Hannah-Grace Mann, Viking Fusion Videographer, and Katie White Viking Fusion Videographer

This past Mountain Day at the Marthapalooza celebration, a wheel fell off one of the carnival rides, the “Ring of Fire.” Peachtree Rides, based out of Atlanta, has been used for Marthapalooza for about eight years. Peachtree rides had no comment on the matter, but other sources confirmed that the wheel did in fact fall off and was quickly replaced. It was claimed that the problem proved no threat to the lives of those on the ride. According to the Peachtree Rides website, each ride provided is inspected periodically throughout the year by the State, and is repaired and repainted each winter to ensure “top notch condition.”

Cecily Crowe, Director of Student Activities and Krannert Center Manager, shared her confidence in the ride company, stating that Peachtree Rides is a very experienced ride company, used in many other fairs. Also, it is used by the State Inspector as the comparison for safety to all other ride companies in the state. According to Crow, the state inspector worked with the company the week before, and even the county fire marshal showed up an hour before Marthapalooza to check the rides. Crow states that she and the others on the committee very pleased with the safety precautions that were displayed. In the past eight years, there have only been two instances where a ride has had problems, resulting in the ride stopping. Crow states she is confident that if the wheel falling off the Ring of Fire had been a problem, the ride would have immediately been stopped and shut down for the rest of the night.

In case of emergency, all staff on site are trained to properly and efficiently respond. Crow states that there is no medical staff on site, but campus safety is present and ready to act if an opportunity presents itself. Ambulances are already on campus for other Mountain Day Festivities, so in case of an emergency, Crow says, medical staff can be there very quickly. There have been no cases of medical staff being needed for safety reasons in the past, but Crow states they will always be ready to act if an emergency arises.