North Carolina State Fair Ride Accident

[DJeXeL]

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=20678728&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com

 

This is an awkward accident. Rides have so many failsafes now this should've never happened. This definitely could've been a lot worse.

Edited October 29, 2013 by cfc

[yay101]

I'm glad nobody died, but it's still so sad though.

[simon8899]

This sounds bad. As multiple restraints became unlocked IMO rules out mechanical fault.

 

Knowing that at a Huss TopSpin or Moser Top Star Tour you cannot unlock the restraints while the ride is operating - not even from the operators stand. A ride attendant has to engage/disengage the restraints on the gondola itself. So during ride operation that switch is not reachable.

 

Luckily no one was killed.

[SharkTums]

Two Words...Technical Park.

[Moose]

I don't think I've ever seen any of their rides before. This thing looks bizarre.

[DirkFunk]

Two Words...Technical Park.

 

This.

[DJeXeL]

Two Words...Technical Park.

 

This. The OC fair here in SoCal had 1 of these and it was making a horrible noise so I decided to pass.

[OISU8P]

Does anyone know who the ride provider was? I know that Powers Great American Midway usually does this fair. However, I do not believe they have ever had one of these in their line up. Does this fair have multiple providers?

[tanthonyam]

That ride has been around for years on European fairs. I'm sure it is a used ride bought from a European showman. I have never seen one of those in the US.

[Noporian]

Im not gonna blaim the manufacturer but rather the people who take care of the rides. I never really feel safe even looking at rides in american fairgrounds. They tend to creak alot.

[TPDave]

^ There's bad maintenance and then there's a design that can fail.

 

I assume there will be some sort of inquest and would be interested to see the result, this kind of thing should not happen these days.

[KingRCT3]

So, with another source (RTL.be), we learn that it's not a mechanical failure of the restraints.

The ride stopped, passengers where getting out when the ride restarted for an unknown reason.

 

EDIT: Just realised I've been on that particular ride a few years ago. I liked it, smooth and I felt safe. It was in France for sixteen years (1997), and in the US for less than a year...

[ilrider]

Ride operator arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Inspection reveals ride had been tampered with and key safety parts were missing. More arrests expected.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=20692984&sid=81&ts=true

[DanTheBooker]

The ride was owned my Josh Macaroni. His family owns Family Attractions Carnival in Tennessee.

[simon8899]

^^Thats why I like our mandatory tests by TÜV engineers after each assembly of a carnival ride. Likely the special spare parts were declared "too exepensive". Local police and/or civil servants simply do not have the expertise to do checks on rides. Even our TÜV has a special group for this assignements called "Fliegende Bauten" who do only check carnival rides. Of course accidents can still happen but vital parts that are missing would have come up.

 

I would also charge the person who tested and cleared that ride.

[robbalvey]

Ride operator arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Inspection reveals ride had been tampered with and key safety parts were missing. More arrests expected.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=20692984&sid=81&ts=true

Another article...

 

What the hell is wrong with the world???

 

http://news.yahoo.com/nc-ride-operator-charged-assault-deadly-weapon-013617439--abc-news-topstories.html

 

NC Ride Operator Charged With Assault With Deadly Weapon (ABC News)

 

The operator of a ride at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh that injured five people when it started to move as riders were exiting has been arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, the Wake County sheriff said tonight.

 

Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the ride had been tampered with after an inspection that was carried out Monday, and he expected that there would be more arrests.

 

Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow, 46, of Georgia is facing three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury, the sheriff said.

 

"After inspection of the ride, we determined that it had been tampered with and critical safety devices were compromised," Harrison said.

 

Three people remained hospitalized tonight in good to critical condition after the "Vortex" ride malfunction Thursday night, according to authorities.

 

After the incident, attendance at the fair was significantly lower than it was last year. There were 82,163 people at the fair Friday, down from 92,418 people on the fair's second Friday last year.

 

The Vortex ride will not reopen at this year's fair, officials told ABC station WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham.

 

The first call to 911 came around 9:17 p.m. after the ride restarted, Wake Harrison said 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.

 

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. A switch problem had been fixed Monday, officials said, but they didn't know yet whether it was related to the accident.

 

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."

 

The association that represents carnival operators told ABC News that Americans took more than 1 billion rides a year and that each year 13,000 people were injured and visited an emergency room.

 

That's a higher rate than at theme parks, which see 1.7 billion riders and just 9,200 injuries.

[TPDave]

Wow, this just screams Ghetto carnival. Safety features disabled?!? I don't even want to think about the upkeep of some of the fairground rides that I've been on over the years!

[Meteornotes]

That's just horrible. What the hell is wrong with people?!?

 

dt

[djcoastermark]

Simple, money, money, money, above all else it seems anymore.

[cfc]

But how can that be when . . .

 

[Jew]

Simple, money, money, money, above all else it seems anymore.

 

That would be my guess as well. Probably tampered with something to squeeze out an extra cycle to make more money in an hour.

[cfc]

Boy, the North Carolina State Fair can't catch a break even when they've shut down for the season: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/28/21217083-worker-critically-injured-in-accident-on-second-vortex-ride-at-nc-state-fair.

 

Worker critically injured in accident on second Vortex ride at NC State Fair

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

 

Four days after five people were injured on a ride called the Vortex at the North Carolina State Fair, a worker there was critically injured early Monday when part of the festival's other ride called the Vortex fell on him, authorities said.

 

The annual fair closed Sunday, and as workers were dismantling the older of the Vortex rides, the ride's seating section fell about 3:30 a.m. ET Monday, trapping the man and pinning the lower half of his body, a spokesman for the fair told WRAL-TV of Raleigh, which first reported the accident.

 

Newell was listed in critical condition in intensive care Monday night at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh.

 

Edward Brayboy, a worker at the fair, said he heard screams coming from the midway about 3:45 a.m. ET.

 

"When I got there, he was on the ground, and he was badly injured," Brayboy told NBC station WNCN of Raleigh. "Very badly."

 

The Vortex that fell Monday morning has been part of the fair's main midway for several years. It isn't the same Vortex that jolted into motion Thursday night as riders were exiting, dropping them from heights of up to 30 feet. Five people were injured, three of whom remained in the hospital Monday, including a 14-year-old child.

 

The ride's operator, Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow, 46, of Quitman, Ga., was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. Investigators said the ride had been tampered with to bypass critical safety devices.

 

Tutterrow made his first court appearance Monday in Wake County District Court in Raleigh and was held on $225,000 bond.

 

Tutterrow was "devastated" by the incident, his attorney, Roger Smith Jr., said Monday.

 

"Tim Tutterrow's a good man, and he would never intentionally harm anybody," Smith told WNCN.

 

The ride was the only one at the fair operated by Family Attractions Amusement Co. of Valdosta, Ga. There was no answer at the company's phone number, and its website appeared to have been taken down in the last few days.

 

But in a statement to WNCN, Joyce Fitzpatrick, a spokeswoman, said the company "has an excellent equipment safety record and has never before experienced an incident with any of its rides like this one."

 

Records on file with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which catalogs amusement park safety incidents, show no investigations or enforcement actions against the company, which was founded in 1996.

 

State regulators confirmed that the Vortex was inspected multiple times a day, and Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the ride appeared to have been tampered with after its last inspection Thursday "to keep that ride operating."

 

"That's all I'm going to say about that," he told reporters.

 

"It makes me mad that anybody would put people's safety in danger like they have," State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler told reporters. "And I'm not mad — I'm furious."

 

With the North Carolina fair's closing over the weekend, the Vortex had been scheduled to move to Ladson, S.C., where it was to have been part of the Coastal Carolina Fair opening Thursday.

 

Joe Bolchoz, a spokesman for the Coastal Carolina Fair, told NBC station WCBD of Charleston, S.C., that fair organizers canceled those plans and were trying to find a replacement ride.

 

Note to self: If I'm ever at the North Carolina State Fair, stay away from rides named "Vortex."

Edited October 29, 2013 by robbalvey

[ilrider]

^Wow, what are the odds of that?!

[KingRCT3]

Wow creepy.

 

It seems the second Vortex ride is a Booster from Fabbri (Source).

 

It reminds me of an accident that happened on a similar Booster in 2007 at La Fête des Loges (France), where a gondola literally flew off during a ride. I learnt some years after that some of the people who died were one of my classmate's cousins.

[cfc]

It's like a Halloween story: "The Curse of Any Ride Named 'Vortex '"