A carnival worker fell from a Ferris wheel on Friday night in North Carolina, after climbing it to try to free at least one child who was trapped in a stuck gondola.
Cellphone video footage from a visitor at the Central Carolina Fair in Greensboro, N.C., shows the Michael’s Amusements worker climbing up on to the attraction after one of the gondola cars began to tilt out of its normal position Friday night. WHAS11 reported that at least one young boy was inside the stuck gondola car.
When the worker dislodged the car, he lost his balance and fell, banging his body on the ride, amid screams and cries of “Oh my God” from the watching crowd.
The video goes on to show parents comforting frightened children. “I don’t want to get on no more,” says one child heard on the video.
The video, posted Friday night to Facebook by Viridiana Ruis Palacio, has been viewed over 120,000 times..
The Central Carolina Fair in Greensboro said in a statement on Saturday that the worker was taken to a hospital and he was later released.
The ride was inspected by state officials and approved for continued use.
The Facebook video shows the carnival worker climbing a Ferris wheel to free a stuck gondola carrying at least one child. The worker falls after freeing the gondola. He suffered minor injuries.
15-Month-Old Toddler Dies After Being Shocked At Carnival
A 15-month-old toddler girl died after being shocked at a carnival.
The toddler wasn’t big enough to join her mother and sister in the bouncy house at the carnival next to Towne West on Friday night.
So to pass the time while waiting for them, she decided to swing back and forth on a wire in front of the bouncy house while her father shot a video.
She was swinging back and forth, and all of a sudden she was going straight back with her eyes wide open,” Lynn Bartonek said of her granddaughter, whose name is being withheld by her family for now.
“My son told me, ‘Mom, I had to pry her hands off the hand rail,’ ” Bartonek said.
The parents flagged down off-duty police officers nearby, who called 911. The first responders worked on her for about an hour, trying to revive her, before taken to a hospital.
“Our Pressley passed away on Wednesday afternoon,” the girl’s family said in a statement. “We have made the difficult decision to donate her organs so that other patients in need of transplants no longer have to suffer through their illnesses and that her death was not in vain. We request that you respect our privacy during this difficult time.”
Josselin Sedivy was with her husband and two kids the night of the accident. At the time of the incident, no one knew what happened, although several people stepped in to help.
“We just saw the little girl unresponsive and everybody freaked out and was trying to help her, ” Sedivy said.
Later it was discovered that the child was holding onto one of the metal guard rails that surrounded one of the rides. According to Westar Energy, the little girl was zapped by 290 volts of electricity.