Peak carnival season is here, and so it's important to keep in mind the most important rules of amusement parks: Don't do that one ride where you get tossed violently through the air in a rickety, spinning cage, unless you like placing your survival in the hands of a potentially stoned teenager's grasp of gravitational force. In general, probably just don't go on any ride whose Wikipedia entry's longest section is devoted to Safety Issues. Also, maybe skip the ring toss.
NBC New York reports that a woman was injured after falling from the notoriously dangerous Zipper ride at a Queens carnival over the weekend, after the ride allegedly started moving before her and her boyfriend were fully secured in their seats. The frightening incident occurred late Saturday at the Astoria Park Carnival, as Tiffany Karl, 19, and her boyfriend Chris attempted to sit in the basket of the swinging carnival ride.
"I was literally halfway in...and the next thing I know, the guy fell and I fell, and Chris is hanging on," said Karl, who sprained her wrist and bruised the side of her body in the fall.
Her boyfriend, meanwhile, held onto the ride and was lifted 20 feet in the air, according to Karl. A photo obtained by NBC shows Chris clinging to the seat, facing groundward next to a swung open gate. "I just see Tiffany screaming, 'Hang on, hang on.' And I see everybody with their hands on their head like, 'Oh my God, what's going on?'" he told the outlet.
A representative from Dreamland Amusements, which operates the ride, told Gothamist that this was the result of "human error," and noted to NBC that the ride actually only lifted Chris 8 feet in the air—the implication, apparently, that it could've have been much, much worse.
