French amusement park accident injures 24

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Twenty four people were injured on Sunday in an accident on an amusement park ride in northern France, local officials said. The ride, called the Parachut, is a sort of wheel that lifts the passengers into the air in several carriages then spins them around before lowering them slowly back down the ground again. The machine had already lifted them into the air before several of the carriages suddenly dropped around 10 metres to the ground, said local official Roger Reuter.

Read more from Reuters.

Anyone know exactly what type of flat this is? The article makes it sound like a Paratrooper or Balloon Race.

Lifts *and* spins? HAS to be a Balloon Race-type ride, IMO.

Thankfully no one was killed, 10m is a pretty long drop...

OMG!!! How horrifying! Like you said...glad no one was killed.

Or it could be like that thing on International Drive, near the northern end.

Ahhhhh, OK. The "spinning" part was apparently French for ROTATING (language barrier). So it does seem more 'Trooper-like... but with *heavy-looking* vehicles...

Story + news video: http://www.sabcnews.com/world/europe/0,2172,148175,00.html

Great link.. but one thing im curious about.. When I pulled up the link for the news article.. It said in related stories:

'Boy gets toilet stuck on head'..

While that conjures up interesting images of dropping from this ride into a porta-potty.. I fail to see how this is related to a nasty accident..

I just love the media!

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