Boy, 8, In Coma After Being Shocked At County Fair (Ohio)

WEWS Cleveland ^ | August 14, 2003

[Shermy]

PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- An 8-year-old is in critical conditon after being severely shocked after touching a pole on a ride at the Lake County Fair Wednesday, NewsChannel5 reported.

Gracian Yoe is in critical condition after being airlifted by helicopter to an area hospital. Officials at LakeEast confirmed the boy was taken there, but said the patient was transferred to MetroHealth Medical Center. He is in a coma.

Gracian was at the fair with his father and called out "Help me" while being shocked, witnesses said.

WEWS said witnesses said the boy was so severely shocked that his ankles were burned.

Officials said the ride, called the Scooter, was inspected by the state before the fair kicked off. The ride is a bumper-car style ride. Nevertheless, officials are at the scene investigating.

Meanwhile, every ride at the fair is being reinspected. The fair remains open.

There are other reports of other kids being shocked, but not severely, on the Scooter as well.

The Lake County Sheriff's Department is asking any fair goers who have been shocked to call (440) 350-5520 to report the incident. Fair goers who saw the incident are also asked to call.

The ride was reportedy built in 1984 and is owned by Buffalo Amusement Co.

[Shermy]

FYI two videos at link.

[Shermy]

Ping.

Seems to me there's lots of carnival/amusement park horror stories this summer.

[Iris7]

Carny rides that I have looked at have Mexico City style electrical wiring. Almost no provision is made for a circuit fault.

[brianl703]

Why bother hooking up that ground wire, it works fine without it....

[Grampa Dave]

Our 4 year old grand daughter loves all of these rides.

Grampa is more concerned about poor maintenance than getting scared when riding with her.

[Shermy]

Here's an even weirder electrocution story:

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2405080/detail.html

The mother of a 9-year-old boy killed by an electrified fence says she wants answers as a $250 million lawsuit is announced.

Devon Ewing (pictured, left) was playing on the bleachers at Inkster High School Friday night when he fell against a fence that was electrified. His 13-year-old brother was reportedly with him as he tried out for Pop Warner football.

..snip..

...Investigators said faulty wiring near the press box is to blame. Investigators say the old wires came in contact with the fence.

[Grampa Dave]

What a nightmare.

[brianl703]

On one of the National Electric Code sites on web, there's a report about a faulty vending machine that electrocuted a 12-year-old boy at a public swimming pool.

The boy was electrocuted as soon as he touched the metal chassis of the vending machine.

That happened because:

The ground prong of the vending machine's power cord was missing, having fallen off.

The metal leg of the vending machine was resting on the power cord, and eventually wore through it to make contact with the hot wire.

Under normal circumstances, this would have tripped a breaker because the metal chassis of the vending machine would be grounded through the ground prong in the power cord. There would not have been a hazard.

Because the ground prong was missing, it was not grounded, and therefore the vending machine's metal chassis became energized with 120V from the hot wire in the power cord.

If nothing else, this is a real-world example of why grounding is important.

[Bonaparte]

...and it used to be even worse than it is today. This is why I haven't been on one of these rides for more than 20 years.

[Shovelhead]

"This is why I haven't been on one of these rides for more than 20 years."

I'm with you. Since living in Florida for the past 15 years, I haven't ventured out of the house because someone, sometime, somewhere got struck by lightning.
Better safe (and bored) than sorry.

[bd476]

God Bless this little boy and his family.

Exactly one month ago, my family attended a local fair where they were running a bumper car ride. We were told not to get out of the bumper cars if we didn't want to get shocked.

Apparently the ride works by reversing polarity somehow up and down the floor with long strips of metal. I'm not an engineer, not sure if I've explained this correctly, but the ride we rode on sounds exactly like the one which hurt this poor little boy.

Prayers for his complete recovery.

[Bonaparte]

If your enjoyment of life depends on carnival rides, that's fine with me. I have lots of other enjoyments that don't entail needlessly risking life and limb for no other purpose than the fleeting thrill of a carnival ride.

[Shovelhead]

"If your enjoyment of life depends on carnival rides, that's fine with me."

It's nothing to do at all with rides, it's risk assessment.

Hundreds die everyday in vehicles, pools, crossing the street, the ocean, and aircraft. Man, if you haven't been on a carny ride in twenty years because someone may get zapped, I bet you don't own a firearm because "the homeowner is 43% more likely to get shot than the intruder."

Turn on the night-lite Bonaparte, the boogey-man is out there.

[Bonaparte]

No, it's not. It's risk-to-benefit ratio, which in this case is a matter of personal assessment. Transportation and self-defense are benefits worth taking manageable risks for, in my opinion. Carnival rides are, in my view, not.

You may now return to your reductio ad absurdum argumentation, ie. that if carnival rides are avoided, then anything involving even slight risk should be avoided. That would include taking any form of transportation at all or owning any weapon with which to defend oneself.

As I've stated, it's a personal choice as to which risks are worth the benefit. Nobody is obligated to conform his choices to yours.

[Shovelhead]

"Nobody is obligated to conform his choices to yours."

You are 100% correct, but to carry your Latin to it's reductio ad absurdum, you just sound like a real ick-stay in the udd-may.

Don't step on any cracks. O-tay?

[Bonaparte]

"You are 100% correct"

Ok, you twisted my arm. I agree.

[Shovelhead]

"Ok, you twisted my arm. I agree."

I knew eventually I'd make you see it your way :)

[Bonaparte]

LOL! Ya got me, Shovelhead!

[Atchafalaya]

The school system is doomed with Feiger taking the case.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Does anybody know how this style of bumper car ride is wired? It sounds like one of the ones with a solid metal floorplate, with a pole and spring metal contact with a metal grid on the ceiling. I always figured the floor, the outer framework, and the metal outer casing of the pole ought to be at ground potential, but I'm not sure this is the case. A couple of different things would have to fail to give somebody a shock, but the vending machine story upthread demonstrates how it could happen.

I have some friends who have worked at various times for one of the regional carnival ride outfits. They say they really do take a lot of care in setting up and tearing down these rides properly, and follow safety inspection programs at each setup that are prescribed by the manufacturer. I don't doubt them, and I have never been afraid for my safety on any of the rides, but some are quite thrilling and others are just plain rough.

Being almost an old timer though, I remember a lot of the old classic rides that were originally powered by gas engines. A skilled operator could work the throttle at just the right time to either empty a guy's pockets or a girl's top, or perhaps make any single rider barf on demand. It's not near as much fun with electric motors.

Dave in Eugene