Filed under: In the news, Playground bureauTaking your kids to a county fair can be stressful even under the best of circumstances.
For one thing, it's very easy among the noise and lights and crowds for a children to be separated from the group. Then there's the frequently creepy carnies who appear in the national news from time to time for horrible reasons. And finally, there are the rides. Those old, creaky, fast, and spinny carnival rides that kids adore and parents tolerate because the fair comes only once a year.
This past Friday night at the Calaveras County Fair in California turned into a parental nightmare when the Yo-Yo, a ride that lifts seats suspended by chains high up into the air in a giant circle, malfunctioned mid-ride. All 23 riders (who were mainly children) sustained injury when the ride suddenly dropped the chairs to the ground and continued to rotate and drag the tangle of riders, chains, and chairs in the dirt and gravel. All but two victims were released by hospitals the next day. A 12-year-old girl was listed in good condition and a 14-year-old girl remains in stable condition.
While I love taking my city kids to see the farm animals and 4-H projects, we've managed to avoid the country fair for the past several years. It's not the rides that scare me, it's the expense of taking four kids!
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Posted on Mon, 19 May 2008 08:00:00 EST at http://www.parentdish.com/2008/05/19/fai...collapses/
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