CNE shuts down ride due to safety concerns

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 | 9:27 PM ET

CBC News

Officials at Canada's largest annual fair have shut down the popular Sizzler after a four-year-old Toronto boy nearly slipped off the ride.

Kalani Bari and his father were riding side by side on the spinning ride at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto on Saturday when their shared lapbelt came undone.

Kalani lunged forward about 30 centimetres before his father, Roman Bari, grabbed him and pulled the bar back across them. Roman held the bar in place until he could get the attention of the ride operators, who stopped the Sizzler and let Roman and Kalani off safely.

"I didn't think, I just reacted," Roman Bari told CBCNews.ca on Tuesday. "It was only that night that the scary thoughts came and I started thinking about what could have happened."

Chris McDowall, a spokesman for the CNE, said the ride was just starting when the near accident occurred.

"The Sizzler was just starting to rev up, you know to its high speed, but it wasn't anywhere near that when one of the lap restraints opened up. So at that point the ride was shut down immediately," he said.  

But Bari said he believes the ride was going full-speed and he alleges that the ride wasn't shut down right away.

David Lyle, with the Technical Standards and Safety Association, said the ride will remain closed until secondary restraints are installed. He said the closure is a precaution.

"The ride was perfectly safe and met with the restrictions and requirements before it was allowed to operate initially," he said.

He said officials inspected the ride and found that an error on the part of the operator was to blame for the boy's slip.

But Bari says he doesn't blame the operator. He said the operator checked the lapbelt and it was locked. Bari said he also doubled checked the belt just to be sure and also found it locked.

The Sizzler has been pulled from several United States fairs following a number of injuries in recent months and the death of a seven-year-old boy in Arkansas in April. In August, a Sizzler manufacturer, Wisdom Industries Ltd., issued a bulletin recommending that seatbelts be installed in all the rides.

Bari, who admits to being a "ride junky," said he will now research rides carefully before going on them with his son.

He said he has no intention of taking legal action, but said he came forward with his story because he wants to see improvements made to the Sizzler and he wanted to raise public awareness about ride safety.

Bari also wants to see accountability from officials. He said he got a warm reception from a vice-president with the North American Midway Entertainment group, which operates the rides at the CNE. Bari and the VP met in person for several hours on Monday.

The CNE opened Friday and will run through to Labour Day on Sept. 3.