Paramedics attend to a boy who fell from a roller coaster at Lightwater Valley theme park. Photos / Getty Images
Paramedics attend to a boy who fell from a roller coaster at Lightwater Valley theme park. Photos / Getty Images
A six-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital today after falling up to nine metres off a rollercoaster at a theme park in a horror accident during the half-term school holidays.
He was allegedly left hanging from the back of the moving carriage at Lightwater Valley theme park in North Yorkshire, Britain, while his mother screamed beside him.
Emergency services rushed to the Twister ride at the park in North Stainley, near Ripon, and the boy was taken to Leeds General Infirmary by air ambulance.
It comes 18 years after Durham University student Gemma Savage, 20, died when two cars collided on the same Twister ride, which was then called Treetop Twister.
Mark Charnley, 46, who was visiting today from his home in Cumbria with his wife Clare, 42, and two daughters, said the boy was hanging out of the back of the ride.
"Everyone in the queue was shouting for the ride operator to stop the ride for about 10 to 15 seconds but they didn't seem to have noticed. Then the boy must have fallen about 15ft.
"We jumped over the barrier to try and help and one man identified himself as an off-duty police officer and he sort of took over."
A boy receives attention after he fell from a roller coaster at Lightwater Valley theme park.
Lara-Susan James, who had just joined the queue for the rollercoaster with her children, said a group were shouting at the operator to stop the ride.
She said: "It was at that moment I realised something was wrong. I saw the operator apply the emergency stop. My husband pointed to the fallen kid on the ground, saying they had fallen out.
"When the ride stopped, the family jumped the barriers and went to the kid. I ushered our kids away as I don't want them to hear or see any more."
Earlier, Simon Moran, a father visiting the park today, tweeted: "Just saw a kid fall off the Twister rollercoaster at Lightwater Valley. Ride shut down. Ambulance called."
Moran, a photographer who works in content development for Getty Images, added: "He mustn't have been strapped in right, or too small for ride.
"As it went down the fast bit towards the 'souvenir' camera, he slid out and over top of carriage. Fell face down about 20 to 30 feet to ground."
Moran posted a series of photographs of visitors at the park, which has more than 35 rides, watching as paramedics arrived in an air ambulance.
The park's website states that passengers must be more than 1.5m (4ft 11in) to ride Twister unaccompanied, and more than 1.2m (3ft 11in) if they are with an adult.
The average height for a six-year-old boy in Britain is said to be 1.15m (3ft 9in). The park's pricing is based on height rather than age, with restrictions posted at the entry gate and on each ride entrance.
A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said today: "Police were called to reports of a medical incident involving a child at Lightwater Valley theme park near Ripon at 11.30am today.
"The child, a six-year-old boy, who was conscious when officers arrived at the scene, has been taken to hospital.
"His condition is not believed to be life threatening. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been notified. Officers remain at the scene."
A spokesman for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance added: "I can confirm that we attended and transported a child to Leeds General Infirmary".
A Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokesman said: "Yorkshire Ambulance Service received an emergency call just before 11.30am this morning to an incident involving a child at Lightwater Valley Theme Park, Ripon.
