Greeneville Police Capt. Tim Davis said at a news conference late Tuesday that “mechanical failure” appeared to have caused the basket the girls were riding in to overturn Monday night at the Greene County Fair in eastern Tennessee.
Advertisement
All rides operated at the Greene County Fair were shut down after the incident and will remain closed until inspections are completed, according to reports. Reynolds said that girl celebrated her birthday Wednesday at the hospital. “They want to give her more time, and as much as I want her alert and dancing and being feisty, I want her to rest and feel better”.
“We all want to know why this bad accident happened”, she said, “and what we can do to prevent it from happening again”.
One eyewitness account reported by WJHL indicated that the girls fell from the ferris wheel when the auto got caught as the wheel lifted them upwards, and they spilled out onto the ground.
Tennessee recognizes other states’ inspections for up to three months before requiring a new permit, according to state Department of Labor and Workforce Development spokeswoman Jennifer Farrar. “We have to wait for the inspectors to get here and to actually look at the device and see if they can determine if it was mechanical in nature or something else”.
In a follow-up to the audit a year ago, the agency said Tennessee law does not require the state to hire its own inspectors.
“Halfway, the bar came loose and two little girls, about 7 years old, fell from there all the way down and they hit their head and were just laying there, lifeless, and then the mom (likely the 16-year-old) was up above them just hanging”.
He said the fair board also is hiring its own third-party investigator.
The company did not return a message left on the voicemail of the phone number listed on its last inspection report. It had received its permit to operate in Tennessee based on an inspection made in IN in June.
Family Attractions Amusement was fined in 2013 for violating safety laws in North Carolina after a Vortex ride suddenly lurched into motion as riders were disembarking, injuring four riders and a ride operator.
Advertisement
The Greene County incident was the eighth injury incident reported to Tennessee authorities on amusement rides this summer. Along with facial swelling, she has a fever and possibly a bacterial infection, the mother said.
