Girl Dies In Ferris Wheel Fall At Wildwood NJ Boardwalk

WILDWOOD, N.J. — An 11-year-old girl on a school trip to a Jersey shore amusement park died Friday when she fell 100 feet from a moving Ferris wheel.

Police Capt. Robert Regalbuto said Abiah Jones of Pleasantville was with her classmates from Pleasant Tech Academy when she fell from the ride at 12:30 p.m.

She was driven to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead about 45 minutes later.

A medical helicopter was initially called for, but paramedics at the scene, seeing how grave the girl's injuries were, decided not to wait, and took her to the hospital in an ambulance.

"I'd like to say how sorry we are for the incident that occurred here," said Will Morey, president and CEO of the Morey Organization, which has owned amusement parks at the Jersey shore since 1969. This was the first death of a patron in the history of the organization, he added.

A Wildwood police statement said the cause of the fall remains unknown. She fell from the upper half of the ride, about 100 feet.

The 156-foot-tall Ferris wheel is among rides at Morey's Mariner's Landing Pier. Both Morey's and police said the problem did not appear to be mechanical.

Morey said it appears Jones was alone in one of the car's passenger gondolas, which is secured with a double latch. The door of the car opens inward, making it difficult to climb out of, he said.

The girl's body was found in the passenger loading area of the ride on the boardwalk, leading authorities to believe she fell from near the top of the ride because that's the trajectory she would have followed as she fell, Morey said.

The popular park was packed with school children attending a special school-related promotional day called "Education Extravaganza."

Morey's said in a statement the cause was being investigated.

Police took photographs of various passenger carts on the Ferris wheel, part of which was covered in white sheets, and were looking for witnesses to the fall.

The Ferris wheel, which was built in 1985, most recently passed an inspection on March 17, according to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, which was examining the ride and conducting an investigation into the death. The Ferris wheel will remain closed until the cause is determined, Morey said.

According to a 2010 report from the National Safety Council, the estimated number of amusement ride-related injuries on fixed-site rides nationwide was 1,086 or 0.6 per million patron rides.

Colleen Mangone, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, said the odds of being seriously injured at one of the United States' 400 fixed-site amusement parks are 1-in-9 million.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the young guest," she said. "Events like this are extremely rare, and safety is the number one priority for the amusement park industry."

Approximately 280 million guests visit those theme parks each year, taking 1.7 billion rides, she said.

After closing the Ferris wheel and a few others nearby but keeping the rest of the park open throughout the afternoon, the amusement park's owners decided around 4 p.m. to close the entire park for the remainder of the night. It was due to reopen Saturday morning.

"The Morey staff and family offer our thoughts and prayers to the family," the park's operators said in a statement.

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Associated Press writer Wayne Parry in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., and researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York City contributed to this story.