A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured after he got flung off the Moby Dick, a carnival ride that tosses people up and down to mimic riding a whale
Michael Loccisano via Getty Images
- A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured after he was thrown off a carnival ride in Illinois.
- The Moby Dick carnival ride tosses people up and down, while rotating in a circular motion.
- Another passenger who was on the same ride told NBC Chicago the safety bar on their seat was loose.
A 10-year-old boy was left seriously injured after he was flung off a Moby Dick carnival ride in Antioch, Illinois, on Sunday.
"At 2:40 p.m. yesterday, July 16, 2023, Antioch Police and Fire emergency crews were dispatched to the Taste of Summer carnival for a child who fell from the Moby Dick ride," the Village of Antioch Police Department said in a press release on Monday. The carnival is an annual event that is organized by the Antioch Chamber of Commerce.
The press release said that the 10-year-old boy was "seriously injured" and had to be airlifted to two different hospitals due to the "extent of his injuries."
"The child, a 10-year-old boy, suffered multiple facial and jaw fractures and a significant injury to the bones in one leg. According to what the police department has learned, he suffered no life-threatening injuries," the press release read.
A boy named Elliot Johnson, who also rode the Moby Dick, told NBC Chicago that the ride's safety bar was loose when he got on it.
"My bar was coming up over my head. Every time I went up, because it was going up, I was almost about to fall out, I would slam down to close it," Johnson said.
The "Moby Dick" is a type of ride known as a Miami. Miami rides rotate a row of seated passengers up and down, in a wide circular motion. Videos of people on the Moby Dick ride can be found on YouTube.
"The high-profile scenery rises a full 31 feet in the air, to stand out on every midway," according to Wisdom Rides' listing for the Moby Dick ride.
Antioch Mayor Scott Gartner has "issued an executive order to halt all rides to ensure the safety of the community," per Monday's press release. The Illinois labor department plans to investigate the incident to find out if the child was hurt because of a mechanical failure, operation error, or a combination of the two, per the news release.
Representatives for the Village of Antioch, the Antioch Chamber of Commerce, and Wisdom Rides did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.