Calaveras County Fair Carnival Ride Collapses, 24 Injured
Associated Press report, via Yahoo News, says that a carnival ride spinning with people collapsed at a county fair Friday night, injuring all 24 people aboard. Photo courtesy Jeff White via Frogtown.org
The carnival ride, called the Yo-Yo, collapsed shortly after 6 p.m. Friday at the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, about 80 miles southeast of Sacramento. The pole apparently collapsed, causing the arms to crash back toward the center, said Dennis Townsend, a chief in the Calaveras County unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.
Other reports from news sites and papers in the area say the number of injured is 18, with 3 of the children seriously injured. The Calaveras County Fairground, better known simply as Frogtown, is located south of Angles Camp and north of Sonora on Highway 49, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, between Yosemite and Lake Tahoe.
The ongoing fair, Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, is still open until May 18th, but the carnival has been shut down. The history of the festival goes back to the 1800’s, and is based on Mark Twain’s first published work ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’, which he wrote after hearing a story about a jumping frog while on a visit to a mountain cabin near Angels Camp. More info and deatils about the Fairgrounds on the Frogtown website (www.frogtown.org).
Posted on May 17th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Travel News
All I have to say is that I am sorry to the parents who had kids on there and that the people who are running the place now suck! My kids go there almost every year to go on the rides and now that this has happened they dont want to. Also they had told me one had caught on fire too. Its time to get NEW rides not ones that are old and rusty and falling apart with kids on them!
For everyone who is criticizing the carnival, it is not their fault
yeah, there was an accident, but it was because the ride was not inspected properly by the state inspectors. They go out and inspect every single ride before the fair opens, and the inspector missed that ride. My sympathy is with the victims, but everyone needs to stop saying stuff about the carnival. I was there all day, and no ride caught on fire or did anything else. The rides are all very new and well maintained.
For the record, safety inspectors are moving the yo-Yo to Sacramento and the investigation is expected to take at least 2 months. So, anything said now, blaming the ride operator, or safety inspectors, is just conjecture.
Also for the record, carnival rides operated by the same company - Brass Ring Amusements, an Oroville-based company owned by Harry Mason - was involved in 2 accidents in 2002. Harry Mason, the owner, says both were due to operator error.
Source:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9312856
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080520/A_NEWS/805200321
why do you have a picture of the zipper on a yoyo story?