An 11-year-old Highland City girl spent a terrifying 30 to 45 minutes trapped - upside down - in a Ferris wheel car about 25 feet above the ground at the Halloween carnival north of the Bartow Civic Center Thursday night.
Adding to the fright and the danger: the door to the car was open, and her seatbelt was unfastened.
The girl, Sydney Watkins, was lowered to safety after the Bartow Fire Dept. ladder truck hoisted a fireman who closed the door and got the car turned right side up.
Though frightened, Sydney, a Highland City Elementary School student, was uninjured, and remained at the carnival after her ordeal.
Sydney, along with Mimi Haggard of Lakeland, who described herself as best friend of Sydney's older sister, were passengers on one of the eight cars on the Ferris wheel. They said it appeared that only four of the eight cars were working, as passengers were limited to four cars.
The Ferris wheel operator stopped the ride to unload the first car, then brought around the car in which Sydney and her friend were riding, they said.
Ms. Haggard stepped out of the car, even though the ride was still moving slowly, but the ride sped up before Sydney could get out, she said. The operator apparently tried to relatch the door as the ride gained speed, but was unable to do so.
By the time he got the ride stopped, Sydney's car was slightly above the horizontal, an estimated 25 feet in the air, according to Kent Kesler of Bartow, who witnessed the entire episode. It began at 8:12 p.m., he said. It ended between 8:45 and 9.
The car was upside down, and Sydney was unbuckled because she was about to get out when the ride started up, he said.
Sydney stayed as far as possible away from the open door.
Police officers at the carnival heard the open door banging against the ride and called for the ladder truck and an ambulance.
Deb Aguilar, a student at Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando, was in the car on the opposite side of the Ferris wheel from Sydney's, along with five-year-old Allison Kesler and an 11-year-old girl known to her only as J.C.
They were secure in their car, getting chilly but otherwise doing okay, Ms. Aguilar said.
But they were watching Sydney intently.
“She was freaking out the whole time, crying, asking them to hurry, saying it was getting hard to hold on,” she said.
Ms. Aguilar watched as a fireman latched the door and freed the car so that it could rotate right side up.
The operator then advanced the ride so that Sydney could get out of the car safely, and advanced it again so that Ms. Aguilar and the two children could get off.
Although five-year-old Allison said afterwards, “I was scared; I wanted to get down,” the first thing she said to her father, Kent Kesler, was to ask if she could ride another ride.
“I told her I didn't think that was a good idea,” Kesler said.
Sydney said that while the other seven cars all rotated, so that they remained right side up and swinging for the entire ride, the car that she and Ms. Haggard were in was locked into position so that when it was at the top of the Ferris wheel, it was upside down.
The operator kept stopping the ride when their car reached the top, she said.
“He was joking around, letting other people off,” she said. “I guess he thought it was funny.
“I want to get his name.”
She agreed with Kesler's and Ms. Aguilar's description of the event and her reaction to it.
“I was freaking out. I was screaming. I was yelling for help.
“I was slipping.
“My leg went to sleep.”
As to her plans for the rest of the night, Sydney said:
“I don't think I'm going on any more carnival rides tonight.
“This was my first ride on a Ferris wheel . . . and my last.”
A man standing at the Ferris wheel after the incident who appeared to be in charge refused to comment, beyond saying that he was not the operator.
