Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Girl cheats death after being flung 30ft from funfair ride

E

Emmett

Giga Poster
Another funfair accident this time involving an Extreme Orbitor at an M&D's operated funfair in Edinburgh.

AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD girl has narrowly escaped death after being thrown 30ft from a spinning fairground ride. Nicole Wilson's father Neil described watching in horror as she went flying through the air from the Extreme ride at Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh. He said it was a "miracle" she survived the accident without more serious injuries after apparently slipping under the safety harness.

The Longstone Primary School pupil is recovering in the Royal Hospital For Sick Children where she is due to undergo further tests for internal injuries. Mr Wilson, 30, said: "I checked Nicole was tall enough for the ride against the chart and she was clearly above the 1.3 metre cut-off mark."

"Two guys strapped her in and it started. For a minute or two, everything seemed fine. Then I suddenly saw a figure flying through the air about 10ft off the ground. "I knew instantly it was Nicole from her clothes. She cleared the perimeter fence and struck an advertising hoarding about 30ft away," he said. "I started running to her and saw a ride assistant scoop her into his arms and run with her to the control booth. "When I got there she was crying and I was so relieved. I half expected her to be dead. She had blood all over her face."

Mr Wilson, a Scottish Power linesman who lives in Wester Hailes, added: "I don't know why the guy picked her up, but she had hit her head and anyone knows you don't move someone injured like that." The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the incident after inspectors visited the site on Wednesday and Thursday. The ride has been given the all-clear, but was reopened only after the manufacturer carried out checks. It continued to prove popular early yesterday lunchtime with other children happily clambering aboard.

They were spun around and tipped sideways in their seats from six arms fixed to a central point holding six riders sitting in pairs on each. Each rider is held in with a safety bar that pulls down and locks in place and can be adjusted for each person.

Nicole's mother, Kelly Nisbet, 31, who also lives in Wester Hailes, said: "I felt sick when Neil phoned to tell me what had happened. "I was convinced when I got to the hospital they would tell me she had died. She has a broken pelvis and really bad swelling on her face and head. Her face has lots of scratches and bruises. "She's already had a head scan and the doctors want to do a full body CAT scan for internal injuries."

Ms Nisbet, who has a two-year-old son Jackson, with her partner, Scott Brownridge, 27, an administrator with the Faculty of Advocates, expects Nicole to be kept in hospital for a few more days.

A spokeswoman for Strathclyde-based M&D's, which is running the fairground, said: "We can confirm that there was an incident on the Extreme ride, owned by Stanley Gamble, at approximately 3pm on Wednesday. "As a precaution the young girl involved was taken to hospital. The ride was closed down immediately and the Health and Safety Executive was informed."

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Girl-8-cheats-death-after.5163101.jp
 
That is pretty scary, my mate went there on Sunday with his kids, so it couls have been them. M&D's aren't having much luck - remember the guy who was killed during the build up of Bomber Max last year at this time.
 
^ No? What happened?

These rides go pretty fast as well... eeek. Does not sound good. I don't know how she managed to go 30ft, though. Must be an exaggeration.
 
Frightening, still it just gives me more reason to never ride funfair attractions. They just seem so.......dodgy? I don't know, they obviously must be safe otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to operate but there's definitely something I don't trust.

Glad she's basically OK though, from what we've seen so far anyway.
 
You don't just fall out of a Tivoli Extreme. Generally I find bars aren't checked on them, the ride can't go anywhere unless the bars are closed so the operators just assume everyone is seated correctly.. I imagine this girl must have had both legs on the same side of the seat or something, if visual checks were carried out the bar could have been released and the girl seated correctly. But obviously, I wasn't there, I can only speculate.

In any case the operator should have spotted if she wasn't sitting properly before speeding the ride up. But it's a combination of rider/operator error, my belief is that the machine is not to blame.
 
Frightening, still it just gives me more reason to never ride funfair attractions. They just seem so.......dodgy? I don't know, they obviously must be safe otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to operate but there's definitely something I don't trust.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's really the rides that are the problem at fairs. The employees are the real problem most of the time, like last year when I went to the Michigan State Fair and the Freedom Fest; two really popular fairs in their areas. How many times were my restraints checked? Literally maybe once or twice out of like, sixty different times riding the rides, not to mention the one guy who slammed my toe in the cage of the Zipper and yelled at me saying it was my fault...

So yeah it's definitely the employees you should be worried about, not the actual rides.

As for this story, wow, Orbiters go extremely fast, so it's amazing that she survived this. I hope all her tests and stuff go well, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top