LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (KATV) – A mother in Little Rock, Arkansas, says her kids don’t want to go on any more carnival rides after getting stuck on one.
It happened at the Arkansas State Fair last weekend, and it was caught on camera.
Fair officials say their rides undergo numerous safety checks because safety is their top priority.
Allie Metzger recorded a cellphone video showing her 11-year-old and 8-year-old children stuck upside down during an X-Drive carnival ride at the Arkansas State Fair on Saturday.
“There’s a bunch of people trying to make the ride go around, and they’d make it about halfway through, and then it’d come back up with my kids still upside down, so I’d panic,” Metzger recalls. “My partner would panic.”
She says this went on for a while with her two children hanging upside down for at least 15 minutes.
“So, I looked up. My 11-year-old daughter looked like she had passed out,” Metzger explained. “I couldn’t see her. Her eyes were closed. She told me when she got home that all she remembered was crying and then becoming dizzy. Her legs were hurting. I think because trading was off. So, it was upside down for 10 minutes, and someone asked me to start recording.
Several children were stuck upside down during a ride at the Arkansas State Fair.
Scooter Couric, vice president of customer services for North American Midway Entertainment, explained how the ride crew finally convinced the kids.
“The ride’s computer got an error. So, what it does is when it finds something it doesn’t like, it shuts down,” Couric said. “So, the flight was in the air, not at the landing site, for 10 to 12 minutes in the afternoon Saturday. We evacuated everyone according to the manufacturer’s specifications in the manual and what we train all the time.
North American Midway Entertainment is responsible for all tours, both large and small, taking the show on the road to fairgoers throughout the United States
“Anyone in my family can go on any of our trips any day,” Couric said. “That’s what I feel good about our programs, our safety programs and the people who work for us to operate these rides and take care of them.”
Fair Trips passes through five levels of inspection, Couric says.
“We have a safety director, and of course Arkansas State Fair inspectors. We have moderators. They look at these trips. We carry out regular third party checks, most important of all the people running these trips. “They travel with us wherever we go,” Couric added.
Metzger says she is filing a complaint with the Arkansas State Fair.
“We had a really honest conversation about it and they said, ‘You know, I was really scared. I didn’t know what was happening. “I just want to take a break if it’s good,” Metzger said. “We had plans for this weekend, but this kind of shook everything up.”
Copyright 2024 KATV via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
