Injured woman’s terror after Birmingham fairground ride crash

A woman who was injured when a fairground ride failed has spoken of the terrifying moment it crashed to the ground while she was mid-air.

Louise Brown was on the 55m-high City Starflyer ride in Birmingham city centre when it lurched backwards before dropping, on Thursday evening.

Two women were taken to hospital while another 11 patients were assessed by paramedics and discharged at the scene.

Danter Attractions, which runs the ride, said it was “fully co-operating with the authorities” as the crash was being investigated.

“It’s hard to process how one minute you can be innocently having fun and screaming in a scared way to then screaming because you could’ve potentially lost your life,” Ms Brown said.

“This can never happen again – we are in shock and all I can think of is, ‘What if my kids were on the ride’.”

Ms Brown, who works for the BBC in Birmingham, said she suffered injuries to her face, legs and arms, adding that her colleague was also hurt.

“We were on it having fun and then it just crashed to the ground,” she said.

“It went backwards first though, which I’ve never seen it do before.”

She said it felt like the ride was descending but was “still quite high” before it dropped and she “felt pain”.

Emergency services were called to the ride on Centenary Square at about 19:30 GMT.

A police cordon was set up between the ice rink, the library and the Rep theatre, with people asked to avoid the area.

Images taken by the BBC showed wires from at least two gondolas on the ride tangled up with each other.

West Midlands Fire Service confirmed the ride had “dropped to the ground” while it was in operation.

One witness told the BBC he saw “girls who appeared to be injured” walking away from the area, with “one girl who seemed to have her face cut”.

Amelie Huet, 18, was in the ice skate bar nearby with a group of friends at the time.

She told the BBC she went out to the balcony when she heard sirens and saw ambulances, police cars and fire engines.

“Someone told us the structure dropped and someone fell out,” she said.

Lilly Nitsch, 18, from Leamington Spa, was at the scene and told the BBC she was “pretty shocked” by the incident.

“That’s one of my favourite rides growing up,” she said.

“It makes me think of of the times you’ve been on rides like that. It makes me feel lucky.”

Birmingham City Council said it was aware of the incident and its thoughts were with those who had been injured.

The Health and Safety Executive has been informed and said it appreciated the concern around the incident and was working with the relevant authorities.

“We also have specialists attending the site today. There will be an investigation to establish what happened,” a spokesperson added.

Brian Hughes, chairman of Westside Business Improvement District (BID), said: “While we are relieved to have heard that no-one has received life-threatening injuries, this must have been a terrible incident to experience.”

He said Westside BID had spoken to the owners of Ice Skate Birmingham, which operates the ride.

“We know that they will now be working closely with the authorities to find out exactly what went wrong,” he added.

The City Starflyer ride has been described as “one of the tallest rides around”.

A Danter Attractions spokesperson said the firm’s thoughts were with the individuals and families affected by the crash.

“There is an ongoing investigation and we are fully co-operating with the authorities,” they said.

“At this time we are unable to provide any additional comment.”