Two Girls Hospitalized After Fall From Ferris Wheel

Two 11-year-old girls were hospitalized over the weekend in Louisiana after they fell about 20 feet to the ground from a Ferris wheel, reports NBC News. Authorities are still trying to figure out what caused their seat to tip them out. Incredibly, a third girl in the seat managed to cling to the overturned basket long enough to be rescued, said Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux. The incident happened just before noon Saturday at the Harvest Festival in New Roads, about 35 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.

"As it was going around, it was just like, stuck at an angle and they flipped out of it," witness Ronald Brasseaux tells WAFB. Both girls who fell were taken to Children's Hospital in Baton Rouge, where they were recovering from unspecified injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening. The cause of the accident remains unclear, though video evidence points to a possible failure in the mechanism that secures riders in their seat, the sheriff says. The Ferris wheel is operated by Crescent City Amusements, which has not commented.