Teenage girl loses toe in horror fairground incident after being crushed while queuing for ride
A TEENAGE girl lost her toe after her foot was crushed in a horrific fairground incident while she was waiting to go on a ride.
Millie Taylor, 13, was queueing to get on the Toxic ride at the Ayr Show at around 4.20pm on Saturday when the incident unfolded.
The brave youngster had been enjoying a day out at the International Ayr Show – Festival of Flight with her family and was eagerly waiting in line with her nine-year-old cousin Carter.
But when she took one step onto the platform, a mechanical piece of equipment came down and crushed her foot.
It is understood that it was a barrier which dropped down to allow the ride to take off.
But Millie’s mum Ashley Clark, 35, that she was left terrified when she could see her daughter’s “bone hanging out”.
Speaking to Ayrshire Live, Ashley, from Drongan, said: “I was standing by the side of the ride at that point. I just saw Millie limp over and I could see all the colour drained from her face.
“She was wearing white Converse trainers and you could see her bone hanging out.
“I was in a complete panic, I started running around looking for first aiders but I couldn’t see any.
“Eventually I got the police who got first aiders and paramedics.
“When they took her shoe off, the police had to take me to the side, I couldn’t bear to look at it. Her toe had been completely ripped off.”
Millie was rushed to hospital in an ambulance where doctors had to take her in for emergency surgery.
During the operation, surgeons had to shave the exposed bone and managed to pull the skin back over the salvage what was left of her pinky toe.
Three other toes were also crushed but were managed to be saved by medics.
Ashley has slammed the fairground staff for their lack of care for Millie and has called for an investigation into the incident.
The mum-of-three added: “The way the staff handled it was ridiculous, where was the sense of health and safety?
“They never got any medical attention at all for my daughter.
“I was standing there saying ‘the bone is hanging out her foot,’ the woman just carried on with the ride as normal, whilst Millie was lying on the ground.
“It needs to be investigated further, it should never have happened.”
A South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “This was a deeply distressing incident and our thoughts are with the injured child and their family.
“The Council checks that fairground operators have the required certification and insurance in place prior to issuing any licence to operate.
“However, how people access rides and how they are run is the responsibility of their operators.
“The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would be the authority who would carry out any investigation as required.”
HSE has been contacted for comment.
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