Girl dies after being thrown from Royal Show ride

[BigKev]

To be taken with a grain of salt, but there were some worrying recounts of experiences at the ride on Facebook yesterday.

[rappa]

I get the defensive posts but at the end of the day the points about these rides being safer because they are looked at more frequently in setup and tear down, only hold true it the operators are vigilant and replace the fatigued parts on schedule.

If you keep re using old stressed pins and bolts things will break as we've seen before.

Many of you would likely be surprised as to just how much of say a coaster car is replaced at every single refurb.

[joz]

A few points to make about this topic so far.

There seems to be a lot of feeling that these rides are structurally unsound, and that all rides need seatbelts.

THIS accident though, appears to be caused by none of those things. If you repeat those things in this thread, you're just telling everyone what you thought before you heard about this. Djrappa is also spot on that just because a ride is taken apart and CAN be looked at, doesn't mean it is inspected, or any identified issues will be fixed.

Again though, none of that is relevant to this accident. It seems to me that this is either the fault of the manufacturer for poor seat/restraint design, poor operator guidelines, or operator error. The ride didn't fall apart, fall over and the restraints apparently remained closed (with the seatbelt fastened).

[rappa]

Completely correct.

I'm more interested in the report of her hanging by her legs and indeed how long between her coming out of the seat and the EStop being hit by the operator.

[Reanimated35]

SHOWGOERS say they were aware of problems with the Airmaxx 360 – including insecure seatbelts – in the days before the accident that claimed the life of an eight-year-old girl.

It comes as the Show Society closed the Traffic Jam ride on Saturday night in the Kids Carnival section for a height breach, after a photo posted on Facebook showed an infant on the ride.

“We were the last ones to be locked in and the girl said, ‘I’m effing over this; I’ve had enough of it’,” she said. “I kind of took it she was over today – but it was only about 11am.”

“While we were on the ride the operator was on his mobile phone . . . and he was turned to the side,”

“Halfway through our ride it kept stopping and starting,” Mr Koster said. “It would slow right down and then it would start again, but eventually it stopped altogether.”

He said riders at the time were asked to exit and were given their tickets for later use. “As we were getting off, the floor started collapsing beneath us and we nearly fell off,” Mr Koster said.

He said the ride was closed as maintenance staff worked on it, including on one of the 12 octopus-like arms. When he returned to use their free tickets, the ride still didn’t seem to be working. “It wasn’t doing the full movements – it was still being weird,” Mr Koster said. He said his girlfriend told him she was not strapped in properly. “She felt like she was going to fly out, so I was trying to hold on to her . . . she just didn’t feel secure,” he said.

So going from this, reports indicate we're looking at a malfunctioning ride and extremely unsafe operators. On top of that, several people who admitted they felt there was problems with the rides safety, yet none of them decided to report it or do anything about it.

Edited September 14, 2014 by reanimated35

[joz]

Woah, hang on, the ride had a 140cm height requirement? 14ocm is REALLY tall for an 8 year old girl (the average being 130cm). Maybe the girl was nearly 9? Buuut, that other mother reckons her 7 year old met the 140cm requirement? Ah, bullshit.

[ozshowkid]

Keyboard warriors at its finest, these same stories you are reading about at from the same newspapers who couldn't get the story straight from the start. The young girl was 15 and on the no limit at the start but as we all know she is 8 and it was on airmacx.

On a trailerised amusement ride if the deck starts collapsing you have to pack the ride up to re level the whole deck, so I reakon they wanted some tv time.

Also the debate has always been there regarding which is safer theme park rides or carnival ride, there is no difference they all buy from the same manufactures and have the same rules and regulations. Operators are not going to risk their lively hood by not replacing parts or taking shortcuts because than the situation will only get worse.

I'm calling bullshit on the people they are interviewing on the basis the media have absolutely nothing to go on, and are looking at other areas to blame for the accident. People are all trying to get there two minutes of fame, from all reports the media have been walking around asking people what they think happened and do you know anyone that was here that day.

I just hope that if it's proven to be a freak accident, every person that has been judge and jury are good enough to come forward and apologies to both the operators and the poor girls mother.

I know people are going to pick things out from what I have just wrote, but thought I'd just weigh in on the situation. Cheers

[Brad2912]

Did you not see the photo of the child that doesn't even fit in the restraints? He looks 2 years old, max. The operators are culpable instantly by that photo alone.

A freak accident? The accident was a result of 1 of 2 things. Equipment failure, and by all reports there are 2 safety systems (lap bar & seat belt) so therefore failure of 2 safety systems which can only indicate poor construction or maintenance; or 2, operator error/carelessness with not checking or adhering to manufacturers height requirements, inattention to the operation of the ride (delay and/or lack of use of e-stop).

And no, they are not as safe as fixed theme parks rides, no matter what you say.

[pin142]

Ah a Limited News article, not surprised at what has been highlighted by Reanimated from it.

[ozshowkid]

You must be a very knowledgable person brad to know the cause of the accident and the circumstances surrounding it. Your either a keyboard warrior with nothing to stat the facts or a wannabe work cover officer.

Edited September 14, 2014 by ozshowkid

[joz]

Ozshowkid: if you just call someone a keyboard warrior, and don't add anything to the topic, you are just being a keyboard warrior yourself.

The very brief research I've done suggests that persons under 42inches (106cm) must ride with an adult on the traffic jam. I'd suspect that this is what the manufacturer set out, and if true, it means that there is unlikely to be a case to answer on the part of the operator of that ride.

As for what the topic is actually about, look according to accounts, the girl was dangling for a while (how long? who knows) and the ride apparently came back with the harness locked; My question about whether the girl actually met the height restrictions as set out by the manufacturer of the ride is still valid. If she did, is there a fault in the design of the harness that allows a small person to slip out in specific circumstances? Was the harness not locked far enough in the first place, and is that because of poor operations or a poor design? Also a valid question is whether the operators were paying proper attention once the ride started.

I think it'll be a while before we ever get any answers to these questions, but I think it's important those questions are asked in order to stop this sort of tragedy happening again.

[downunder196]

As for what the topic is actually about, look according to accounts, the girl was dangling for a while (how long? who knows) and the ride apparently came back with the harness locked; My question about whether the girl actually met the height restrictions as set out by the manufacturer of the ride is still valid. If she did, is there a fault in the design of the harness that allows a small person to slip out in specific circumstances?

I'm not saying it's the cause of the tragedy but I rode on the ride last year and the restraints are absolutely horrendous. So much so that I despise of that ride and refuse to ride again. While they go over your shoulders and down into your lap they are quiet narrow and there is nothing on the sit which goes up between your legs like most rides. Not speculating on what happened just stating what I remember from the ride.

[webslave]

Take a lot of this heresay with a grain of salt. These are the same people who come out of the woodwork after an airline incident and all of a sudden reveal superficially 'shocking' observations of what was happening. You know the stuff - planes falling out of the sky with turbulence, etc.

[carebear]

all the reports i saw were very conflicting. as mentioned before, first report i saw was 15 and a different ride, and that she was critical in hospital, then she was 8, it was the airmaxx and was dead by the time they got to hospital. some reports said the harness was still locked in place, in others she was dangling for a while before being flung and in yet others, witnesses were saying that the harness came undone.

i would love to know what actually happened. my gut has been telling me she was under the height limit tho.

[joz]

I did just see a report that she did meet the 120cm height requirement. Don't have anything to add but just thought I'd mention it as a correction.

[New display name]

Interesting. From ninemsn. Police have confirmed Adelene did meet the minimum height requirement for the ride of 120cm.

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

Very sad accident here. This is why I never do the spin and spew rides at carnivals. This is why I dislike the Ekka because the rides are unsafe. I only did two rides this year which were Pirates Revenge and Hollywood Horrors. If people want to go on spin and spews, Go to one of the Gold Coast Theme Parks!

[joz]

If people want to go on spin and spews, Go to Dreamworld!

There I've fixed that one for you

[XxMrYoshixX]

Damn teenagers on mobile phones. No offense to the teens on the community if there's any.

This is a sad accident indeed. In fact, I'm not trusting the Easter Show large scary rides any more with the exception of Hollywood Horrors (which scared the s**t out of me when I went on it). I've never gone to the Ekka.

Like Ninja 59 pointed out, go to the Gold Coast for the large scary rides. There's plenty of them.

Edited September 18, 2014 by XxMrYoshixX

[Tim Dasco]

Damn teenagers on mobile phones. No offense to the teens on the community if there's any.

This is a sad accident indeed. In fact, I'm not trusting the Easter Show large scary rides any more with the exception of Hollywood Horrors (which scared the s**t out of me when I went on it). I've never gone to the Ekka.

Like Ninja 59 pointed out, go to the Gold Coast for the large scary rides. There's plenty of them.

See i get what your saying but in Perth i can't go to the Gold coast all the time for some spin and spew rides i can get here. I have been to the IGA Perth Royal Show every year since i was 3 and i have never had problems. Good service happy staff (not on phones or internet). Some of them are the nicest people i have ever meet. But thats from my experience.

[pushbutton]

This was a horrific incident, and we should probably wait until the investigation is complete before making too many judgements about what or who was to blame.

However it is without doubt that these rides are inevitably operated by people who are in short-term, low paid jobs. The quality of such employees varies but given the above, coupled with the long hours they are often expected to work, and what is often boring repetitive work in noisy and crowded conditions, it's not all that surprising if they don't always do their job perfectly.

Whilst the short term nature of these jobs is just part of the deal with Royal Shows, I do think more could be done in terms of better pay and conditions, and more in-depth mandatory training and more supervision by senior qualified people.

In some cases, the safety of ride restraints could be improved too, by having sensors built into each restraint so that the ride cannot operate until all the restraints are secure.

A minute silence was held the following night in the main arena before the fireworks display, which I thought was a very nice touch.

Edited September 18, 2014 by pushbutton

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^I'm not sure I understand what you're saying...

In most cases, construction and operation of the rides is done by core personnel who live, work and own the ride (it's normally in the family). Sure they might hire on extra casual staff to help them out with big shows - but the roles they perform are usually non-critical, or completed under supervision.

I don't think it's fair to relegate all the workers into a 'short-term, low-paid, poorly-trained' category.

The issue with making sensors mandatory, is that they are an incredibly costly addition that isn't necessary if staff do their jobs correctly. Further - for testing purposes, you'd need to be able to override the system and turn those sensors off - and further if you have a malfunctioning restraint or sensor, you'd need to be able to isolate that sensor, or alternatively operate it without them - effectively defeating the purpose of having them in the first place (and chances are if it were painful to operate - most would disable the system anyway). What you're left with is a ride with a very expensive white elephant fitted to it, and a ride price even higher than the current ludicrous asking price in order to finance the additional equipment > nobody rides it > the owners go broke > no more rides for anyone.

This isn't restricted to travelling carnival rides - many of our park attractions started life with certain safeguards in place - multiple buttons in various locations requiring operators to press simultaneously in order to start the ride - except the parks like to save money - and so they disable or otherwise override these multiple failsafes in favour of single person operation. (This DOES NOT mean the ride is any less safe!)

Lastly - whilst a terrible accident, all official accounts have confirmed that:

• The deceased met the height requirement specified by the manufacturer of the ride
• The restraint system was still in place, and locked.

So, in summary - none of the points you've made would have made any difference to the incident.

You start by saying we shouldn't make too many judgments until the investigation is complete, and then proceed to bash what you perceive as incompetent operators, and then suggest that the current safety systems built in to rides aren't sufficient. Neither of which made any difference in this incident.

Stop being so ridiculous.

[Gazza]

I always thought modern rides did have sensors checking if harnesses are down far enough, and increasingly a switch that checks if the secondary seatbelt is done up.

[Brad2912]

Same.

I know Scooby, GL, Arkham & SE do, or did, have these features

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^^but making it mandatory for older attractions to be retrofitted with some sort of system would result in those attractions demise.