Every year I go to the New York State Fair in Syracuse. Mostly it’s a parade of the worst possible tattoos and hairdos, but I find it enjoyable, mostly for the farm animals. Some of those chickens are fancy!
However, I always look at those midway rides and think, “Holy crap, those things are rickety as all hell, and the guy running it looks like he’s had too much gin. Couldn’t pay me to go on one of those things.”
Well, it finally happened. The ride “The Drop Zone,” which picks people up then, ummm, drops them, actually DROPPED THEM this time. A frayed cable broke and several people were injured, and some of them were kids. Unknown how badly they were hurt, but the news report I saw showed them being taken away strapped to stretchers.
Guess they really got what they paid for this time, eh?
Wow, that’s scary! I used to go to a local fair a lot as a kid, and never thought about it, but last time I went, a few years ago, it struck me that all the rides were still the same old ones, and had likely not taken a lot of time to set up, let alone check for safety! I hope no one was seriously hurt, and I hope the company that owns that ride (and all others, really) take the time to check and repair/replace everything they own so that this cannot happen again.
It always shocks me to hear about preventable accidents like this. “It” can happen to you!
My father gets motion sick and would avoid the rides when we would go to the amusement park. Instead he would analyze the rides to figure out what the minimum possible thing was that if it malfunctioned would transform the ride into a death and dismemberment machine. What a party animal.
The rides may be old but they are run and maintained by people of the highest calibre. Some of them even received their GED after being released from prison.
They all go through an inspection regimen so there’s nothing inherently unsafe about them, but in contrast to fixed amusement park rides, these are always being put up and taken down so the possibility for error in construction exists every time it’s used. I mean, think about it: who wants to get sued for a good bit of money and/or maybe kill or injure somebody? Nobody does. The idea of running a business is to make money, not lose it. I guarantee you that those rides are thoroughly checked every time they’re put up, it was just something they missed.
I used to bartend at a small place across the road from where the fair was set up every year. The first time the fair came after I started there was the beginning of my not riding any rides at the fair.
I’m a periodicals librarian in a public library; all the drunks, crazy people, and other assorted personalities hang out in my department reading the newspapers and magazines. One of our most popular periodicals is Amusement Business (which I think is actually halting publication, and that’s gonna be a problem come fair season!), because many of them look for temporary work as carnies.
I still ride the rides, but I do it the same way I use the public restroom in my library - with extreme denial and a refusal to look at anything too closely.
