."

Source with video news report including ride footage: http://abcnews.go.com/US/injured-accident-north-carolina-state-fair-ride/story?id=20678728

 

[A++]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

What a strange thing to happen. I assumed that the ride would not move if the restraints were up.

 

[rollermonkey]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

Wouldn't be the first time a fair operator had jury rigged something to override the safety mechanisms.

 

[rollermonkey]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

Sad to say, but I called it.

Safeties were tampered with. One arrest so far, with more likely to follow.

http://news.yahoo.com/nc-ride-operator- ... ories.html

 

[SilverArrow]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

I must admit to not knowing much about these rides but how would they benefit from overriding the safety mechanisms? I don't think anyone would want to ride that thing without restraints! Does it save time?

 

[rollermonkey]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

Not necessarily a question of speed, but rather money.

Something breaks, and rather than buy new parts that are for safety sensors as opposed to making the ride move, just jury-rig the wiring so that it works anyways.

If the state inspectors are just rubber stamps, as opposed to actually sticking their noses into the rides, nobody finds out until someone gets hurt.

 

[furie]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

It's an odd one over there in the States. Please, by the way, correct me if I'm wrong:

I gather that each State deals with safety individually. Some us State inspectors, others just let the insurers deal with it. There's no kind of national "professional" body that oversees the safety of attractions and operators.

I know ADIPS over here isn't actually compulsory, but it's essentially "do it, or we'll just assume that you're contravening health and safety laws and nobody will insure you to run a ride". I don't know what ADIPS check though and how in depth - it could be that they also don't get under the hood of the rides.

I'm not sure how other countries deal with this stuff either.

I have read though, people up in arms at the idea of a federal body that oversees safety (which would be an equivalent of our ADIPS). I can't see what the issue is with having a national standard for checking safety is, but the world of insurance and local/state politics in the US is such a different beast to what we have over here.

In the end though, I think if somebody is so inclined, they will put safety of guests as a lower priority than making an extra buck or two.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

See, this is why I love the UK.. We may be health and safety mad, but at least there are systems in place to prevent worst case scenarios. Ok so Rameses Revenge had a major incident this year, but that was to no fault of maintenance. This however, happened because of mechanical negligence.

In the UK, ADIPS or equivalent is compulsory to operate, whether you are a theme park or a travelling fair. You get a yearly "tax disc" declaring the ride as safe, and this must be displayed in the front of the operators window so that it is visible to inspectors. Fairgrounds in the UK get it worse - in fact, not only do they have to pass ADIPS, but they also have to pass a local council inspection too, or they won't be deemed as safe to operate and will shut them down.

 

[furie]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

ADIPS is 100% voluntary Erol. It's not a requirement to run rides at all. It's a self-regulatory scheme.

However, you can't join certain professional associations, or will get permission to set up a fair, or insurance without getting rides checked out. It's also an "alarm bell" to H&S if you're operating without an ADIPS certificate. It's not a legal requirement though. You could buy a Big Apple, put it in the front garden and charge people to ride it without an ADIPS certificate.

 

[ECG]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

Germany has the strictest laws and most extensive inspections (TUV) for their rides which are mandatory for park and fair rides alike. Most of you are familiar with the trouble Ring° Racer is still having with continually failing TUV inspections year in and year out. If the coaster were built here in the USA, or a number of other countries, it probably would have been running for years now with continual shutdowns until the launch could be repaired again.
Of course there are still accidents on German fair rides, but those incidents are extremely rare, especially compared to the number of rides on the German fair circuit. However there was an exception. In 2010 one of Commander's gondolas ripped away from its swing arm and flew into the crowd of on-lookers, nine of which were injured. Two years later it happened again but luckily a cable prevented the gondola from leaving the ride platform. Both passengers in the gondola were injured and it was determined that the accident was due to improper maintenance. The owners were fined and stripped of their operating license and the ride was demolished. There are two identical rides, Shake and Shake n Roll, which have been operating on the German fair circuit for years without incident.

Here's a photo of the 2010 accident:

And one of the 2012 accident:

And off- and on-ride videos for those not familiar with the ride type:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6oBRer4WTE[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZHdGxyhCh0[/youtube]

 

[SilverArrow]

Re: Five Injured in Accident on North Carolina State Fair Ri

Not necessarily a question of speed, but rather money.

Something breaks, and rather than buy new parts that are for safety sensors as opposed to making the ride move, just jury-rig the wiring so that it works anyways.

If the state inspectors are just rubber stamps, as opposed to actually sticking their noses into the rides, nobody finds out until someone gets hurt.

Ok, yeah that makes sense. I was seeing it from a "jury-rig it before it is broken" kind of angle, which made no sense, but I can see how it might occur through lack of wanting to spend on maintenance. Thanks.