PORT TOWNSEND — The Ferris wheel that was shut down at this year’s Rhododendron Festival after three people fell from one of the gondolas has been inspected and cleared for use in Washington state and Oregon.
The ride, known as the Phoenix Wheel, was mostly recently at Capital Lakefair in Olympia. Capital Lakefair Week ended Sunday.
Susan “Shawn” Swartwood, 60; Crystal Groth, 47; and Mikhail Groth Swartwood, 7, fell roughly 15 feet from the Phoenix Wheel when their gondola overturned May 18.
Groth and son Mikhail were both discharged from Jefferson Healthcare hospital on the evening of the incident with minor injuries but are still receiving ongoing care, according to the family’s attorney, Ashton Dennis of the Washington Law Center.
Swartwood was severely injured by the fall. She was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with multiple fractures and a head injury, according to Port Townsend police.
Swartwood has been discharged from the hospital but is still recovering from her injuries in a rehabilitation center, Dennis said.
Dennis declined to comment further on the conditions of the three people involved.
“With Shawn in the condition she’s in, the family is just getting through each day,” Dennis said. “We’re just focusing on getting everyone better.”
The ride was inspected several times after the three fell at the Rhody Festival, according to a statement from Funtastic Traveling Shows President Ronald Burback. Funtastic, based in Portland, Ore., owns and operates the Phoenix Wheel, along with a number of other carnival rides.
The ride was inspected by the Port Townsend Police Department shortly after the fall and the ride’s operators were tested to see if they had any alcohol in their system. Those tests came back negative, according to the Funtastic report submitted to the state Department of Labor and Industries.
John Hinde, a Washington state-certified inspector, inspected the ride June 27. His approval was included in Funtastic’s application requesting a new operating decal for the Phoenix Wheel.
The ride’s last decal was revoked due to the fall at the Rhody Festival.
Labor and Industries approved a new operating permit for the Phoenix Wheel on July 7. That permit will expire Oct. 1.
While the Phoenix Wheel has met all safety requirements, there is no guarantee that amusement rides like the Phoenix Wheel are safe, according to Matthew Erlich, Labor and Industries spokesman.
“There’s no fail-safe way to know for certain a ride is safe,” Erlich said in an email on July 12.
Erlich recommended that parents check out the Labor and Industries “parents’ amusement ride safety checklist,” which can be found at www.lni.wa.gov/amusementrides.
“Of course, any injury is significant and our goal at L&I is to make sure workplaces and amusement rides are safe,” Erlich said.
In his June 27 statement, Burback maintained that the family is at fault for the incident.
“One element that keeps returning to the root cause in the incident is the patrons’ misbehavior,” Burbank said in his statement.
“It would be extremely difficult to neglect the eyewitness on the ground that saw the individuals standing up in the gondola taking selfies, disregarding verbal warnings from the ride operators and written warnings on the ride’s gondolas.”
The family says the gondola’s door was left partially open and got hung up on another part of the ride, flipping the gondola as it descended.
Dennis declined to comment further.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.
