A 20-year-old self-proclaimed “fairground junkie” says he’s lucky to be alive after the safety bar on a high-speed carnival ride suddenly came loose—leaving him and his friend hanging on for their lives as the ride kept spinning.
Will Venner, from the U.K., has ridden more than 300 amusement rides and 200 roller coasters. But he says his recent trip to the Nottingham Goose Fair on September 26 was “the scariest ride of my life.”
Will and his friend, both longtime thrill-seekers, climbed aboard the Kings Loop ride—a high-flying, spinning attraction that flips riders upside down—planning to film the experience for YouTube. At first, the footage shows them laughing nervously as the ride begins to pick up speed.
But five minutes in, things took a horrifying turn. A loud clanging sound is heard—and the safety bar holding them in place suddenly lifts up.
The GoPro footage shows the two friends panicking and shouting, “Stop the ride! Help me! Please stop it!” as the chairs continue to flip through the air.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
“I thought I was going to die,” Will later told The Daily Mail. “If we had fallen out, we would have been hit by the other cars. I keep thinking about all the ways I could have died.”
Unable to get the operator’s attention, the pair were forced to brace themselves for several more minutes, pressing their knees against the bar to keep it down until the ride finally came to a stop.
When they got off, Will and his friend told staff what happened. But instead of taking the ride out of service, a worker allegedly dismissed their concerns, saying the malfunction was “impossible” and that security cameras would have shown it.
“That was the worst part,” Will said. “They tried to deny anything had happened. I collapsed afterward—I couldn’t even process it.”
Will escaped with only a bruised arm from the metal bar slamming down during the ordeal, but he says the psychological scars run deeper.
“I’ve been on so many rides, and I never expected anything like this. I’m having nightmares about it,” he said. “I honestly thought I was dead for certain.”
After the incident, Will says he’s been left shaken and unsure if he’ll ever trust another fairground ride again.