Preliminary inspection of the Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in Greeneville, Tenn., indicated a mechanical failure of the ride, police said Tuesday.
Advertisement
The ride was operated by a Georgia-based company called Family Attractions Amusement, which was involved in another high-profile carnival accident three years ago. People were thrown into the air and knocked to the steel deck below.
Meanwhile, it’s still up to the state to decide the fate of the rest of the rides at the fair.
According to the Greeneville News (http://bit.ly/2b5UwT5), 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. If the judge hadn’t suspended the sentence, Macaroni wouldn’t have been in Tennessee.
The company received its permit to operate the Ferris wheel in Tennessee for the next three months based on a June inspection in IN, according to state Department of Labor and Workforce Development spokeswoman Jennifer Farrar. Only then will they qualify for a new permit.
Reynolds expressed confidence in the girls’ doctors and the hospital, gratitude for the community’s support, and astonishment at the media attention over the incident.
Niswonger Children’s Hospital Dr. Bracken Burns said in a press conference on Tuesday that the first patient was a 16-year-old girl, who is now in critical condition, although she did well through the night and doctors are hopeful she will be downgraded to stable condition.
“She is not now breathing on her own, ‘ said Kimmee Reynolds, the girls” mother, in a Facebook update Wednesday. She said the girl, who is listed in critical condition, has responded to some family members’ voices by moving her feet and hands. “The outpouring of support from the whole country has been unbelievable. If I could have it my way, this would be the way of the world”, she wrote.
“We have no idea how these machines function”, he said “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”.
After a 2014 audit found shortcomings in Tennessee’s regulatory program for rides at fairs and amusement parks, state officials made a decision to get out of the inspection business altogether.
Advertisement
Kimmee Reynolds said she would like some answers.
