Last week, three girls survived a harrowing fall from around 35 to 45 feet from a Ferris wheel in Tennessee.
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Jason and Kimmee Reynolds describing their feelings of terror and helplessness as they watched their young daughters tumble from a Ferris Wheel at Tennessee’s Greene County Fair.
Kayla suffered a broken arm and her sister 6-year-old Briley Reynolds is still hospitalized.
“Me and my sister were crying”.
“But he just looked at us and pushed the button anyway”. “What are you supposed to do?”
“When it started to happen it was still really scary”, said Kayla Reynolds. She hit the gondola beneath them, then she hit a bar and then she hit the ground. Now, one of the girls and her parents are speaking out about the horrific accident. “When she hit the ground, she was awake”.
Kimmiee Reynolds said she knew something was wrong even before the ride started. “She had a harder impact, when she hit, she knocked out. Her eyes rolled back in her head”. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but was upgraded to stable condition on Tuesday.
Immediately after falling to the ground, Kayla was anxious about her sister, “She wasn’t breathing and she wasn’t moving”. “She wasn’t breathing, and she wasn’t moving”. “I mean you feel helpless”.
Inspectors blamed a mechanical failure for the incident. The ride didn’t have seatbelts or lab restraints – and it isn’t required by law to have such safety features.
“You could just see her grab for something to try and hold onto”, Jason Reynolds said. “Safety should be a priority when you have people’s lives at risk”. “Stop! Stop now!'” Kimmee Reynolds said.
Kayla was alert and talking as she was taken to hospital but the couple said they thought they’d lost Briley.
She said she ran to the ride operator and yelled at him to stop, but he didn’t. “Why did we continue to use them?”
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The Reynolds family will speak at 10:00 a.m.
