Young boy airlifted to hospital after falling from wooden rollercoaster at Pennsylvania theme park
The boy, believed to be three years old, was reportedly alert following the fall.
A young boy was airlifted to a hospital on Thursday, 11 August after he fell from a wooden rollercoaster at a Pennsylvania theme park. Jeff Croushore, a spokesman for Idlewild & SoakZone in Ligonier, said the accident happened on the Rollo Coaster ride with the child suffering unknown injuries.
The young boy, who was transported to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, was not identified but a local fire station dispatch said the boy was about 3 years old. "He was talking, he was alert with his family," Croushore told reporters.
The spokesman said the accident occurred in the middle section of the Rollo Coaster ride, but did not specify the height of the drop, according to NBC News.
The ride, which was built in 1938, requires riders to be 48 inches tall or 36 inches if accompanied by an adult. The Idlewild website states the coaster carries "riders up and down along a wooded hillside" then turns around in a swooping curve before returning to the station.
The Pennsylvania Amusement Rude Safety Division has closed down the coaster and has opened an investigation, supervisor Joseph Filoromo told NBC News. An inspector had visited the park on Thursday, 11 August but Croushore noted that the rides are inspected daily.
The incident is the third accident at a US amusement park or fair this summer, NBC News noted. In Kansas, 10-year-old Caleb Schwab was killed on a 169 foot water slide called Verruckt—"insane" in German—at Schlitterbahn Waterpark. The waterpark has reopened but the water slide will remain closed amid an ongoing investigation, USA Today reported.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, three girls were injured when their Ferris wheel bucket overturned at the Greene County Fair. USA Today reported that one girl, identified as 6-year-old Briley Reynolds, remained in critical condition.
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