FEAR GROUND

Two Young Girls Hospitalized After Terrifying Ferris Wheel Plunge

The Ferris wheel bucket “caught on to the wires, and then it tilted over, and the two girls fell out.”

Two young girls were rushed to the hospital after being thrown from a Ferris wheel on Saturday, authorities said. The accident happened around noon at the Harvest Festival on False River, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, according to Pointe Coupée Parish Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux, who said both victims were under the age of 13. One was airlifted to a medical facility. Their conditions were not immediately released. “Our hearts go out to the families, and our prayers,” Thibodeaux said. The Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal confirmed it is “actively investigating an incident in which two riders fell from a Ferris wheel ride at the New Roads Harvest Festival Saturday.” Witness Madison Fields told ABC affiliate WBRZ that the Ferris wheel bucket “caught on to the wires, and then it tilted over, and the two girls fell out.” “I heard like a body, just like something falling. I heard a loud boom,” she said, adding that one of the girls appeared to land face-first. Fields said she had been next in line for the ride. “It was sad and upsetting, like, because, what if that could have been me?” she told the station.