3 children dead 45 injured in amusement park accident(Pakistan)

This story comes out of pakistan about a ride that became unhinged and crashed to the ground.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3841491 *** Edited 12/4/2004 4:07:34 PM UTC by supermandl***

I just saw that as well. I just finished submitting it to the news here.

I'm not sure what ride it was. One article I read stated it was a carousel and another was a swing type ride.

No matter what ride it was this was a pretty big accident with all the injuries.

The story supermandl linked to refers to the ride as "A large boat-shaped swing". Sounds like a Pirat, Galleon, Sea Dragon, or similar.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Unfortunate to hear, I hope those people are ok, and for the 3 children, I pray for their families, and the others.

Looks like the death toll is now at 4 children here is a link with a pic of the ride. Looks like 84 people where on it when it has a capacity of 48.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-12-2004_pg1_4

This link says that 3 children and 2 teachers where killed. Looks like they will charge the owner with murder.

http://www.dawn.com/2004/12/05/top8.htm *** Edited 12/5/2004 1:07:37 AM UTC by supermandl***

Although it's hard to tell what you're looking at in the picture, it sure doesn't look like a swing ship to me.

-Nate

Looks like a themed Huss Swingaround or similar to me.

Man, this is pretty bad. All I can think of is the families that were having a fun time at this place of amusement, and then a very horrible thing had to happen. It just makes me feel bad, you know.

It looks like it's a Zamperla Ferris Wheel to me: http://www.zamperla.com/immaginiFoto/dettagli/ferris2_400.jpg

I can't believe they were able to fit twice the amount of people on the ride that were suppose to be on it.

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CoasterDude316 said:
It looks like it's a Zamperla Ferris Wheel to me: http://www.zamperla.com/immaginiFoto/dettagli/ferris2_400.jpg

I can't believe they were able to fit twice the amount of people on the ride that were suppose to be on it.

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That's exactly what I think it was too...a zamperla themed ferris wheel.

I have operated one of those before and balancing those, even with just a few people, can be challenging. I can't imagine how they even got it loaded with that many people on board.

yes, it does look like a ferris.
overloading is one thing, but almost doubling it is another... Senseless...

84 people on that ride averages out to 7 per "car." So more than likely, a few of the cars had more people than that crammed in. How damn hard is it to count to 4 in any language? What the heck were they thinking? Now they'll have plenty of time to count and think.

Warning. . .Stereotype. . .Man those countries just love to cram people in cars(I know its not by choice). And its sad that the ride operator, owner, or what ever decided it was okay to cram children on a amusement park ride. My thoughts go out to the families.

Stereotype? Maybe, maybe not. Have you ever seen pictures of the passenger trains in India and Pakistan? Cramming is the name of the game, a way of life.

Horrific accident, for sure.

I find it disturbing that the ride collapsed when there were *only* twice as many people on board as the recommended maximum. And most of those people were young kids, so the total passenger weight wasn't really twice the maximum recommended load.

You could probably achieve the same actual load with 48 plus-size Americans....

A factor of less than 2 is a pretty narrow safety margin for a ride, IMHO.

I'd have to believe that the ride was poorly maintained, although one report says it was a recent acquisition.

It may have been a recent acquisition, doesn't mean that is was new. It is very possible that it wasn't properly set up, but it's most likely there are a combination of factors involved.

considering it was Pakistan, i'm surprised no one called it terrorism.