Accident Doesn’t Mar Fair

Despite a ride accident that sent at least six people to the hospital, organizers of Conejo Valley Days said Monday that the annual five-day carnival was a big success overall.

By the time the midway cleared Sunday evening, more than 50,000 people had visited Conejo Creek Park South in Thousand Oaks, generating revenue -- according to preliminary estimates -- of more than $300,000 before expenses for the carnival and an additional $100,000 for the nearly three dozen local nonprofit groups that operated food and game booths at the event.

“It was great,” said Ken Calcut, this year’s general chairman of Conejo Valley Days. “There were a lot of smiling faces out there. A lot of friends seeing friends again.”

Calcut, a Thousand Oaks Realtor who figures he clocked nearly 1,000 hours since September helping coordinate the 200 to 300 volunteers who staged the community celebration, said this was the first ride mishap in the more than 15 years he has been involved with Conejo Valley Days.

“It’s nice that it was just minor injuries. If we’d had anything serious happen, that would be terrible,” Calcut said, describing Conejo Valley Days as “a family affair that’s been going on for 48 years.”

Shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, a nearly five-story-high ride known as “The Chicago Loop” malfunctioned with 13 passengers, most of them teenagers, aboard, leaving the riders trapped in their seats. The ride has a curved passenger section that rotates within a circle back and forth until it gathers enough speed for a few 360-degree loops.

The yellow-and-purple steel circle, which crews were disassembling Monday afternoon, still had the passenger section frozen at the position where the ride came to a standstill.

“The car just came to a screeching halt. It was so sudden,” said Lisa Dick of Newbury Park, who was in line near “The Chicago Loop” when the accident occurred. “It made this awful, very loud screeching sound. And something was showering down, like shards of metal or paint.”

She said carnival workers were able to help four riders near the bottom of the circle exit the ride, including a woman in her early 20s who appeared to be shaken up, with a gash on her forehead.

Dick said most of stranded passengers appeared unfazed by the accident, which she said kept the other nine riders stuck for up to an hour.

Ladder trucks and harnesses were used to get the riders safely to the ground, said Ventura County Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike Sidlinger, who responded to the accident.

“When we first talked to the people stuck on the ride, they all said they were feeling fine and didn’t need any immediate medical attention,” he said. “They weren’t panicked and were just waiting to get off the ride.”

A total of nine people were treated at the scene with minor to moderate injuries, mostly bruises and scrapes, muscle strain and the cut forehead, he said. Of those, at least six were sent to hospitals in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley for further treatment and released.

Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said the 27-year-old ride had no record of major incidents or accidents and was last inspected April 8, when no problems were observed and it received its latest annual operating permit.

After the accident, the operator -- American Amusements Inc., which also does business as Shamrock Shows in Fontana -- alerted regulators and was instructed Sunday to shut down the ride until an inspector visited the scene Monday morning.

Joe Blash, an official for Shamrock Shows, was in Thousand Oaks supervising workers Monday afternoon but said he was too busy to comment on the accident.

Regardless of the amusement ride snafu, Calcut said he would recommend using Shamrock Rides for future carnivals.

“They’re a first-class outfit,” he said. “It was just something that happened. They’ve been great to work with. They’ve always had safe and enjoyable equipment.”

Conejo Valley Days, a multi-week celebration of the area’s past, included a parade, a chili cook-off and a charity fundraiser. It began in early March with a picnic and classic car show.

The Miss Conejo Valley Days pageant, usually held before the carnival, is scheduled June 26 for a closer tie-in with some of the other 40th-anniversary celebrations the city plans this summer.