It’s a carnival goers’ worst nightmare come to life. A drop tower ride at a carnival in India plummeted to the ground, dropping 15.24 m before crashing at the bottom. Several people suffered injuries from the drop, and were rushed to nearby hospitals.
The incident took place on Sunday night at Dussehra Ground Park in Mohali, a populous city in Punjabi. The ride in question is a spinning saucer that travels down a vertical pole, and it had about 50 people on board. A terrifying video captured by people in the crowd shows the fairground ride spiraling out of control, and spinning its way rapidly to the ground before crashing as the riders and onlookers scream in horror. Once it crashed, riders were swung off their chairs from the impact despite being secured in with straps.
Live Visual of swing breaking in #Mohali phase 8, Many people got injured. Around 16 women & kids were hospitalised after the incident. pic.twitter.com/bay5IfzHLB
— Nikhil Choudhary (@NikhilCh_) September 4, 2022
At least 10 people, including five children, were critically injured but are now in stable condition, according to media reports. The travelling carnival was going to be extended until September 11, but has since been shut down. Officials are currently investigating the carnival’s safety permits. “We will find out how this happened. It seems there was a technical issue,” Sunny Singh, the organiser of the carnival, told Hindustan Times. “We organised several fetes but this has never happened. We will cooperate with the police and administration.”
Travelling carnivals have to take apart the rides, and put them back together at the next location. But that doesn’t mean carnival rides are less secure than their stationary amusement park counterpart, the same safety standards have to be strictly followed and incidents like this one are rare. But given the severe impact of a fun ride gone awry, they are terribly haunting.