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Yes! Honest to God, my partner and I had just finished watching that very ride cycle running (and thinkng "ain't no way in Hell I would get on that!), and had turned to keep walking when we heard a series of Bangs and people started screaming. Looked back and saw folks lying on the metal platform (the bangs were the sound of people hitting the platform) and people rushing the scene. The right side of the ride was up in the air, and my first thought was that a safety bar had let loose and some people had dropped straight down from being upside down(!). Though I wondered why the rest of the ride was empty. As is now known, they were unloading and it started back up before the last handful were off. Two of the people on the platform never moved at all the whole time we watched, until the EMT showed up. Those two were taken out on stretchers and I'm sure are the two still mentioned as being in critical condition.
So (thankfully) I did not SEE them fall, but hearing it was something I'll never forget.
Wow, Francois. That is something that would really shake me up. My older daughter had been wanting to go to the fair on Sunday (too busy until then), but now I'm not so sure.
Yes! Honest to God, my partner and I had just finished watching that very ride cycle running (and thinkng "ain't no way in Hell I would get on that!), and had turned to keep walking when we heard a series of Bangs and people started screaming. Looked back and saw folks lying on the metal platform (the bangs were the sound of people hitting the platform) and people rushing the scene. The right side of the ride was up in the air, and my first thought was that a safety bar had let loose and some people had dropped straight down from being upside down(!). Though I wondered why the rest of the ride was empty. As is now known, they were unloading and it started back up before the last handful were off. Two of the people on the platform never moved at all the whole time we watched, until the EMT showed up. Those two were taken out on stretchers and I'm sure are the two still mentioned as being in critical condition.
So (thankfully) I did not SEE them fall, but hearing it was something I'll never forget.
It was so crazy how you mentioned that happening to you when you got home last night because I swear right after I read your comments about it, one of my good friends over in North Raleigh posted on FB to say that her daughter had JUST stopped there because she had wanted to ride it, then decided the line was too long, so she walked away and BAM! Her son is training to be an EMT and he said it was a pretty rough accident.
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One of the reasons I don't do State Fairs or other temp amusement rides, between last year with the E-Coli and this recent accident and the others in past years, no thank you....just my opinion!
Terrible. I read years ago that even though the State Fair goes from state to state that NC has the most stringent regulations concerning the rides and that they are checked 3 times a day.
Vicki
That is deceiving to the public. They are not "officially" inspected 3 times a day.
From an article from wral.com describing the 3 inspections a day:
Once the fair opens, Chambers said, the state relies on the honor system, asking that operators inspect their own rides three times a day to make sure they continue to meet specifications.
"We say, 'Shut the ride down. Make sure you do an operations check, make sure your fence is in place, make sure there's no issues with the device and then document that,'" he said.
So they are relying on the honor system for the carnies to inspect their rides 3 times a day. That doesn't sound very stringent! It also sounds like a conflict of interest seeing that an employee of the ride company is is doing the inspections.
One of the reasons I don't do State Fairs or other temp amusement rides, between last year with the E-Coli and this recent accident and the others in past years, no thank you....just my opinion!
I feel like people are blowing this out of proportion. The fair is completely safe as long as you pay attention to what you and your children are doing. It should be common sense to wash/purell hands before shoving them in a mouth at the fair. All those people touching everything in and of itself, not even bringing animals into the equation.
Accidents happen, but this was the first major ride accident in over 10 years at the NC State Fair, so I'd hardly call that a recent thing.
You don't have to go the fair and ride rides. I don't do that and have been going to the fair for over 15 years, sometimes multiple times a year. I go for the food, exhibits, and people watching in general.
I was at the fair last night and ermurgurd, nothing happened.
I feel like people are blowing this out of proportion. The fair is completely safe as long as you pay attention to what you and your children are doing. It should be common sense to wash/purell hands before shoving them in a mouth at the fair. All those people touching everything in and of itself, not even bringing animals into the equation.
Accidents happen, but this was the first major ride accident in over 10 years at the NC State Fair, so I'd hardly call that a recent thing.
You don't have to go the fair and ride rides. I don't do that and have been going to the fair for over 15 years, sometimes multiple times a year. I go for the food, exhibits, and people watching in general.
I was at the fair last night and ermurgurd, nothing happened.
I agree. We go every year at least once for the food, people watching, and a few rides. I'd feel safer on them at Six Flags, but if there's a million people there each year, and 5 people in 10 years get injured, that's incredibly good odds. There's a bad wreck on I-40 every day but we all still go to work. I don't mean to diminish how horrible it must be for those people, and the people that witnessed it. But this made CNN and the BBC, and I feel like that's a bit much.
Ironically my wife went yesterday during lunch and saw a whole bunch of teenagers lined up for the Vortex trying to show how tough they are... ;-)
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