Pair tip out of rollercoaster

Andrew and Lewis Meeking, moments before their accident. Photo / Supplied.

A 4-year-old boy and his father were treated by ambulance medics after falling from a small rollercoaster this weekend.

The boy's mother watched in horror as a wheel came adrift and the rollercoaster at Caroline Bay Carnival in Timaru jumped its tracks.

Andrew Meeking, 41, struggled to hold son Lewis before they both fell to the ground.

"He's phenomenally lucky to be alive," said Lewis' mum, Fiona Harman. "We are just so lucky to still have Lewis with us."

The Department of Labour yesterday banned the Caroline Bay Association from operating a rollercoaster until it can provide an independent engineer's report proving it is safe.

The department will also mount its own inquiry, meaning the ride is expected to be closed all summer.

The father and son fell about 2m from a carriage after it came off the tracks late on Friday afternoon. Meeking, an engineer from Oxford outside Christchurch, said he and his boy were in the front car as the ride did five circuits.

But on the sixth, it came to grief.

"We came up for what I thought was going to be the end and the operator put the brakes on before he seemed to realise it had to go around again," Meeking said.

"At that stage, the carriage felt all loose at the front and next thing we're hanging upside down.

"I grabbed hold of Lewis and tried to lower him to the ground and almost got him there before I slipped and had to let him drop."

Harman said she saw the wheel jump off the track.

"As I was running to jump the fence I saw their bodies lift out of the car as it spun over the side of the track," she said. "Then I saw Andrew hanging upside down by his legs from the car, which was still moving at speed as he tried to drop Lewis to the ground.

She said her son's head narrowly missed the metal struts and exposed support piles protruding from the ground.

Meeking had a strained back but was cleared of serious injury. He said his son had sore fingers from clinging to his father but suffered no other harm.

Caroline Bay Association president Warren Barker accepted the ride's closure.

"Quite frankly, we don't know what happened," he said.