Injured woman’s terror after Birmingham fairground ride crash

A woman who was injured when a fairground ride failed has spoken of the terrifying moment it crashed to the ground while she was mid-air.

Lou Brown was on the 55m-high City Starflyer ride in Birmingham city centre when it lurched backwards before dropping on Thursday evening.

Two women were taken to hospital while another 11 patients were assessed by paramedics and discharged at the scene.

“This can never happen again – we are in shock and all I can think of is what if my kids were on the ride,” Ms Brown said.

Ms Brown, who works for the BBC in Birmingham, said she suffered injuries to her face, legs and arms, adding that her colleague was also hurt.

“We were on it having fun and then it just crashed to the ground,” she said.

“It went backwards first though, which I’ve never seen it do before.”

She said it felt like the ride was descending but was “still quite high” before it dropped and she “felt pain”.

Emergency services were called to the ride on Centenary Square at about 19:30 GMT.

A police cordon was set up between the ice rink, the library and the Rep theatre, with people asked to avoid the area.

Images taken by the BBC showed wires from at least two gondolas on the ride tangled up with each other.

West Midlands Fire Service confirmed it had “dropped to the ground” while it was in operation.

One witness told the BBC he saw “girls who appeared to be injured” walking away from the area, with “one girl who seemed to have her face cut”.

Amelie Huet, 18, was in the ice skate bar nearby with a group of friends at the time.

She told the BBC she went out to the balcony when she heard sirens and saw ambulances, police cars and fire engines.

“Someone told us the structure dropped and someone fell out,” she said.

Lilly Nitsch, 18, from Leamington Spa, was at the scene and told the BBC she was “pretty shocked” by the incident.

“That’s one of my favourite rides growing up,” she said.

“It makes me think of of the times you’ve been on rides like that. It makes me feel lucky.”

Birmingham City Council said it was aware of the incident and that its thoughts were with the people who had been injured.

The Health and Safety Executive has also been informed.

Brian Hughes, chairman of Westside Business Improvement District (BID), said: “While we are relieved to have heard that no-one has received life-threatening injuries, this must have been a terrible incident to experience.”

He said Westside BID had spoken to the owners of Ice Skate Birmingham, which operates the ride.

“We know that they will now be working closely with the authorities to find out exactly what went wrong,” he added.

The City Starflyer ride, provided by funfair suppliers Danter Attractions, has been described as “one of the tallest rides around”.

The company declined to comment when contacted, PA Media reported.