Girl falls off Australian ride

A young girl fell off a 'scrambler' type ride at an Australian amusement park and suffered major head injuries.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8366566%5E1702,00.html

I hope the young girl will recover and be able to live a normal life.

The question I have is, how does someone fall off this ride? Unless the car broke off (article doesn't say), I don't see how someone can fall off this type of ride unless they are standing or jumping around while the ride is operating.

Any buzzers from 'down under' know anything more about this incident?

The article did not specify whether the ride was operating or not when the girl fell. Perhaps she fell to the pavement or concrete while exiting the car.

What kind of a ride is it?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I believe it was a Scrambler, from what I could find.

http://www.ride-extravaganza.com/rides/scrambler/

(several pictures of Australian Cha Cha's there... regional name?)

Hmmm...

Looking through those images, I notice that most of the Cha Cha rides are NOT Scramblers. Somebody in Australia must be building a fairly close copy, but there are significant differences, especially in the centerpole and the tubs.

They look a little like a Merry Mixer, except that the Merry Mixer has four main sweeps and these Cha Cha's only have three.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I did notice on the site that it mentions that the scrambler has not been patented and that this one (or the one roughly in question) was designed off the original scrambler, but made "beter" to easily travel.

I also noticed that Holiday World, in USA has the same model in question.

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com

Holiday World's is a genuine Eli Bridge Scrambler. There are about four different rides represented on that page, including the Scrambler, Mini Scrambler, Sizzler, and at least two variations on the Cha Cha thing.

A tip about Scramblers....
Mechanically, all Eli Scrambler tubs should be identical, regardless of the age of the ride. The first Scrambler was put together (1954 IIRC) and toured the country for two years, then Eli went into production, but all the tooling was built and hasn't really changed since.

Odd note about the patent; I am not certain that the page is correct about that. Last February I learned (from Ms. Sullivan herself) that at least one company built knock-off Scrambler seats and got sued for doing it...presumably a patent infringement, as otherwise there wouldn't be an issue. So I'm pretty sure that at least the seat design is patented. Come to think of it, I think there is a patent number on the Scrambler nameplate......

--Dave Althoff, Jr.