Adelaide Show visitors tell of problems with Airmaxx 360 ride, from which girl, 8, was fatally flung from

SHOWGOERS say they were aware of problems with the Airmaxx 360 – including insecure seatbelts – in the days before the accident that claimed the life of an eight-year-old girl

SHOWGOERS say they were aware of problems with the Airmaxx 360 – including insecure seatbelts – in the days before the accident that claimed the life of an eight-year-old girl.

As SafeWorkSA ramps up inspections of Show rides, showgoers have told the Sunday Mail of their concerns with the high-speed ride in the days leading up to the girl’s death.

It comes as the Show Society closed the Traffic Jam ride on Saturday night in the Kids Carnival section for a height breach, after a photo posted on Facebook showed an infant on the ride.

The Malaysian girl, who died on Friday, was in Adelaide with her mother to visit an aunty.

She was critically injured when thrown 10m from the ride and died in the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Amanda Watson, of Davoren Park, said she was horrified but not surprised when she heard a girl had been killed.

Ms Watson, who took the ride a day earlier with her daughter Kayla, 7, said a young attendant securing restraints on all riders appeared to be in a bad mood.

“We were the last ones to be locked in and the girl said, ‘I’m effing over this; I’ve had enough of it’,” she said.

“I kind of took it she was over today – but it was only about 11am.”

Ms Watson said that soon after the ride started, the man operating it brought it back down and pointed out a particular seat to the attendant.

“It turns out she hadn’t clipped the seat down properly on it,” Ms Watson said.

“She cracked it at him. She wasn’t happy he’d stopped the ride.”

When the ride was over, Ms Watson said her partner, Nicholas Milne, told her his seatbelt also was not fastened securely and had “flung open a bit”, so he fixed it himself.

“When we heard about what happened to the little girl, I turned to my partner and I thought how easy it would have been to be us,” she said.

Ms Watson said that age was not an issue as Kayla met the height requirements and was in her seat “pretty tight”. “While we were on the ride the operator was on his mobile phone . . . and he was turned to the side,” she said.

“So every time we went around, he wasn’t looking at us at all.”

Brock Koster, 21, of Riverton, in the Mid North, travelled to Adelaide for the Show with his girlfriend last Saturday and said the Airmaxx 360 was not functioning properly.

“Halfway through our ride it kept stopping and starting,” Mr Koster said. “It would slow right down and then it would start again, but eventually it stopped altogether.”

He said riders at the time were asked to exit and were given their tickets for later use. “As we were getting off, the floor started collapsing beneath us and we nearly fell off,” Mr Koster said.

He said the ride was closed as maintenance staff worked on it, including on one of the 12 octopus-like arms. When he returned to use their free tickets, the ride still didn’t seem to be working. “It wasn’t doing the full movements – it was still being weird,” Mr Koster said. He said his girlfriend told him she was not strapped in properly. “She felt like she was going to fly out, so I was trying to hold on to her . . . she just didn’t feel secure,” he said.

Mr Koster said he had not thought to report his concerns to anyone at the time and was horrified by Friday’s tragedy.

The ride had a height limit understood to be 140cm, but no weight or age restriction.

Jodie Strangio wrote on the SA Police Facebook site: “My sis-in-law and niece went on this ride on Saturday and it broke down 2 times. Once when they were in line and once while they were on it.”

The ride, new to the Show this year, was inspected and declared safe weeks ago but is now shut down indefinitely.

SafeWork SA announced the ride would remain on site until its “complex investigation” into the tragedy, which could take weeks, was completed.

Executive director Bryan Russell said inspections of other “high motion and movement rides” had stepped up.

The Melbourne owners and operators of the Airmaxx 360 issued a statement expressing their sorrow and extending condolences.

“We would like to offer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the young girl who has tragically lost her life. We are heartbroken, and in disbelief, that such a tragedy could occur and we are working closely with SafeWork SA and the SA police, in their investigations.

“We are a family-owned business and realise words cannot begin to express our sorrow to the family and friends of the young girl. Our thoughts and prayers are with them ... and we would like to reach out to the family and offer any assistance that we can.’’

Royal Show organisers announced on Saturday night that they had closed the Traffic Jam ride after a photograph, taken on Friday, showed a man and a baby on the ride, with the tot loosely held in by large restraints.

A Show spokeswoman said the ride would not be reopened until it had received approval from SafeWork SA.