A 13-year-old boy suffered serious injuries after falling from a moving carnival ride at a pop-up event in Montana over the weekend, authorities said.
The terrifying incident happened Sunday, June 7, in the parking lot of the Butte Civic Center, according to a press release from Sheriff Ed Lester of the Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department.
Just after 3 p.m., Butte Police, Butte Fire Rescue and an A-1 ambulance were called to the scene after reports that someone had been hurt.
Authorities said the teen “fell from a moving carnival ride and sustained serious injuries.”
Butte Civic Center director Bill Melvin told local outlets that the boy had been riding the carnival’s Yoyo attraction when the incident happened.
After the fall, police said the ride was immediately shut down and blocked off as investigators began looking into what went wrong.
As a precaution, officials also suspended all carnival rides at the event.
The boy’s current condition has not been released. Police said the investigation remains ongoing.
The incident happened during the Civic Center’s annual parking lot carnival pop-up, which began Thursday, June 4, and ran through Sunday, June 7.
The rides were operated by Midway West Amusements, a traveling carnival company based in Arizona.
Melvin said the Civic Center had used Midway West Amusements for the past two years without any previous problems.
The Yoyo ride must remain in Butte until it can be inspected, Melvin said. The rest of the carnival rides were being transported to the company’s next pop-up location.
Midway West Amusements has not publicly commented on the incident.
In 2021, the company’s previous owner, Jordan Jensen of Gilbert, Arizona, was charged in Utah with three counts of human trafficking and nine counts of possession of another person’s identity documents, according to a filing from the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
The charges came after Jensen was accused of having 20 Mexican nationals living and working in dangerous and inhumane conditions.
The company’s website now describes Midway West Amusements as a “family owned and operated business” under the management of Nathan and Michelle Jensen.
Montana is one of the few states without statewide oversight of carnival rides, according to KXLF. However, lawmakers passed rules last year requiring certifications for rides that have been examined by qualified inspectors.
The last major carnival ride incident reported in Montana happened in 2018, when an 11-year-old girl was injured after falling from a Typhoon ride at the Western Montana Fair in Missoula.
