A 10-year-old boy suffered “significant injuries” after being thrown off a Moby Dick themed carnival ride in Northern Illinois, an accident that could lead to criminal charges, officials said Monday.
Police and firefighters in Antioch, Illinois — a village just south of the Wisconsin border, about halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee — rushed to the Antioch Taste of Summer festival at about 2:40 p.m. CDT on Sunday, authorities said.
The first responders “discovered an injured 10-year-old child who appeared to have been thrown from a carnival ride,” according to a police statement on Sunday.
The boy was on ride called Moby Dick, which locks people in at the shoulders and then goes up and down as speed increases.
The boy was first taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, but because of the extent of his injuries, the child was then airlifted to Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago, according to a village statement on Monday.
He “suffered multiple facial and jaw fractures and a significant injury to the bones in one leg,” the statement added.
The youngster was set to undergo surgery on Monday, Antioch Fire Chief Jon Cokefair told NBC News.
“He has some pretty significant injuries,” said Cokefair, who estimated the boy’s fall to be about 15 to 20 feet.
“I saw maybe on the third time around, he almost did a like a dive, like his hands were down and his legs were straight off the ride and (he) landed” on the pavement, witness Elliott Johnson told NBC Chicago.
Johnson said he also went on the Moby Dick ride and had problems with its safety bar.
“My bar was coming up over my heard, so I was trying, every tine I went up … I was almost about to fall out, I would slam (the bar) down to close it,” he said.
Parent Lauren Tardi said she spotted workers not always making sure the safety bars were securely fastened.
“I was concerned because I could see that when they pulled it down, that a couple of kids, a few times, could still put it back up,” she said.
Mayor Scott Gartner consulted with law enforcement, fire and other village officials before invoking “his executive authority to order the remainder of the rides at the” event to be shut down on Sunday, police said.
Police, fire and Illinois Department of Labor investigators are leading the probe into what happened.
“We will be working with the Lake County States Attorney to determine if any criminal charges will be appropriate under these circumstances,” said Antioch Police Chief Geoffrey Guttschow said in a statement on Monday.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
