The Ferris wheel has lost one of its metal beams in the middle of work ride on Friday evening. Fortunately, the problem was quickly resolved, and the Ferris wheel resumed work less than 24 hours.
The incident occurred during the popular event Magical Winter Lights at Park Gulf Greyhound Park in La marque, Texas, USA.
Juan Carlos Glade (19 years) was at the festival with his girlfriend and family. He spoke about what happened: «I heard a pop and then heard the cries of the people.» The next thing he did, he pressed the record button smartphone’s camera. «Then we saw a piece of metal hanging from the Ferris wheel,» — said Glade.
In less than a minute aluminum beam fell on the pavement while the bottom is occupied. Concerned passengers of the ride was lowered down onto the platform without incident.
The representative of the Magical Winter Lights event made a statement to the news edition of Eyewitness News. «Fortunately, we can inform you that during the incident no one was injured and the work of attraction was terminated immediately after all the passengers safely pulled from the Ferris wheel»,- he wrote. «Support beam, which broke, «doesn’t matter much for the structure of the ride and not put people in danger»».
He added that the operator of the ride high levels of safety and he contacted the manufacturer to find out whether it was the same problem with the same model of a Ferris wheel in the past. It turned out that similar problems had never happened.
An investigation was launched into the incident, and before nightfall the ride resumed. «Repairs have been minimal, and everything was carefully checked,» — said the representative of the Magical Winter Lights event.
