GROVETOWN, Ga. — Two 13-year-old troublemakers turned a family fun ride into a terrifying aerial pileup at the Columbia County Fall Fair, ignoring repeated staff warnings not to grab each other and sending swings slamming together in pure chaos, authorities said.
The wild scene unfolded Saturday as the swing ride, individual chairs dangling from long chains on a spinning canopy, began to slow. Deputies say the teens deliberately reached across and locked onto one another, throwing the attraction off balance and causing the swings to collide violently mid-air as riders screamed.
Horrified mom Kristen Murphy, whose own kids were strapped in, captured the nightmare on video before dropping her phone and sprinting toward the controls. “This ride has to stop. My kids are on it. Something’s happening. I need to get to them,” she said, as other frantic parents helped her husband hit the brakes. From a distance, it “looked like pure chaos” and she feared “the ride was going to fly apart.”
Once it finally stopped, the damage was clear: one woman was loaded into an ambulance after her swing smashed into another, and two children were treated for minor injuries. Murphy later described the injuries as “pretty severe” and vowed, “I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to another fair.” “These rides are taken up and down all the time. You let your kids talk you into it, you think it’s a good idea. Then next thing you know this is what happens,” she told local station WRDW.
Columbia County Sheriff’s Office deputies charged the two juveniles with unruly conduct. They were handed paperwork outlining the charges and released to their parents. A spokesperson said the teens had been specifically warned beforehand not to grab each other or twist their seats together while the ride was in motion — but did it anyway, intentionally causing the instability as the ride decelerated.
The cellphone video, which shows the swings whipping erratically and crashing with sickening force, quickly went viral after being shared by local reporters and online accounts. Some viewers questioned whether two teens alone could destabilize the entire machine, suggesting a possible mechanical issue given the ride’s design, but authorities pointed to the footage of the pair clinging together, after clear warnings, as the cause.
Murphy, who tried to give a statement on the scene, said she saw little urgency from law enforcement or EMS, and no one from the ride operators took her family’s account. The two teens, whose names were not released because of their age, walked away with their parents after the charges. The injured woman was reported still hospitalized in later updates. The Columbia County Fall Fair continued, but for Murphy and the other riders caught in the melee, the day of cotton candy and midway lights ended in pure terror.
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