{"id":432816,"date":"2026-01-23T19:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432816\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:13:17","slug":"no-one-was-checking-anything-terrifying-moment-packed-ride-collapses-at-fair-and-injures-14-school-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432816\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No one was checking anything\u2019: Terrifying moment packed ride collapses at fair and injures 14 school children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Chaos erupted at a crowded fair in India after a giant swing attraction collapsed mid-ride, leaving 14 school children injured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The incident took place around 4pm local time on January 19 at the Maharaj No Melo fair in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where local school children had packed onto the popular boat-style ride, known as the \u201cColumbus Swing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Footage shows the moment the ride came crashing down only seconds after it begun and slams into a wall behind it, sending onlookers into a panicked frenzy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Children can be seen hanging from the side of the collapsed ride as bystanders desperately rush to their aid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\"><a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/india-news\/video-giant-swing-collapses-at-madhya-pradesh-fair-14-students-injured-10788312\">NDTV<\/a> reports that at least 14 students were hurt in the accident, with two girls being rushed to the hospital after they sustained critical injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Doctors said that the injured children are stable, however, the two girls with serious injuries remain under close observation, according to NDTV.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ee588d968c17cc70591d06c5129a23f8208318fb.jpg\" alt=\"Onlookers said the swing looked dangerously overloaded. \" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Onlookers said the swing looked dangerously overloaded.  Credit: Raajeev Chopra\/X<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Eyewitnesses told local media that the swing looked dangerously overloaded, and far more children were allowed onto the ride than its safe capacity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt looked weak even before the accident,\u201d one person said. \u201cNo one was checking anything. The swing just gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Superintendent of police Pratipal Singh Mahobia said based on preliminary findings, the ride had glaring lapses in safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThere appear to be serious deficiencies,\u201d he said according to NDTV. \u201cThe material used seems weak, and overloading cannot be ruled out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">District Collector Neha Meena has reportedly ordered a multi-departmental inquiry into the incident, with senior police officers and engineers from the Public Works Department and electricity board conducting the investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The horrifying incident comes just over two weeks after 15 people were left stranded mid-air after a ride malfunctioned in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">On January 2, the Wild Twister ride at the Ocean Park Hong Kong theme park stopped working, leaving riders stuck on the ride for about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">A spokesperson said the issue was due to a signal failure that automatically triggered the safety system to halt the ride.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Thankfully, staff were able to shut the ride down, freeing the passengers from the terrifying ordeal.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chaos erupted at a crowded fair in India after a giant swing attraction collapsed mid-ride, leaving 14 school&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,1720],"class_list":{"0":"post-432816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories","14":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}