At least 16 hurt in fun fair accident in Sweden
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 | 2:54 PM ET
CBC News
An accident on an amusement park ride in Goteborg, Sweden, injured at least 16 people Tuesday, emergency officials and park managers said.
A spokeswoman for Sweden’s national emergency response unit, Monika Grandin, said two of those on the ride were seriously hurt in the accident at the Liseberg theme park, one of the primary tourist attractions in Sweden.
The ride was full at the time, Grandin said, adding that 25 ambulances had been sent to the scene.
"Of course it is children who go on these rides, but I can't say how many" of the injured were children, she said.
Known as "The Rainbow," the ride features a spinning metal arm with a seating platform on one end.
The manager on duty at the park, Petr Andersson, said it appeared the accident was caused by a malfunctioning ball bearing.
Andersson said the attraction had been through a safety check in the spring and no faults were found.
The park's website said one side of the seating platform hit the ground as the ride was whirling around.
The Rainbow was manufactured by the Huss Machinfabrik company, based in the northern German city of Bremen.
The ride made its debut in 1982, according to a company news release, but it’s not clear what year the model at Goteborg was built.
The amusement park’s website describes the Rainbow as "a gravity defying flying carpet."
There are dozens of similar rides at parks and travelling carnivals all over the world.
In 2005, the U.S. Consumer Safety Products commission said it had received more than 15,000 reports of injuries of all sorts at amusement parks.
With files from the Associated Press
