11yr Old Scalp Torn Off During Carnival Ride**WARNING**graphic images

An 11-year-old girl's scalp was torn off after her hair got caught in a carnival ride 
Aol.com Editors May 9th 2016 4:11PM
A Saturday afternoon at the amusement park quickly turned to tragedy for one Omaha family when 11-year-old Elizabeth "Lulu" Gilreath's long hair got caught in a moving mechanism on a spinning ride at her town's Cinco de Mayo festival.
According to Elizabeth's father, Timothy Gilreath, she was pulled back and forth for a long time before anyone intervened.
"It went on for 5-10 minutes everybody told me while it ripped and pulled my daughter around," Gilreath said in an interview with WOWT. "She was tortured."
"There's nothing we could do and so I stood up and I was like yelling, I was like, 'Stop the ride! Stop the freaking ride!" said Elizabeth's friend, Aushanay Allen, who was also on the ride during the accident.
To add insult to injury, in a surveillance video released of the incident, the operator of the ride (called King's Crown) can be seen running away from the chaos instead of intervening.
Thankfully, mother and good samaritan Jolene Cisneros ran over to physically stop the ride. "It was still spinning. I had to stop it with my hands and turn it to the point where it was to the platform," she told WOWT.

"I didn't know it wasn't my child, I just knew there's a child and she needed help."
When the ride was finally brought to a stop, Elizabeth was bleeding profusely.
Many bystanders rushed to her aid, using t-shirts and other items of clothing to stop the blood flow.
According to KMTV, she was taken to an area hospital and has since undergone a number of surgeries.
Her mother, Virginia Cooksey, shared the following images of a post-op Elizabeth on Facebook, asking for prayers for her daughter.
"Please pray for my baby girl," she began. "Lord please beside her and give her a full recovery. Lulu is such a amazing and out going little girl she has to make it threw this she want to be a senator when she grows up. She loves to read and learn. She loves her family dearly. Please family and friends keep lulu is your thoughts and prays on this mothers day."
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/05/09/an-11-year-old-girls-scalp-was-torn-off-after-her-hair-got-caug/21373989/

Cass wrote:These travelling carnival/fun fairs are unsafe and need to be done away with.

I love rollercoasters and suchlike but I wont go near these death traps, only arcs proper theme park.

veya_victaous wrote:

Cass wrote:These travelling carnival/fun fairs are unsafe and need to be done away with.

I love rollercoasters and suchlike but I wont go near these death traps, only arcs proper theme park.

me and my cousins got stuck upside down in one of the loop the loop rides for about half an hour at a country fair (Wagga Show, for wolf)

I was the youngest one on the ride (I think i was about 7 or 8..) and only just made the height limit so spent the time trying not to slip out.
as teen i worked in food vans that went to these sort of shows/carnivals and I can tell you for fact that the owners move any unsafe equipment before the insepector comes, just by chance all the dodgey ones happened to be 'needed elsewhere' in the hour or 2 before the insepctor arrived.  

Parents' Amusement Rides Safety Checklist

The public expects L&I, amusement-ride operators, insurance companies and private-industry safety inspectors to ensure that amusement rides are safe.
But be aware — being inspected DOES NOT guarantee that the ride is being operated safely, or in the case of inflatable rides, that the ride has been installed correctly on the site.

Use this common-sense checklist to ensure your children's safety

For all rides

• Check for a current state decal on the ride, meaning it's been inspected and approved.
  
• Observe how the ride is operated:
  
  
• Is the operator taking care to ensure that passengers are appropriately protected?
  
• Is the operator paying close attention when the ride is in motion?
  
• Is the operator observing restrictions about rider size?
  For inflatable rides
  
  
• Is the operator strictly limiting the number of people on the ride at one time?
  
• Does the inflatable ride appear to be overloaded or unstable?
  
• Does the ride appear to be securely anchored?
  
• Could the blower inflating the ride accidentally be unplugged, collapsing and possibly injuring the riders?
  

http://www.lni.wa.gov/TradesLicensing/Electrical/AmuseRide/default.asp 

Summer Safety: Carnival Ride Inspections
By Elisabeth Leamy 
More than 7,000 Americans go to the emergency room every year after getting injured on carnival rides, the federal government estimates.
Here's the issue: The Consumer Product Safety Commission regulates how the rides are manufactured, but there is no federal oversight over how they are set up and maintained.
That's left to the states, and some do a great, thorough job, but others do nothing.

Carnival rides are supposed to be a little bit scary, not a lot. But terrifying accidents happen every summer for three main reasons: equipment failure, inconsistent state regulations and old-fashioned human error.
Earlier this month in Pleasanton, Calif., a thick bicycle-style chain on a kids' roller coaster snapped, whipping riders as they passed by.
"I saw that someone was getting taken by ambulance and had her neck all wrapped up and she couldn't move it," witness Nadine Cobb said at the time.
Seven people were injured.
"It was very challenging in the beginning, because they were covered in black grease," Alameda County Fire Department assistant chief Alan Evans said.
The preliminary diagnosis: a defective cable.
"Like any piece of machinery with moving parts, there are external failures and there are internal failures and ... despite the fact that we wish we all had X-ray vision, we cannot always spot those internal failures," said Ken Martin, an amusement ride safety consultant.
Martin has 20 years of experience inspecting carnival rides. He said the machines are well built, but the breakdown occurs -- literally and figuratively -- in how states inspect them.
"Some states enforce rules one way, others enforce rules a different way," he said. "Some states even allow the owners to inspect the rides themselves."

Six States Do Not Inspect Carnival Rides

Some states inspect carnival rides every time they are set up in a new location, others only inspect them once a year. And six states perform no inspections whatsoever, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
"The best thing for the amusement ride industry would be a uniform set of regulations that are applicable in all 50 states." Martin said.
Even if the equipment is in good shape, operator error is the next variable. At an Indiana festival in May, two girls were injured on a ride that included a plunging drop. Authorities said the operator accidentally released the safety catch on the cage the girls were in and it opened.
And then there is the third factor: the human element. A fair worker's leg was severed last month after the worker was struck by a small roller coaster in Petaluma, Calif.
"It was all kind of gruesome," witness Esaia Gonzalez said. "So you know we glanced then looked away."
The carnival operator said the worker was not in charge of the ride and had no business being in the area.
"He would have to literally walked over to the ride, removed a piece of the fence panel, stepped inside the ride," said Harry Mason, CEO of Midway Fun, which operates the rides at the fair. "There was a lot of effort."
Virginia and other states have passed rider responsibility laws that require carnival guests to behave on rides. Martin said our responsibility begins long before that.
"You, yourself, before you get on that ride are the final inspector," he said. "If it looks bad, it probably is. If it sounds bad, it probably is."
The National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials said that the vast majority of accidents are caused by the riders themselves.
"Generally speaking, mobile rides are safe," a spokesperson said. "Eighty-five percent of the accidents are caused by unsafe acts on the part of the rider or patron. The majority of ride operators today are very safety conscious."

What You Can Do to Stay Safe

Because some of the responsibility falls on riders to stay safe, here are a few things you can do.
Go on a weekday.
Try to go to the carnival on a weekday instead of nights or weekends, when it's more crowded and chaotic and more likely for accidents to happen.
Wear appropriate clothing and shoes.
Don't wear any clothing that dangles or drags and wear sturdy shoes -- no flip-flops.
Seat belt should be snug, but not tight.
Adjust your seat belt so it's nice and snug but not tight.
Keep arms, legs, head inside compartment.
Follow instructions about keeping your arms, legs and head inside the compartment.
Make sure ride has ended before exiting.
Keep in mind that many accidents happen when the ride is over and you're trying to get off. Problem is, often the ride really hasn't ended and people start to get out and then get struck. Make sure the ride operator has told you it's time for you to get out.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/summer-safety-carnival-rides/story?id=11126429 

Cass wrote:These travelling carnival/fun fairs are unsafe and need to be done away with.