Event Hire operates the wheel and its director Phil Anderson said all riders were assessed before boarding to ensure they were safe and fit to ride. <\/p>\n
\u201cConsistent with our safety procedures, patrons were assessed prior to boarding to ensure they were safe and fit to ride, and this process was in place throughout the evening, including prior to the incident,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
A video filmed moments before the incident shows the friends\u2019 cart swinging and then cuts off as the group begins to fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think anything was going on or think anything of it until it actually unclipped,\u201d one of the men who fell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was when I realised, \u2018Oh, oh, s***, I\u2019m in a lot of trouble here\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it was another seat or just a bar or something that I hit my head on. I got knocked out, then I fell all the way to the ground and was unresponsive underneath.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of his friends fell from the cart and struck the ride\u2019s bracing but managed to catch himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was covered in bruises, head to toe in bruises,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n
A third friend avoided falling after managing to grab hold of the seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t leaning forward on the safety bar, so he had enough time to turn around and grab on.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just hanging off the seat \u2013 he was pretty traumatised.\u201d<\/p>\n
A video has emerged showing the moments before two friends fell from a Ferris wheel at a Christchurch music festival. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The man said although festival staff were present to encourage responsible drinking, there were no checks before he and his friends boarded the ride, and no indication it was the final ride of the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were kind of surprised they were still open and the lady in the line just said, \u2018We\u2019ll stay open as long as you keep lining up\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said they were checking for alcohol and stuff. We never got checked for anything like that. We could have been really drunk and still got on.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also disputed claims by staff the group had been told to stop swinging.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few of my friends who were in the line never heard anyone telling us to stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t actually swinging that much. The bar came undone, that\u2019s why we fell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Footage has also emerged of a person standing on a bar of the Ferris wheel. <\/p>\n
A person standing on the bar of the Ferris wheel. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Event Hire reported an independent health and safety adviser from Rolling Meadows conducted a site audit of the Ferris wheel about 11.30pm on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
The adviser had reportedly provided a positive assessment of the event operations, staff competency, safety procedures and rider management at that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe independent safety adviser confirmed that safety rules were clearly displayed, ride supervision standards were appropriate and operating procedures were being followed,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is fully documented and our procedures did not change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson said the safety of riders and the public is an \u201cabsolute priority\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur rides operate under clearly displayed safety rules and are overseen by trained staff, including measures to ensure patrons are fit to participate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been in regular contact with St John to inquire about the men\u2019s wellbeing and our thoughts remain with them and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Event Hire said that during the ride, the operator observed passengers in one of the buckets rocking it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unsafe behaviour and he immediately instructed the riders to stop, as did other passengers on the ride,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly displayed signage warns passengers not to rock the seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe operator then commenced the standard procedure to bring the ride to a halt and safely unload all passengers. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs this process was underway, the affected gondola tipped, due to the rocking, and its occupants fell.<\/p>\n
\u201cQualified medical personnel were already on site and responded immediately. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe individuals received prompt treatment before two men were transported to hospital for further assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement also said Event Hire had notified WorkSafe and engaged an independent engineer to undertake a full technical review of the equipment.<\/p>\n
Rolling Meadows took place from December 29 to 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Event Hire operates the wheel and its director Phil Anderson said all riders were assessed before boarding to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[36265,74,9218,117024,1596,4487,38402,15356,3592,13989,91056,5131,1445,71,42,78,2845,5158,128347,9062,157,43,47788,5348,6378,40,38,41,39,416,33242,102],"class_list":["post-220829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-15m","tag-after","tag-before","tag-bleed","tag-brain","tag-christchurch","tag-drop","tag-emerged","tag-fall","tag-fell","tag-ferris","tag-festival","tag-friends","tag-from","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-leaving","tag-man","tag-meadows","tag-moments","tag-music","tag-news","tag-rolling","tag-showing","tag-suffers","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-video","tag-wheel","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}