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5 injured on 'Vortex' ride at NC State Fair


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I was asked this morning about what happened on "Vortex" yesterday when a buddy heard about this on the radio in Indy. Knowing it would not have been KI's since the park was not open Thursday, I had to do some digging! Looks like an issue with a state fair ride flat!

RALEIGH, N.C. — Five people were taken to WakeMed hospital in Raleigh Thursday night after an accident involving The Vortex ride on the lower midway at the North Carolina State Fair. Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison told reporters at a news briefing late Thursday night that preliminary information he received indicates at least two people suffered critical injuries. Two people were released from WakeMed early Friday.

About 35 to 40 people, he said, were being interviewed in an effort to get a better idea of what happened. The ride had stopped, and they were fixing to offload when the ride started off again, but that is preliminary," Harrison said. "It is going to take quite a while to talk to all these people."Neither Harrison nor Dolores Quesenberry, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Labor, which inspects the fair rides, would comment about what caused the accident. "It could be operator error. We don't know," Harrison said. "We aren't going to speculate.

http://www.wral.com/5-injured-on-Vortex-ride-at-nc-state-fair/13035196/

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It does not look like this fair has the best track record.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/article/303760/57/Multiple-Injuries-Reported-At-NC-State-Fair-

Thursday night's accident isn't the first involving rides. In 2002, a midway worker was thrown from a platform of a ride when he was struck by the legs of a passenger on the ride. In 1998, three people were injured when a wheel-bearing seized on a roller coaster causing a rear-end collision between three cars.
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How is the owner criminally liable? If the operator tampered with the system, then he is the one who should be charged (and he was). I don't understand how the owner can be charged with a crime when the accident was allegedly caused by the operator's tampering.

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Most likely, the ride op was questioned and told investigators that he was instructed to bypass the safety switch by the owner. It's also possible that he reported the situation to the owner and he did nothing about it creating a negligence situation. I'd say we are going to see the first situation be the case when it all comes out, but, as the owner of the ride, there are many scenarios that would end up with them charging him. Convicting will take actual proof he knew though.

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