www.suburbanchicagonews.com/ beaconnews/top/a11ferris.htm
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/ beaconnews/top/a11ferris.htm The above link is to a well written story about the accident and link to a previous post.
Man, 48, falls from Ferris wheel at Batavia festival
By David Garbe
STAFF WRITER
BATAVIA — A man at Batavia's Windmill City Festival fell off the Ferris wheel Saturday night when the gondola he and his daughter shared was about 20 feet off the ground.
Witnesses said the gondola began rocking back and forth just before the man slipped out. The gondola was less than half of the way up the wheel.
The man, whom police would describe only as a 48-year-old, landed on the platform at the base of the ride. He was taken by ambulance to Delnor-Community Hospital.
A hospital spokeswoman confirmed the man's injuries were not fatal, but no other information on his condition was available.
The victim's daughter, 9, remained in the gondola and was uninjured, as was her mother, who watched the accident transpire from the ground.
Multiple witnesses said the man appeared to have been deliberately rocking the gondola before he fell.
Police officials said Sunday they were still investigating the accident and did not comment on what might have been the cause.
Carnival workers stopped the ride as police ran to help the fallen man.
"It was just like a big commotion. Everybody just rushed over there," said a woman who was working nearby but declined to give her name. "It happened so quick, they had it cleaned up in like three minutes."
Batavia police said a carnival ride inspector with the Illinois Department of Labor responded to the scene to inspect the ride. Police did not disclose the results of that inspection.
Police said the gondola from which the man fell was detached from the ride and taken to the Batavia Police Department for further investigation.
The accident occured at about 10 p.m. Witnesses said the rest of the festival continued normally until the scheduled closing time of 11 p.m. although they did see some people who appeared shaken and left immediately after the accident.
Saturday's accident appears to have been a rare occurence, although relatively little information exists on accidents involving Ferris wheels and other carnival rides.
On average, one person has died every year for the last 20 years in an accident on a carnival ride in the United States, according to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The commission's data separates accidents that occur on traveling carnival rides from roller coasters at permanent amusement parks, which saw more than twice as many deaths over the same time period.
The only Ferris wheel accident the commission investigated since 2000 occured last year at a Kansas amusement park, where a 13-year-old girl fell 35 feet from a gondola and suffered serious injuries to her head and jaw. The girl admitted to having rocked the basket prior to the accident.
The government's information on amusement ride injuries is significantly less complete, being based on the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a yearly survey of emergency room visits at 100 American hospitals.
That data suggests an average of 3,000 people are injured every year on rides at traveling carnivals, and about twice as many at permanent parks.
More than 90 percent of those reported injuries required limited medical treatment and no hospitalization.
The carnival industry says those numbers mean riders' odds for safety are pretty good, given the millions of people who climb aboard Ferris wheels and other carnival rides every year.
7/11/05
The previous original post has this link:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=72636 My question is this: Why did the police not charge this man with child endangerment? Should this also be reported to child protective services?
In fairness where I b....ed to one paper I will compliment this reporter on this story.
I'm there, Old, Tired, Broke and Henpecked