It’s always fun to take a spin on a carnival ride…as long as you aren’t on the outside hanging onto for dear life.
The 54th annual Groves Pecan Festival was taking place in Groves, Texas this past weekend when a malfunction with a carnival ride put two lives in danger.
People have to be brave in order to get into these rides that are put up and torn down every week, at least in my opinion. If I ever visit a carnival, I might ride some of the more simple rides, but I’m not getting anything that shoots me or throws me up into the air.
There’s also usually a stigma around the people that “run” these rides not knowing what they’re doing, though you’ve got to give all the credit in the world to this Texas carnival worker.
The amusement ride operator was helping a young girl into the “car” of the ride called “The Bullet” when a huge gust of wind blew through the festival area and caused the car to move up into the air.
Though the little girl was inside the car, the door was not secured shut, so the carnival worker decided to hang on in order to try and secure the door to protect the little girl.
Doing so carried him 30 feet up into the air, dangling from the ride as it stalled at the very top, and left the operator dependent on his own strength to keep him from falling back down to Earth.
Carnival goers were screaming in horror as they watched the scene unfold with the operator’s legs dangling down from the car as he tried to secure the ride’s door shut.
The carnival worker, who is now being deemed a hero, was eventually able to get his foot secured in a part of the ride so he wasn’t fully depending on his arms to hold him up.
Eventually, the ride started to move back down to the ground, and the man continued to white-knuckle the ride until he and the little girl inside the car were returned to safety.
Both the ride operator and the young girl made it out of the incident virtually unharmed, and “The Bullet” was rightfully closed for the rest of the 54th annual Groves Pecan Festival.
You can view a clip of the scary scene below:
