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Three people were catapulted from a midway ride into a crowd of dozens at the Miami-Dade County Fair after a loose bolt caused one of the Gravitron's metal walls to burst open.
A 16-year-old girl was in critical condition Saturday with head injuries. After being flung from the ride, she hit scenery attached to it, then landed on the pavement 10 yards away. Two of her friends on the spinning ride late Friday also sustained serious injuries. They were not life-threatening.
Four in the crowd waiting in line for a turn on the ride had minor injuries from being hit by debris or being trampled in the panic that followed on one of the busiest nights of the 18-day fair.
A state investigator called the accident ''a one-time thing,'' but the state's ride-inspection program has faced criticism in the past, including at least twice in the wake of serious accidents in Broward in the 1980s and 1990s.
Police did not release the names of the Miami-Dade Youth Fair victims Saturday. The three people who were thrown were airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
State officials blamed the accident on an old bolt on the ride, which is 18 years old and has made many appearances at the fair over the years, according to fair officials.
The ride, owned by Conklin Shows of West Palm Beach, had passed state and private inspections on March 17, the day before the fair opened, authorities said.
''This was not a manufacturer's defect or an operator error,'' said Mike Rinehart, chief investigator for the state Agriculture Department's bureau of fair ride inspections. ``It was a one-time thing, like wheels come off cars sometimes.
``The bolt appears to have sheared off, causing the two plates to wobble unevenly and then break the panel that came off of the ride.''
But the adequacy of Florida's system for inspecting amusement rides has been called into question in the past.
In 1989, a Broward grand jury issued a scathing report on a fatal amusement ride accident at the Broward County Fair, then at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, saying then-Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner bore the blame for a slipshod safety system.
The report followed a 1988 accident in which Christie Schafale, a 17-year-old athlete from Cooper City High School, was killed and six others were injured.
The report led to changes in the state's ride-inspection program.
But in 1997, Ron Stafford, a former head ride inspector for the state, said that despite a good overall safety record, the inspection program is riddled with inadequacies, including lack of money, time and expertise.
He said these weaknesses could have contributed to the November 1997 toppling of a swing ride that injured five people at Hollywood's Wing Ding festival. The ride had been given a clean bill during a state inspection the day before the accident.
''They simply don't have the time to inspect these rides properly,'' Safford said at the time.
On Saturday, a dozen friends and family members waited anxiously at Jackson's Ryder Trauma Center for news of the most gravely injured teen, whom they would only name as Jessica.
Gary Luechung, an uncle, said her condition was ''heavy trauma'' and that she was unresponsive.
''We are coping as best we can, and we will miss her tonight at the dinner table, and many other nights, because this is something that will take a long time to heal,'' he said. ``At this time, we don't know the impact or effect of the accident.''
The family had not yet begun to think about who might be responsible for the accident, he said.
``We don't know if the accident was because of a malfunction, or lack of oversight or a design flaw, but what to blame or who to blame is something that should be dealt with later.''
Fair officials closed the midway as soon as they learned of the 11:45 p.m. accident.
The cylindrical ride holds 45 people and spins at 24 revolutions per minute. Centrifugal force pushes the riders up against the wall. There are no restraints inside the cylinder and none are needed, Rinehart said.
''You lean against a vinyl pad,'' he explained. ``As the ride starts going around and around, it slides up with you on it. The idea is not to be restrained. The centrifugal force restrains you.''
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission set up a program to modify the Gravitron in 1992 after an accident in Missouri; 11 children were injured when patrons were sent flying out of the ride. Before the Dade Youth Fair opened Saturday, officials inspected a second Gravitron ride on the grounds and determined its bolts were newer -- the ride is only six months old -- and allowed it to open.
Meanwhile, detectives climbed in and out of the hole in the side of ''Old Blue'' and picked over the debris -- the dozens of blue and orange light bulbs that flew off, the metal and plastic pieces of the wall.
''We have a lady who is severely hurt,'' said police spokesman Juan DelCastillo. ``We wanted to use our best resources for this -- our homicide bureau.''
An engineer is being brought in Monday to look at the bolt that failed in order to better determine what happened, said Miami-Dade County Fair and Expo chief executive Phil Clark.
The bolts are not one of the items routinely inspected.
''Checking every bolt and nut in rides of that nature is impossible,'' Rinehart said.
Orange cones marked the spot where Jessica fell. Nearby, a ''Bang the Chicken'' game squawked in the background while fairgoers ambled by and looked on curiously.
There was no evidence that the accident affected fair attendance Saturday. More than 40,000 had entered the fairgrounds by 7 p.m., a number comparable to attendance up until 7 p.m. on the last Saturday of last year's fair. Some 770,000 people attended the 18-day event last year.
''I think everybody understands this is an isolated incident,'' said fair president Darwin Fuchs. ``This is one ride. We have 98 rides.''
Conklin Shows, the ride's owner, has been a registered Florida corporation since 1978, specializing in operating amusement rides and booths for fairs statewide and in other parts of the country.
The company's president, Franklin J. Conklin, could not be reached for comment on Saturday. Howard Pringle, the director of operations, did not return calls.
A 16-year-old girl was in critical condition Saturday with head injuries. After being flung from the ride, she hit scenery attached to it, then landed on the pavement 10 yards away. Two of her friends on the spinning ride late Friday also sustained serious injuries. They were not life-threatening.
Four in the crowd waiting in line for a turn on the ride had minor injuries from being hit by debris or being trampled in the panic that followed on one of the busiest nights of the 18-day fair.
A state investigator called the accident ''a one-time thing,'' but the state's ride-inspection program has faced criticism in the past, including at least twice in the wake of serious accidents in Broward in the 1980s and 1990s.
Police did not release the names of the Miami-Dade Youth Fair victims Saturday. The three people who were thrown were airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
State officials blamed the accident on an old bolt on the ride, which is 18 years old and has made many appearances at the fair over the years, according to fair officials.
The ride, owned by Conklin Shows of West Palm Beach, had passed state and private inspections on March 17, the day before the fair opened, authorities said.
''This was not a manufacturer's defect or an operator error,'' said Mike Rinehart, chief investigator for the state Agriculture Department's bureau of fair ride inspections. ``It was a one-time thing, like wheels come off cars sometimes.
``The bolt appears to have sheared off, causing the two plates to wobble unevenly and then break the panel that came off of the ride.''
But the adequacy of Florida's system for inspecting amusement rides has been called into question in the past.
In 1989, a Broward grand jury issued a scathing report on a fatal amusement ride accident at the Broward County Fair, then at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, saying then-Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner bore the blame for a slipshod safety system.
The report followed a 1988 accident in which Christie Schafale, a 17-year-old athlete from Cooper City High School, was killed and six others were injured.
The report led to changes in the state's ride-inspection program.
But in 1997, Ron Stafford, a former head ride inspector for the state, said that despite a good overall safety record, the inspection program is riddled with inadequacies, including lack of money, time and expertise.
He said these weaknesses could have contributed to the November 1997 toppling of a swing ride that injured five people at Hollywood's Wing Ding festival. The ride had been given a clean bill during a state inspection the day before the accident.
''They simply don't have the time to inspect these rides properly,'' Safford said at the time.
On Saturday, a dozen friends and family members waited anxiously at Jackson's Ryder Trauma Center for news of the most gravely injured teen, whom they would only name as Jessica.
Gary Luechung, an uncle, said her condition was ''heavy trauma'' and that she was unresponsive.
''We are coping as best we can, and we will miss her tonight at the dinner table, and many other nights, because this is something that will take a long time to heal,'' he said. ``At this time, we don't know the impact or effect of the accident.''
The family had not yet begun to think about who might be responsible for the accident, he said.
``We don't know if the accident was because of a malfunction, or lack of oversight or a design flaw, but what to blame or who to blame is something that should be dealt with later.''
Fair officials closed the midway as soon as they learned of the 11:45 p.m. accident.
The cylindrical ride holds 45 people and spins at 24 revolutions per minute. Centrifugal force pushes the riders up against the wall. There are no restraints inside the cylinder and none are needed, Rinehart said.
''You lean against a vinyl pad,'' he explained. ``As the ride starts going around and around, it slides up with you on it. The idea is not to be restrained. The centrifugal force restrains you.''
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission set up a program to modify the Gravitron in 1992 after an accident in Missouri; 11 children were injured when patrons were sent flying out of the ride. Before the Dade Youth Fair opened Saturday, officials inspected a second Gravitron ride on the grounds and determined its bolts were newer -- the ride is only six months old -- and allowed it to open.
Meanwhile, detectives climbed in and out of the hole in the side of ''Old Blue'' and picked over the debris -- the dozens of blue and orange light bulbs that flew off, the metal and plastic pieces of the wall.
''We have a lady who is severely hurt,'' said police spokesman Juan DelCastillo. ``We wanted to use our best resources for this -- our homicide bureau.''
An engineer is being brought in Monday to look at the bolt that failed in order to better determine what happened, said Miami-Dade County Fair and Expo chief executive Phil Clark.
The bolts are not one of the items routinely inspected.
''Checking every bolt and nut in rides of that nature is impossible,'' Rinehart said.
Orange cones marked the spot where Jessica fell. Nearby, a ''Bang the Chicken'' game squawked in the background while fairgoers ambled by and looked on curiously.
There was no evidence that the accident affected fair attendance Saturday. More than 40,000 had entered the fairgrounds by 7 p.m., a number comparable to attendance up until 7 p.m. on the last Saturday of last year's fair. Some 770,000 people attended the 18-day event last year.
''I think everybody understands this is an isolated incident,'' said fair president Darwin Fuchs. ``This is one ride. We have 98 rides.''
Conklin Shows, the ride's owner, has been a registered Florida corporation since 1978, specializing in operating amusement rides and booths for fairs statewide and in other parts of the country.
The company's president, Franklin J. Conklin, could not be reached for comment on Saturday. Howard Pringle, the director of operations, did not return calls.
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