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Fairground Boss Fined After Girl, 9, Suffered Broken Neck, Internal Bruising After Being Flung From Ride

By Angelica N. Sumter
Published on: 08:41 PST, May 20, 2015

A 9-year-old girl of Sevenoaks, in Kent, was rushed to a hospital after she was thrown into a metal barrier after her safety bar flew open from twister ride that was going too fast. The fairground boss was fined after an investigation, the Mirror reports.

Yasmin Vickery couldn’t wait to get on the white-knuckle twister ride at Hollowell Steam Rally in Northamptonshire on November 3, 2012. However, her elation came to an abrupt end when her safety bar flew open, and she was thrown 15 feet into a metal barrier.

“Yamsin had been on the ride with her little cousin Kya and the bar came up, as she went to lean to pull it back she came flying off. She spun into the air because it was going so fast, then you could hear this almighty thud. She had gone flying through the barrier,” Vickery’s mother stated.

“I was filming the ride and didn’t notice until the ride stopped what had happened, we were laughing and joking at the time.

But then I just saw my little girl in a heap over the other side. My six-year-old daughter Talisha who had been watching was in tears, she was petrified – she thought her sister was dead.”

“When I ran across and Yasmin said she couldn’t feel her legs — I thought she was paralyzed, she could have quite easily have died but she took the brunt of the force on her side rather than her head,” she continued.

“The impact was sideways, but the paramedics said if she had gone through head first she probably wouldn’t be here.

It’s been every mother’s worst nightmare but I know she is very lucky and it could have been so much worse.

Most people wouldn’t survive a car crash at that speed, let alone being thrown through the air off a ride.”

She was rushed to the hospital where doctors said she suffered from a broken neck and severe internal bruising.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) opened an investigation following the incident, and uncovered that the twister ride was going 50 mph, twice as fast as it should have been. It was also discovered that the locks on the safety bars weren’t being used during the tragedy.

The owner, 28-year-old Patrick McGeough, of Rutland in the East Midlands, admitted that he did not abide by the “Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work ACT 1974.” As a result, he was fined $1,500.

“Members of the public quite rightly expect fair rides to be safe. This one was not and it led to a traumatic incident for a young girl and her family,” said inspector Neil Ward.

“The incident could however easily have been prevented. Operating the ride beyond the speed it was designed to be run at, and without the secondary locks in place, was a recipe for disaster.

Patrick McGeough had a duty to ensure his customers were kept safe on the ride but he failed in that duty.”

[Image courtesy of Sean Gallip / Getty Images]

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