News 4 Jax reports that the Ferris Wheel ride at a fair will remain closed after two people were injured on the ride.
A Ferris wheel located at a fair in Pennsylvania will remain closed after two people fell from the ride on Friday evening. At about 8 p.m., one person fell from the car of the Giant Wheel on the midway.
York Fair chief executive officer Bryan Blair stated that he could not be sure from what height the person fell. According to Blair, the other person did not fall, but he could not confirm whether the person was injured on the ride or on the ground. Both were taken to York Hospital.
Three state inspectors have looked into the ride and interviewed several of those who witnessed the event. Deggeller Attractions, who owns the ride, is cooperating with the investigation.
Ride inspectors are trained and overseen by the State Department of Agriculture. They have more than 1,300 certified ride inspectors who meet continuing education requirements. Inspections are carried out each day before the ride opens for the day.
According to the Smithsonian, the Ferris Wheel was America’s answer to the Eiffel Tower. It was a 33-year-old George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. who came up with the idea for the revolving wheel. The first was erected on June 21, 1893. Over the next 19 weeks, at a charge of $0.50, more than 1.4 million people paid to ride the first Ferris Wheel. While the Ferris Wheel lives on in a slightly different design, Ferris saw little profit from his invention. When he died, he had declared bankruptcy due to the amount he owed suppliers and the money owed to him by the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where the ride was placed. Since then, amusement park patrons and fair attendees have ridden this amazing feat of brilliant engineering.