NEWS: Spider ride collapses, injures 3

[dandaman]

CEREDO — Three people were transported to Cabell Huntington Hospital on Saturday night after a ride at Camden Park malfunctioned and collapsed.

 

It happened on the Spider ride at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, said Ceredo Fire Chief Dave Caudill.

 

A “leg” of the Spider ride broke away from the rest of the ride and landed on the ground, but no one was riding in the container that struck and eventually dragged the ground, Caudill said.

 

The three who were taken to the hospital appeared to have only minor, and were only taken as a precaution, Caudill said.

 

Kelsey Adkins, 11, Taylor Adkins, 14, and Ashton Syndor, 10, all of Boone County and Adrian Casto, 7, of Sissonville, came to the park together Saturday, and they were on the ride when it malfunctioned.

 

“We were on the ride when we heard this big bump sound,” Snydor said. “Then it went extremely fast and that part dropped and you could hear it drag on the ground.”

 

Casto said the ride smelled like “fire and rubber” after it stopped, and they could tell it was broken.

 

“We were crying, and everyone kept telling us to calm down,” Casto said. “We were scared that they [Kelsey and Taylor] weren’t going to be able to get down.”

 

Kelsey and Taylor Adkins said they became stuck at the highest point of the ride, and they relied on each other until emergency responders could rescue them.

 

“We were just looking down and hoping we didn’t fall,” Taylor Adkins said. “We were screaming and crying when it happened, and when one of us could calm down, the other one would start to freak out.”

 

The girls said they knew rescue crews were on the scene, but the longer they waited, the more scared they became.

 

“We could see one boy on the ground, and we were scared we were going to get hurt, too,” Kelsey Adkins said. “Someone kept telling us that it would be two more minutes, but it felt like forever.”

 

The girls were stuck on the ride for about 20 minutes before Ceredo Fire Department crews could get a ladder the girls, who climbed down to the ground to a round of applause by park patrons, who had gathered at the ride.

 

The park closed immediately following the incident.

 

Caudill said this sort of occurrence was rare for the park, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

 

“When you think about as many years as the park has been around, things like this don’t happen very often. They have a good safety record,” Caudill said. “You see it in the news that things like this happen at King’s Island and Cedar Point. When you are dealing with mechanical things, it’s always possible that they can break down.”

 

Camden Park Manager Jack Boylin said officials with the West Virginia Department of Labor have been called to investigate the ride, and Ceredo Police Officers also are investigating the incident.

 

“Right now it’s too early to tell what caused the ride to malfunction,” Boylin said. “We’re thankful no one was seriously injured, and we are going to do everything we can to make sure we find out what happened and prevent it from happening again.”

 

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x1528014722/Three-hospitalized-after-Spider-collapses-at-Camden-Park

[megamatt]

This is early, but my money is on poor maintenance. I've never heard of an Eyerly Spider collapsing by itself before.

[John Peck]

Camdens Spider is easily the best around.

 

Eyerly released a bulletin about the legs of Spiders breaking off at the fork where they hold the tubs. Most parks have had their rides refurbished and the area of weakness is strengthened. I rode Camden's Spider in 2008, and thought that they had reinforced theirs to spec.

[Tmcdllr]

 

“We were on the ride when we heard this big bump sound,” Snydor said. “Then it went extremely fast and that part dropped and you could hear it drag on the ground.”

 

Casto said the ride smelled like “fire and rubber” after it stopped, and they could tell it was broken.

 

"You see it in the news that things like this happen at King’s Island and Cedar Point."

 

 

That's just funny.

[jslim39]

Does it seem like accidents have been occuring more often recently at amusement parks to anybody else? And does it seem like people become less and less educated everyday as well?

Edited July 25, 2011 by jslim39

[Stitch_101]

While I can't account for the state of the flat rides at Camden Park today, I must say if the upkeep of the rides was anything like my last visit (about 5 years ago) I'm not exactly surprised by this news. I use to live about 45 minutes from Camden Park, and went a hand full of time to ride The Big Dipper and the awesomely-bad retro Haunted House (I love my dark rides). The condition of a lot of their flat rides, however, scared me a little to much to risk riding

[BlueFireCoaster]

Ugh, some people are so retarded. How do they have the ability to completely lose all common sense once they step into amusement parks? And the people that were "injured" weren't even on the arm of the ride that broke and started dragging! Thank god nobody was, otherwise there might have been a couple deaths or serious injuries.

 

What bugs me most is nobody the news talks to ever has a clear idea of what's going on, like they're purposely abstract to find some way to make parks look like dangerous hell holes with rides that break down all the time. I think we hear of these more and more because they're popular stories centered around theme parks, and because of how quickly and easily news travels online these days.

 

Think about it, thousands of rides are operating world-wide at almost every second of every day, and we only hear about something like this every couple months. When you consider the rides operating and the fact that we don't hear of something like this every day, it pretty much explains how safe you are to be sitting on a ride. Much safer than going 80 MPH on any highway.

[Canobie Coaster]

When two trains collided on the Yankee Cannonball almost 10 years ago I remember the father and son who were interviewed said they would still ride the coaster since the realized the odds of something like that happening again are slim.

 

But it's a good thing no one was seriously hurt in this accident.

[beatle11]

Best thing to do is learn from the accident, and move on. Glad no one was seriously hurt.