A WOMAN who was thrown from a fairground ride “like a ragdoll” at 60mph recalled the horror moment she slipped from her harness.
Jade Harrison suffered serious injuries and could “barely walk” after she woke up from the devastating accident in Hull.
BBCJade Harrison described the moment she was thrown from a ride at the Hull Fair[/caption]
Jade suffered serious injuries and could “barely walk”MEN Media
The 27-year-old nursery nurse used to go to the Hull Fair every year.
But in 2019, she boarded the Airmaxx 360 ride and just minutes in, she began to slip out of her seat.
She heard a “clicking noise” on her safety restraint and fell out, flying through the air and hitting another ride.
She told BBC Panorama that when she opened her eyes, she had no memory of where she was or what had happened.
Jade said: “I heard a clicking noise in my bar. The ride was going for about a minute and a half, then the carriage changed position.
“That’s the last concrete thing I remember. I could feel myself slip. I just woke up and I was laid on the floor on my back, and I remember thinking ‘what’s going on?’
“I had a bit of amnesia. I was panicking, I could feel that something wasn’t right in my mouth – it felt like all my teeth had gone.”
But she was covered in black and purple bruises and could “barely walk” due to her injuries.
She broke her jaw, damage to her teeth, internal bruising and severe damage to both thighs.
At the time, Jade said she woke up, surrounded by strangers and at first she thought she was in a dream.
“People have said I looked like I was dead, with my eyes open. I thought it was a dream, I gave it a minute and then realised it wasn’t a dream and that’s when I started to panic and people were telling me not to move.
“I just remember seeing silver, as if it was the floor, I would have said I fell out and dropped straight to the ground below, I didn’t know I had been flown through the air like a ragdoll until my mum told me in hospital.”
Surgeons were forced to remove some of her teeth and put three metal plates in her jaw which will remain there for the rest of her life.
Ben Corran, 18, was crushed when Jade landed on him after falling from her seat.
He was on the neighbouring ride “The Sizzler” when Jade collided with him. The force knocked his head back and he was crushed by his metal harness.
The teenager was trapped in the ride, and when he was eventually freed he spent the night in the hospital, and asked his parents to send flowers to Jade.
According to his dad, Ben used to be a “daredevil” but the ordeal has left him terrified of rides and he even feels nervous being “trapped” in a car by his seat belt.
Jade was paid compensation from the ride’s owners but she was horrified to find out that a child had died on the same ride in 2014.
An eight-year-old girl was flung from the AirMaxx 360 in Australia and tragically died. She was 3cm shorter than the height requirement for the ride.
The ride in Australia was never used again after Adelene Leong’s horrifying death – but it was sold to a UK owner in 2017.
The coroner found that the machine’s safety was poor, especially the locking mechanism on the restraints.
The HSE’s investigation into the ride after the accident in Hull found that the “mechanical design of primary and secondary locks that are intended to prevent movement of the restraint was found to be inadequate”.
Jade and Adelene are just two of thousands who have been seriously hurt or killed on fairground rides.
Between April 2014 and March 2014, there were 3,188 injuries in theme parks, according to an FOI request.
The BBC reported that there were 350 in 2023-2024.
Funfair rides are supposed to be thoroughly inspected every year for any faults.
In 2001, Gemma Savage was killed when two cars collided on the Twister Ride in the Lightwater Valley theme park.
The park was ordered to pay a £35,000 fine plus £40,000 costs for health and safety breaches over the 20-year-old’s death.
And chaos again erupted at the same ride at the theme park near Ripon, North Yorkshire, in 2019 when a seven-year-old boy dangled from a roller coaster before falling to the ground.
Gemma’s mum said at the time:
“The ride was not fit for purpose 18 years ago and it is still causing problems.
“The accident that killed Gemma devastated our family and our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the young boy who was injured.”
Hayley Williams, 16, tragically fell to her death while riding Hydro at Oakwood Theme Park in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in April 2004.
The ride was closed for a year before reopening with new safety measures, before being later renamed Drenched in 2011.
Owners of the theme park were fined £250,000 over the death of Hayley, a Sunday school teacher, who had been visiting on a family outing.
Now, Drenched is being dismantled for good after Hayley’s heartbroken parents campaigned for better safety standards at parks across the UK.
Last year, riders on a rollercoaster were left terrified and “stuck” after a structural beam fell onto the track.
The incident happened at 3.25pm on October 25, 2024, on the Monkey Mayhem ride at West Midlands Safari Park.
A metal structural beam from the ride is said to have fallen onto the track before the rollercoaster came to an emergency stop and closed.
Regal Smith, 27 – who was at the park with their son – said people started “screaming” and “running away” from the ride.
They said two people – who looked like a mother and son – were stuck on the ride before a rescue team were able to bring them down.
Funfair WorldwideJade fell from the Airmaxx 360 ride in Hull in 2019[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
