TN Greenville 3 fall from Ferris wheel at fair

GeeEm

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August 8, 2016
11:12 PM EDT


3 fall from Ferris wheel at fair in Tennessee, police say


Three people who fell 30 to 45 feet from a Ferris wheel in Tennessee were responsive and answering questions Monday night, police said.

The oldest of the three who fell from the ride at a county fairground is a 16-old-girl, according to Greeneville Police Detective Capt. Tim Davis.

Davis told CBS affiliate WJHL that all three were riding in one basket during the time of the incident.

<modsnip>

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-fall-from-ferris-wheel-at-fair-in-tennessee-police-say/


 
Were they goofing around? Hard to understand how you fall out of the Ferrris Wheel unless you were standing up and/or leaning way out.
 
Were they making it swing?
 
Were they making it swing?

wow. Good question. It just seems so odd that three would fall out unless one of two things:

1. equipment failure on massive scale= [ bucket tipped over/bottom fell out etc]

or
2. Kids were messing around/standing up/swinging it around/leaning out to take a selfie, etc
 
August 8, 2016
10:24 PM EDT UPDATED

Three TN girls hurt in fall from Ferris wheel


Three girls were injured after they fell from a Ferris wheel at a county fair in eastern Tennessee, police said Monday evening.

Greeneville police Capt. Tim Davis said a basket reportedly overturned on a Greene County Fair ride and dumped the occupants out.

They fell 35 to 45 feet and were taken to the Johnson City Medical Center -- two by helicopter and one by ambulance, he said. All are alert and talking to hospital staff, Davis said.

<modsnip>


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...nnessee-ferris-wheel/index.html?client=safari
 
August 9, 2016
3:55 AM EDT

Greene County Fair Ferris Wheel Basket Flips, Injuring Three Kids


Three children were injured after falling from a Ferris wheel at a Tennessee county fair, police said late Monday.

The 67th annual Greene County Fair kicked off Monday in Greeneville with a midway full of rides and a "fairest of the fair" pageant.

Police said that a 911 report came in shortly after 6 p.m. about a Ferris wheel basket overturning, sending three children plunging an estimated 35 to 40 feet — or more than three stories.

Two of the children were flown by helicopter to a local trauma center while the third went to the same facility by ambulance, Greeneville Police Capt. Tim Davis told reporters.


https://www.google.com/amp/www.nbcn...ips-injuring-three-kids-n626056?client=safari

FACE BOOK PAGE

https://m.facebook.com/GreeneCountyFair/posts/1333587999985476
 
From the photos I saw in the news, it looked like the wheel basket just locked in place as it went up and over, causing it to tip over. Equipment malfunction, poor maintenance, IMO.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-fall-from-ferris-wheel-at-fair-in-tennessee-police-say/

We need to go back to having the Consumer Products Safety Commission oversee inspection of these rides, water attractions, etc. Some states aren't doing the job. They're letting the owners do their own inspections. Thousands of kids are being hurt every year on rides and attractions. People get on these rides with the assumption they've been inspected, tested and maintained when that's not always the case.
 
According to Daily Mail, witnesses say the girls were rocking the chair really hard back and forth...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-fall-Ferris-wheel-Tennessee-fairground.html

An eyewitness, Dakota Ragan, told WCYB.com, that he saw the girls rocking their basket as the ride started.
'I saw the kids, they were just rocking the thing, which I didn't think was such a big deal, most people rock it anyway', Ragan said. 'But they were rocking it hard'.

According to Ragan, the rocking caused the basket to hit a neighboring basket, causing it to get stuck upside down.
'They hit and I guess the force just brought them back and they went right over', he said, describing the moment the three fell to the ground.
 
wow Another tragedy at an amusement park.

I don't know how one basket could even collide with another basket. Something may have broke or something.

The ride operators have to know that people will swing the baskets sometimes. I cant really blame the kids for this. The ride itself should have been able to handle any amount of normal swinging.
 
wow Another tragedy at an amusement park.

I don't know how one basket could even collide with another basket. Something may have broke or something.

The ride operators have to know that people will swing the baskets sometimes. I cant really blame the kids for this. The ride itself should have been able to handle any amount of normal swinging.

I don&#8217;t understand it either. Most Ferris Wheels I have seen, the baskets are far enough apart that it would be impossible for the baskets to come in contact with each other. This seems like a design flaw to me.
 
If I understand this situation correctly, this was a type of community festival. So it would have been one of the "travelling" amusement carnival companies, as opposed to a permanently sited amusement park.

As I understand it, the patchwork of oversight, inspection, and regulation of travelling carnival rides is different than amusement parks with permanently mounted rides.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-08-09-carnival-rides-safety-state-laws_n.htm

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Amusement-Park-Ride-Inpsections-Pa-222195711.html

http://www.amusementparkaccidents.com/2014/07/are-traveling-carnivals-recipe-for-disaster/

(Many more links, some state specific, if one searches "inspection of travelling carnival rides".)
 
I don&#8217;t understand it either. Most Ferris Wheels I have seen, the baskets are far enough apart that it would be impossible for the baskets to come in contact with each other. This seems like a design flaw to me.

I saw a photo of it last night, the baskets looked more like umbrella covered teacups to me. It wasn't a traditional looking Ferris wheel seen at most carnivals.
 
I saw a photo of it last night, the baskets looked more like umbrella covered teacups to me. It wasn't a traditional looking Ferris wheel seen at most carnivals.

It would be very interesting to know the history of the ride. I wonder if it could have been retrofitted with those umbrella covered teacups things recently. They sure don&#8217;t look right to me.
 
In college, one of my 'crazier' friends ran off and joined the carnival. He worked a US tour for a few years. I ran into him years later, and he was adamant, that I never take my kids to a 'traveling carnival' to go on rides. He said they are notoriously unsafe and do the bare minimum of maintenance etc. I did keep that in mind and only let my kids go on the very safe 'kiddie rides.' If they wanted to go on roller coasters I had hubby take them to more established amusement parks. It is still potentially dangerous of course.
 
I worked our volunteer fire men's carnival for years, and I would not trust the carnival ride attendants as a whole with the safety of anyone I cared about. The things we saw and heard from every traveling ride company made you wonder how they still exists.
 
August 9, 2016
9:18 PM EDT

Investigators find possible cause for Ferris wheel accident in Tennessee

Greeneville Police Department detectives said an incident where three girls fell from a Ferris wheel at a county fair in Tennessee may have been caused by a mechanical failure, CBS affiliate WJHL reported.

"The inspectors -- there's four different inspectors so we've got all kinds of results coming in -- but the inspectors have found that there is a mechanical issue with this ride behind me, and that they believe led to the incident at hand," Capt. Tim Davis said during a news conference Tuesday night.

• 16 year old critical condition downgraded to stable

• 10 year old stable condition

• 6 year old critical condition/traumatic brain injury

https://www.google.com/amp/www.cbsn...is-wheel-accident-in-tennessee/?client=safari
 

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