Two teenagers are facing charges after allegedly causing a funfair ride to spin wildly out of control.
At least three riders were injured after the 13-year-olds were shown apparently endangering the attraction in Grovetown, Georgia.
The teens were shown on a video recorded by a bystander holding on to each other’s capsules on the swing ride at Columbia County’s fall fair as it rotated.
Riders were sent swaying erratically in the air, with some capsules shown swinging above the height of the carousel.
One woman was taken to hospital with injuries after colliding with another swing, while two children were also treated for wounds.
Columbia County Sheriff’s Office said the two teenagers had been charged after they warned by staff not to grab onto each other as it would endanger the ride.
Both teens were allowed to leave the scene with their parents after their details were recorded by police.
However parents who witnessed the event claim the ride’s machinery was at fault rather than the teens.
Kristen Murphy, whose children were also on the swing, said she wanted to get them off as soon as it happened.
‘My kids are on it. Something’s happening. I need to get to them’, she told WRDW TV.
She said she noticed people with ‘pretty severe injuries’ as the ride slowed down to a halt.
But the concerned parent clarified that she did not believe the teens messing around on the fairground ride were to blame for it breaking down.
She wrote: ‘I stand behind what I said: Yes the juveniles were playing and they should be held accountable but they did not cause that ride to break down the way it did!!
‘Did the teens break rules? Yes, address that. 1000% If the kids were an issue all day, then they should have been asked to leave way earlier. But two kids swinging their chairs did NOT cause that entire machine to go completely out of control.’
Mrs Murphy added the swing ride was ‘fundamentally unsafe’ if it could be made dangerously out of control by the actions of two children.
‘What I saw—and have on video seems to be an abnormal deceleration that caused chairs to violently collide ALL the way around the piece of equipment’, she said.
‘If two lightweight riders can compromise the safety of dozens of innocent children on board, that ride is fundamentally unsafe.’
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