NC Ride Operator Charged With Assault With Deadly Weapon

Oct. 26, 2013— -- The operator of a ride at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh that injured five people when it started to move as riders were exiting has been arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, the Wake County sheriff said tonight.

Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the ride had been tampered with after an inspection that was carried out Monday, and he expected that there would be more arrests.

Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow, 46, of Georgia is facing three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury, the sheriff said.

"After inspection of the ride, we determined that it had been tampered with and critical safety devices were compromised," Harrison said.

Three people remained hospitalized tonight in good to critical condition after the "Vortex" ride malfunction Thursday night, according to authorities.

After the incident, attendance at the fair was significantly lower than it was last year. There were 82,163 people at the fair Friday, down from 92,418 people on the fair's second Friday last year.

The Vortex ride will not reopen at this year's fair, officials told ABC station WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham.

The first call to 911 came around 9:17 p.m. after the ride restarted, Wake Harrison said Thursday night, citing preliminary information.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing passengers thrown off the ride while others were holding on.

"There were actually some people that were still, I think, strapped in and holding on, really hanging on for their lives," Max Byrn, 13, told ABC News Radio. "But they were falling like raindrops. It was really crazy."

The "Vortex" is a pendulum ride that flips passengers upside down as it heads toward the sky.

Ambulances initially rushed five victims, ranging in ages from 14 to 39, to a nearby hospital, Debbie Laughery, vice president for public relations at WakeMed Health and Hospitals, told ABC News.

Two of the injured were released overnight, Laughery said.

Harrison said some of the victims were from the same family, but he wasn't sure of the exact relationship. The other injured person was the ride's operator, Harrison said.

No information was given on the kinds of injuries sustained.

Fair officials and Department of Labor officials are working to determine the cause of the accident, fair spokesman Brian Long said in a news release. A switch problem had been fixed Monday, officials said, but they didn't know yet whether it was related to the accident.

The accident occurred shortly before the fair was shutting down for the night.

Max said he had just gotten off the ride and turned around when he heard screaming. The teen said the ride was upside down when people began falling.

"People were screaming and a lot of people were in pain. Family members actually ran away, like they couldn't bear to look at it. They were dropping about 30 feet high up in the air," he told ABC News Radio.

Max said one person landed head first on the ground and "was completely knocked unconscious" from the fall.

Eyewitness Caleb Norris said, "We could see at least three people just laying there non-responsive."

Police questioned 35 to 40 people at the scene, authorities said.

Sheriff Harrison said everyone is working hard to make sure all the rides at the fair are safe.

"As sad as it is, we want people to come out and have fun," he said. "It'll be safe. We'll do everything we can to make it safe for the families that come and the main thing is to keep those that got hurt tonight in our prayers."