Three people remain hospitalized in good to critical condition after falling off a ride Thursday at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. According to reports, the ride began moving as riders were exiting.
In total, five people were injured during the freak accident, which occurred around 9:17 p.m. on a ride called the "Vortex," a pendulum ride that flips passengers upside down as it heads toward the sky, said Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison at a news conference Thursday night.
Ambulances rushed the five victims, ranging in ages from 14 to 39, to a nearby hospital, Debbie Laughery, vice president for public relations at WakeMed Health and Hospitals, told ABC News. Two people were reported to have suffered serious injuries while three others had minor injuries. A ride operator was also among the injured.
As of 7 a.m. Friday, three people were still at WakeMed Hospital, with one person in critical condition.
An eyewitness told ABC11 that he had just gotten off the fair ride when it started up again. He said he then saw two young victims fall. The witness said a boy was knocked unconscious, but was awake when paramedics arrived, while a young girl appeared to have a head injury.
"I heard three or four bangs, I mean it sounded like baseballs hitting an aluminum floor," witness Jonathan Stanley told ABC11. "I just ran over and I saw the bodies, I mean, I was right at the fence. There was one guy in particular; he was all the way back against the back of the ride. It looked as if he had flown out and maybe hit it and then maybe came down face first."
Other eyewitnesses reported seeing passengers thrown off the ride while others were holding on.
"There were actually some people that were still, I think, strapped in and holding on, really hanging on for their lives," Max Byrn, 13, said. "But they were falling like raindrops. It was really crazy."
Byrn said he had just gotten off the ride and turned around when he heard screaming. The teen said the ride was upside down when people began falling.
"People were screaming and a lot of people were in pain. Family members actually ran away, like they couldn't bear to look at it. They were dropping about 30 feet high up in the air," he told ABC News Radio.
The teen said one person landed head first on the ground and "was completely knocked unconscious" from the fall.
Eyewitness Caleb Norris said, "We could see at least three people just laying there non-responsive."
No information was given on the kinds of injuries sustained.
Fair officials and Department of Labor officials are working to determine the cause of the accident, fair spokesman Brian Long said in a news release.
The North Carolina Labor Department told ABC News the Vortex is supposed to be inspected for safety three times during the annual fair.
The fair is expected to reopen Friday as scheduled and end on Sunday.
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