PORT TOWNSEND — A safety inspector determined that a Rhododendron Festival Ferris wheel ride had been safe to operate after a purple gondola dumped out three occupants from 8-15 feet in the air May 18, sending one woman to Harborview Medical Center with serious injuries, according to Port Townsend Police Department documents released Wednesday.
The police records include conflicting, harrowing eyewitness accounts of carnival-goers whose late-afternoon fun was shattered by the sight of two women and a boy falling to the Ferris wheel platform below.
The cause remains unclear.
Susan Swartwood, 59, was in satisfactory condition Tuesday and has since asked that no further information about her condition be released, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said Thursday.
Swartwood’s partner, Crystal Groth, and 8-year-old Mikhail Groth-Swartwood were also in the gondola. They were treated at Jefferson Healthcare hospital that night and discharged.
A day after the fall, ride inspector Richard Spromberg said in his one-page, three-sentence report that he inspected the ride “for [a] safety check and found everything OK to operate,” according to his certificate of inspection.
“Did inspection on Ferris wheel and found damage on the tub that was involved in incident,” Spromberg said in the report.
“The Ferris wheel won’t be used at the location and will [be] sent to factory for inspection.”
Spromberg, licensed as a state ride inspector, according to the police report, is certified through the state Department of Labor and Industries.
He is paid for inspection by the carnival owner, Portland, Ore.-based carnival operator Funtastic Traveling Shows of Portland, company Chief Financial Officer Mark Skoglund said Thursday.
Skoglund referred questions to company President Ron Burback, who did not return a call for comment Thursday. Burback said Saturday that the ride would undergo examination for mechanical issues, adding that the company had reports that the people in the gondola were shifting around and possibly could have caused it to flip.
Spromberg, a former carnival manager for Funtastic, according to Skoglund, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
A federal Consumer Product Safety Commission inspector investigated the incident on May 19, agency spokeswoman Patty Davis said Thursday.
Davis said she was unable to provide further details.
Keith Ellefson, a carnival manager, talked to police but then after consulting with Burback refused further comment by him and other employees without an attorney being present, according to Port Townsend Police Sgt. Troy Surber’s report.
“[Ellefson] said that the gondola was hung up on a bolt located on the Ferris wheel structure on the north side of the gondola,” Surber said in the report.
The bolt stopped the back-and-forth swinging motion of the gondola, Surber said Thursday in an interview.
“When the gondola door frame made contact with that bolt, it stopped free movement that was caused as the Ferris wheel moved,” Surber said in the interview.
“The gondola moved in a different way that it was designed to, and it caused it to remove the occupants.”
Brandi Hamon of Port Townsend, whose son was on the ride, saw a person on the Ferris wheel “leaning out of one of the buckets on the ride, which then appeared to cause the bucket to lean and flip, causing the occupants to fall approximately 20 feet,” according to her statement to police.
“I feel that they were intentionally leaning out waving at friends.”
Dusty Janke Call of Port Townsend was on the Ferris wheel cart next to the two women and boy.
“Just after we started coming down from the very top, the cart next to us started shaking, it felt like,” Call said in her statement.
“I said, ‘what’s going on’ as the woman lost a drink or phone or something then within seconds their car completely flipped over.
“I shut my eyes as soon as I heard them falling out and grabbed my daughter and called 9-1-1,” she said.
“The cart then flipped and brushed against Nick and our cart was rocking back and forth very bad I thought we were going to flip as well.”
Nicholas Pollgreen of Port Townsend, who was in the adjacent gondola, told police it hit him on the head as it swung back.
He refused to go to the hospital and said, “‘I am going to sue them,’ indicating the carnival company,” Surber said in his report.
Pollgreen heard “grinding sounds” before the cart tipped over and saw the gondola occupants struggle to keep from falling, he told police.
“They tried to hold on, but fell violently with a small child as well,” he said.
A 7-year-old boy from Grant Street School also was on the Ferris wheel did not see or hear the mishap but saw the results.
“I saw blood when I got off,” the boy told police.
“I was scared for my cousins.”
A sign inside the gondola warns occupants not to stand up, Burback had said Saturday.
Skoglund said Thursday he did not know if the gondolas had seat belts.
Swartwood was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with multiple fractures and a head injury, Port Townsend Police spokeswoman Keppie Keplinger said.
The emergency call was received by the Port Townsend Police Department at 5:38 p.m., according to Surber’s report.
When he arrived at the Ferris wheel about five minutes later, Swartwood was lying face down on the platform directly below the gondolas.
”Her eyes were moving but she wasn’t communicating,” Surber said Thursday.
Groth, 47, is a parent volunteer at Chimacum Creek Primary School, a school administrative assistant said Thursday.
While being treated immediately after the fall, Groth described Swartwood as “her partner, who was injured worse.”
Groth said “her right leg hurt really badly and I could clearly see large bruises on her left and right arms,” Surber said in his report.
Swartwood and Groth could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Matthew Erlich, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industries, said Funtastic is required to have $1 million of insurance per mishap-occurrence and that the company’s permit for the ride has been revoked.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
