Australian Amusement Fanatics

"A 13-year-old Melbourne girl was hospitalised with deep cuts to her head after being flung from a carnival ride into a metal safety fence on Sunday.

The Age reports the young girl was on the spinning "Cha Cha" ride at the Lilydale Spring Show in Melbourne's outer east at midday when the safety rail malfunctioned, sending her flying from the ride and into a fence.

She suffered "deep cuts" to her head in the accident and is recovering in the Royal Children's Hospital.

"The girl told us there was a problem with the safety rail and she was flung out of the ride and into a metal safety fence," advanced life support paramedic Michela Clarke told the Age.

"When the girl stood up she was then hit by the ride suffering a significant deep cut to her head."

Two other teenagers were hurt in the accident and Victorian police say WorkSafe Victoria has launched an investigation.

Lilydale Agricultural and Horticultural Society secretary Jodie Nagel told the Weekly Times show organisers had closed the ride to find a cause of the accident.

"There are a number of possibilities that could have happened," Ms Nagel said"

Not good -

Jaffa23

Bad news for all concerned

Not good at all! do we know who's cha cha it was?

Under investigation, sorry.

Isn't that the way it works 9 out of 10 times? It's normally the idiots on the ride that try to show off or something and then when this happens they try to pin it on the workers. There needs to be a law against stupidity sometimes...

ozshowkid wrote:I spoke to some people who were out there and a person who saw what happened, and from what I can tel it is in no way a fault of the ride. The girl reached out over the side of her seat and grabbed the spotlight pole, which i turn pulled here out of her seat. Than the spotlight pole fell over and hit 2 other girls in another car. I hope all involved recover, but i hope something gets done about the stupidity of the girl in the car. Stupidity like this not only cost people money but also can hurt other customers.

And that was not only stupid, it was dangerous and ultimate jeapordized her family's day. Even god knows what the hell claimed her to do that!

If she did grab the light pole it should not have been close enough for a rider to reach. Stupidity by the rider yes but obviously there was not sufficient clearance between the light pole and the ride. We all know when dealing with the public and rides we have to think outside the box hence why we have risk assesments for our equipment and clearance is a big one. If the light pole was out of reach this accident could not have happened.

I was at Murwillumbah show last year and the Teacup Ride had their fence so close to the ride that a small child could easily touch the deck and cups while the ride was running without even struggling to reach. If I just slighty lent forward at the fence the handle from the cup would have hit me in the head. I pointed this out to the operator but he wasnt bothered while he was chatting away to his mate not even watching the ride.

This is what I had actually heard about the accident: "According to WorkSafe Victoria, the ride did not meet Australian safety standards. WorkSafe notified the ride's owners that they must install a secondary locking device on each seat's safety bar"
If this really is the case and the ride had been operating after being given a citation from WorkSafe their will be some hefty fines imposed I'm sure.