4-year-old M'sian girl breaks leg after falling from ferris wheel

One family's outing to a funfair turned into a not-so-fun affair when it ended in a trip to the hospital.

The parents of four-year-old Zhou Le Ying are preparing to take legal action against a funfair operator after their daughter fell out of a ferris wheel capsule's open door and broke her leg, reported Malaysian media.

Zhou visited the funfair in Hutan Melintang, Perak on Sunday (Sept 22) with her parents and eight-year-old brother.

Her mother, Chen Qiu Mei, told Sin Chew Daily that Zhou had just entered one of the capsules on the ferris wheel when it suddenly started ascending before staff members could close the door.

Chen, who was supposed to go on the ride with Zhou, did not manage to get on before the wheel started moving. 

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The family could only watch in horror when the capsule door swung open and Zhou fell out from a height of about 4.6 metres.

"I immediately called a government clinic in Hutan Melintang but didn't expect that they didn't have any doctors or ambulances at the time. We didn't have any other choice, so my husband drove while I carried her and we rushed to Teluk Intan Hospital which was 17.7km away," Chen said in Mandarin.

Zhou broke her right leg and sustained abrasions on her face and wrist, said doctors.

An unnamed representative of the funfair confirmed the incident and told reporters that the ferris wheel's malfunctioning controls were to blame.

"The girl's capsule started moving up after she got on so one of the workers tried to hold it back, but they failed. The staff found that the controls were not working. They couldn't stop the wheel. The girl opened the door and fell out," he said.

Zhou's family, however, is not happy with the operator's explanation.

"We are going to take legal action against the funfair operator. We can't accept that it is just an accident. This is serious negligence," Chen, who has also made a police report regarding the incident, told China Press.

The travelling funfair had been operating for three days before the incident. It is currently closed.

kimberlylim@asiaone.com