A ride at the Sydney Royal Easter Show has been shut down after photos emerged of what looked to be an unrestrained child on the free-fall attraction.
A bystander took a photo of the Free Fall ride and uploaded it onto social media on Sunday (April 10).
In the shot, a group of children can be seen on the thrill ride and are ready to go and strapped in. However, one small child on the right wasn't properly restrained.
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The boy’s mother, Sky Boustani Curtis, said that aside from stopping the ride, the carnival workers did little to help her four-year-old son Tristan.
“The (operator) girl stopped the ride but didn’t get out of her booth so another father ended up getting him to climb down to him,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
Boustani Curtis added that neither she or her husband were 'not tall enough to reach him'.
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“They simply did not pull his harness down [and] didn’t check him," Boustani said.
The mum has now filed an incident report, but was yet to personally hear from the organisers of the Easter Show.
“[I] would like to know it was taken seriously, it just felt like the whole situation was like it was nothing to worry about from them,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We have not been contacted by the Easter Show and the two girls [operating the ride] never even said one word to us when it happened or even after.”
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Witness Eva Levy said the near-miss was chilling to watch.
“They hit emergency stop but it seems like the operator couldn’t bring the ride down and the (someone) actually had to come up there and have his son jump into his arms,” she said.
“The operator had no idea the child wasn’t secured. Onlookers had to scream for the ride to be stopped.”
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The ride has been closed indefinitely, with the Sydney Royal Easter Show issuing a statement on social media on Sunday night.
“The safety of patrons at the Show is paramount and we have shut down the kids’ Free Fall ride following a reported issue with a harness,” the statement said.
“The safety systems of the ride functioned well to prevent any injury occurring and the ride will not operate again until a full investigation has been completed and the ride has been approved by specialist engineers.”
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The Sydney Royal Easter Show website described the ride as 'ideal for the young thrill seeker' and children must be 110 centimetres tall to ride the Free Fall with or without an adult.
"[It is] a controlled drop that stimulates the fear of falling - with a gentle stop bringing them safely back to earth," the description states.
The news comes less than a fortnight after a 14-year-old fell to his death and was killed at an amusement park in Orlando, Florida, and less than a week after another child sustained a serious laceration on the head riding the carousel at Movie World on Australia's Gold Coast.
Topics: News, Australia, Theme Park
Rachel Lang