JEFFERSON COUNTY, Tennessee — The Jefferson County Fair is in town from July 9 to 13. A video on social media is making the rounds showing Caitlyn Farmer and her son Ezekiel on the ride as it malfunctions. This happened Wednesday.
Farmer declined to speak to WBIR, but she allowed us to share the video.
In the video, children are riding the carousel at the fair when something goes wrong.
A horse appears to become detached from the bottom of the ride. You can see that mother holding her son and the horse. As the operator moves to turn the ride off, the video ends. The mother said she and her son were okay and no one was injured in this incident.
James Roy Pope, the owner of the ride and owner and manager of Pope's Concessions and Rides LLC, said he has a theory of what happened.
"We think, with the outward pressure, maybe of the guardian, the whoever was with the child, maybe leaning on it was just enough for it to come loose," Pope said. "The horse did not come off. It did not fall the child at all. As long as the child was hanging on, just like in a normal ride, the child was never in any danger at all, probably more so the person pushing on it made it swing out."
He said the horses were pulled off to be further inspected, after the incident.
"More than anything, it's just a freak thing," he said. "We pulled the horses off. If anything like that happens, we pulled not only the horse that was in question but the mate to it that sits beside it. We pulled both of those off, and we ran the ride for 15 to 20 minutes afterward with absolutely no issue. And then we deemed that it was just a freak thing that happened, or whatever, and we put the ride back in use."
Pope said his rides operate in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. He said each state has its own inspection process.
"You have to register with the state for any ride," he added. "You register your company, and then you register any rides that you may bring into the state. Each ride individually has to have a third-party inspection in the state of Tennessee. A third-party inspection is a NAARSO level one or two or a other certified person to come in and they look at each ride individually and check that ride off. And if they happen to see anything that they think is not right or whatever, then they advise you to get it fixed or to do whatever with that before it operates in the state."
He said most recently, he had an inspection done in Kentucky.
"This ride personally, was done about three weeks ago in the state of Kentucky," Pope said. "As far as other problem as the rest of our program is we inspect our rides daily visual inspection. And a lot of people misconstrue because rides are taken down or put back up as to what's done or whatever. But the good thing about it, when you take one completely apart, you can see what parts are worn, see what parts are needed. And you see it every week, you get to look and see what has to happen to a ride, or what needs to happen as far as the process of maintaining it."
He said ride operators also look at the rides daily and run them a couple of times before guests are even able to ride them.
Pope said this particular ride was built in the 1950s but that's not uncommon for carousel rides used across the country. There are updates made to make them compliant with modern regulations.
"There's carousels out there that are over 100 years old. Let me put it that way, over 100 years old, still operating today," he said. "That's, you know, they're nostalgic. We try to keep this one as near to the original as possible. There's been updates over the years or whatever, and we do all the updates that are required of it, built by Allan Herschell Company."
According to Pope, what happened was a freak accident and he doesn't want parents to think the rides at this fair, or any others, are unsafe.
"We try our best to operate safely, and that's, you know, that's, that's our main concerns, the safety of the children," he said. "No one wants to hurt a child. No one wants to hurt anyone. And we're here for fun. We're here to have fun and to to let others have fun."
Pope said his company is now in its 100th year of operation, as of this year.