Editor's Note: More information is coming to light after a 10-year-old boy' was "seriously injured" and had to be airlifted to two different hospitals this weekend after he was apparently thrown from a carnival ride during a summer festival in the far northern suburb of Antioch. Our updated story can be found here. Our original story continues below.
An Illinois carnival was shut down after a 10-year-old child was thrown from a ride and seriously injured, authorities said.
The boy was thrown Sunday at a ride at Antioch's Taste of Summer festival, 60 miles northwest of Chicago, near the Wisconsin border. He was riding Moby Dick, which locks people in at the shoulders and then goes up and down as speed increases.
“The carnival was packed, and so a lot of people experienced seeing it,” said Charles Smith, operations commander at the Antioch police department. “It’s a traumatic event for our community.”
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Erin Maloney told The Associated Press she was waiting in line with her son to ride Moby Dick when the incident happened.
“I turned and I hear a woman screaming,” she said. “And my son said, ‘Mom, look.’ I turned around and this little boy was just on the pavement, not moving not responsive.”
According to a press release from the Village of Antioch Police Department, Antioch Police and Fire officials responded to the scene at 2:40 p.m. Sunday for a reports of a child injured on a carnival ride. Upon arrival, crews discovered a child, 10, "appeared to have been thrown from a carnival ride," the release said.
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The child was airlifted to a nearby hospital, the release continued. No further details about the child's condition were released.
Following the incident, Antioch Mayor Scott Gartner ordered that all rides at the carnival be shut down to "allow officials to review safety of each ride," the release said.
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According to Gartner, the Illinois Department of Labor is responsible for ensuring the safety of carnival rides at such events.
"We're not really doing independent inspections of these rides," Gartner said, in an interview with NBC Chicago. "We're relying on state and other agencies to make sure that these things are safe. We have to work with our Chamber of Commerce to do a debrief on this."
An investigation with the Illinois Department of Labor, Antioch Police Department and the Antioch Fire Department is underway, officials said. Additionally, Antioch village officials plan to meet beginning at 7:30 a.m. Monday to discuss the incident.
There have been other incidents on summer rides this year. On July 2, eight people were trapped upside down on a roller coaster at a festival in Crandon, Wisconsin. A large crack was discovered in the support column of Fury 325, a towering roller coaster at Carowinds, an amusement park in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 30.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
