the essential
A 17-year-old boy died and a 19-year-old woman seriously injured after an accident in a thrill ride at the Cap d’Agde funfair in Hérault.
Come to have fun, a 17-year-old boy died and a 19-year-old woman was seriously injured in Cap d’Agde in Hérault, on the night of Saturday to Sunday. Four people were taken into custody. Let’s take stock of what we know so far.
What happened ?
Shortly after 2 a.m., a 17-year-old boy and a 19-year-old woman decide to take a ride on the Adrénaline, at Luna Park in Cap d’Agde in Hérault. This giant swing is done in tandem, side by side, face down. Passengers are harnessed in the back. They go up flat on their stomachs to a height of 60 m then fall into the void, still on their stomachs, at 110 km/h, rocking back and forth. During their fall, the boy appears to have hit one of the metal pillars that support the structure with his head, revealed Metropolitan News.
Who are the victims ?
The passenger killed is a 17-year-old boy from Agde. The young woman, aged 19, is polytraumatized. She was urgently evacuated to Montpellier University Hospital overnight.
How can the accident be explained?
It is the judicial investigation opened for homicide and involuntary injuries by the parquet floor of Béziers which will make it possible to know it. In a press release, the public prosecutor Raphaël Balland writes: “The question of the conditions of use of this attraction in high winds already arises”. The tramontane which has been blowing hard for several days over Languedoc and Roussillon exceeded 80 km / h on Saturday evening and overnight.
Where is the investigation?
The manager of Luna Park in Cap d’Agde and three other people were taken into custody overnight. they are still heard by police officers from the Agde police station. Over the next few hours, investigators will hear from several witnesses. The Adrénaline attraction was placed under seal in order to be able to make “technical findings”, said the Prosecutor in a press release. The results will not be known for several months. The investigation is entrusted in parallel to the judicial police of Montpellier.
Have there ever been any accidents on this ride?
At least two accidents are known. In 2019 on the same attraction in Cap d’Agde, a man in his fifties was injured in the head. Two years earlier, at the Trone fair in Paris, it was a teenager who had fallen suspended by the feet. Cap d’Agde’s Luna Park, which is open from Easter to September, has experienced two other accidents in recent years. In 2018, two 13-year-olds were ejected from a high-speed carousel and injured. In 2015, the rubber band of a large ball projected several tens of meters high had dropped, injuring one.
