A frightened mother watched in horror as her young children were dangling upside down on a malfunctioning fairground ride for 15 minutes.
Ally Metzger recorded the moment her eight- and 11-year-old children were left helplessly swinging in the air at the Arkansas State Fair’s X Drive Carnival Ride on Saturday afternoon.
As fair employees were seen scrambling to manually push the broken ride, Metzger said it looked like her 11-year-old daughter “had passed out.”
‘I couldn’t see it. He had his eyes closed. When he got home, he told me that he only remembered crying and then getting dizzy. His legs hurt. I guess because there was no circulation,” he said. KATV.
Although staff eventually managed to get her children and other cyclists off, Metzger and her children were left scarred by the nightmarish incident, which “shaken up” their plans for the rest of the weekend.
Ally Metzger recorded the moment her eight- and 11-year-old children were left helplessly swinging in the air (above left) at the Arkansas State Fair’s X Drive Carnival Ride on Saturday afternoon.
Although staff eventually managed to get her children and other passengers off, Metzger (pictured) and her children were left scarred by the nightmarish incident.
“There’s a bunch of people trying to make the ride spin, and they’re taking it down almost halfway… then going back up to the top, with my kids still upside down. Then I’m panicking. My partner is panicking. panic,” said the mother.
After the terrifying moment occurred, Metzger took to Facebook to share his dismay with the state fair and revealed that a man told him to “calm down” while his children were swinging in the air.
‘My children were trapped face down for at least 15 minutes and 7 workers couldn’t even get them down. How do you build attractions and don’t know how to successfully remove people when it closes? she wrote.
“Oh, and a special shout out to silly Chris who told us, ‘Calm down, it’s only been 4 and a half minutes.’ After what he spent to get to this place? GIVE ME MY REFUND.”
She later filed a complaint with the fair, claiming that a “nice lady” visited her children at a medical store. Metzger also said he received a full refund.
“I remember why I don’t come here,” he added.
Scooter Korek, an employee of North American Midway Entertainment, the company responsible for the fair’s attractions, told KATV that the X Drive Carnival Ride stopped working after “the correct computer received a fault.”
As fair employees were seen manually pushing the broken ride, Metzger said it looked like her 11-year-old daughter “had passed out.” (in the photo: his daughters trapped in the air during the trip)
‘What it does is that when it finds something it doesn’t like, it closes it. “So the vehicle was in the air, not in its landing position, for about 10 or 12 minutes,” Korek said.
He said all passengers were evacuated “according to the manufacturer’s specifications in the manual” and that employees train for that “all the time.”
When asked by the outlet if he personally thought the attractions were safe, Korek said he is confident his family members can “go to any of our attractions any day.”
“That’s how good I feel about our programs, our safety programs and the people who work for us to operate and take care of these attractions,” he said.
Korek added that for attractions to be considered safe for North American Midway Entertainment, they must pass five levels of inspection.
‘We have a safety director and ride inspectors from the Arkansas State Fair. We have the supervisors. They are looking at these attractions,’ he said.
Korek said the company also conducts “periodic third-party inspections,” adding that the “most important” aspect is the employees who run the attractions.
“They travel with us wherever we go,” he added.
Scooter Korek, an employee of North American Midway Entertainment, the company responsible for the attractions, that the X Drive Carnival Ride stopped working after ‘the correct computer received a fault’
In July, Salina Higgins of Tucson, Arizona, revealed how a day with her 10-year-old daughter at SeaWorld San Diego was ruined after the girl’s seat belt came loose on a high-speed roller coaster.
Higgins claimed her daughter began screaming in terror as they dangled upside down in the air while her loose leash dangled in front of her eyes.
The terrified mother clung to her for dear life until the trip was over.
“I opened my eyes and my daughter started screaming because her leash (they call it a comfort leash) was hanging in front of her face while we were hanging upside down,” Higgins said. WRAL At the moment.
“So I grabbed the leash, secured it, and held on as hard as I could, and we both screamed until the ride was over.”
Footage of the trip was captured by Higgins’ niece, who was watching from the ground.
Higgins said SeaWorld staff dismissed her harrowing experience.
When he reported the incident to an attendee, he says he received a minimal apology before more people quickly boarded the attraction.