Carnival Ride Accident Leaves 11-Year-Old Girl in Critical Condition

— -- An 11-year-old girl is in critical condition after a horrifying accident on a carnival ride at a local Cinco de Mayo Festival in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday.

Elizabeth Gilreath was on the spinning "King’s Crown" ride with friends when her hair got caught in the machinery of the ride, leaving her screaming and bleeding on the floor awaiting help.

Observers stepped in upon seeing the chaos to quickly get to Elizabeth’s aid.

"Somehow I stopped it with both my hands, I just knew that a child needed my help,” Jolene Cisneros, an eyewitness from the scene, recalled. “I looked at her and I told her, ‘It’s going to be okay.’”

The young girl was taken to Nebraska Medicine with a head injury.

Virginia Cooksey, the girl’s mother, was in shock when she heard what happened.

"I just wanted to get to my daughter. I wanted to know she was okay and that she was taken care of well" Cooksey said. "I wouldn’t recommend any parent to put their child on a carnival ride."

The carnival told ABC News in a statement, "Thomas D. Thomas Shows values the safety and health of our guests above all else, and we are saddened by this accident."

Elizabeth is in intensive care, but is expected to recover.

"We are not seeing major injuries to her brain or her spine or elsewhere in her body," Dr. TJ Schenarts, chief of trauma surgery at Nebraska Medicine, told ABC News. "We are pleased she is doing so well."