WATCH: Young Girl Terrified After Realizing Seatbelt Isn't Secured On Ride

By Bill Galluccio

November 17, 2022

Seats of free fall tower
Photo: Getty Images

Nine-year-old Isabella Carmichael was excited that she was finally tall enough to ride the Mega Drop ride at the Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile, Alabama.

Isabella's brother was filming as she eagerly waited for the ride to start. However, the young girl's joy quickly turned to fear when the ride started, and she realized her seatbelt wasn't fastened.

"She got into her seat and pulled the top harness down on her, but she could not reach the bottom buckle after that," Isabella's mother, April Piper told WRBW. "In the video, you can watch my daughter's fear escalating as she realizes she isn't buckled and even though they just buckled a little boy in next to her and that no one has come to check her seat at all."

Isabella and a family friend screamed for somebody to stop the ride as it began to ascend. The rider operator heard their screams and stopped the ride before slowly lowering it back down the ground.

Isabella was not injured, but her mother said the experience left her traumatized.

"Watching that video and watching her face go from happy to worrying about her seat belt," said Piper. "The pure terror that just flooded through her whenever that ride started moving. It was really hard to watch, and it's hard to stomach your child going through that much trauma."

Josh Woods, the Executive Director of the Greater Gulf State Fair, told WKRG that the ride operators received additional training after the incident.

"The primary safety device that allows the rider to operate, that was engaged. The secondary device, the buckling of the buckle, was not buckled," Woods told the news station. "There is a safety zone on the mega drop. It went up to the safety zone, and again workers are looking, constantly looking. They did notice that the secondary safety device was unbuckled. The ride was immediately stopped, and everybody was brought down safely."

April posted the video on TikTok, which you can watch below.

@aprilmomofseven

My best friends took the older children to the #greatergulfstatefair2022 and I stayed home to watch all of our toddlers.The ride did stop but only because my best friend was able to scream bloody murder in order to get the attention of the ride operators who were VERY busy in the control corner goofing off. A super sweet young man soothed her and helped her calm down and pray. They lowered the ride and let her off. Filming is my oldest son. No one expected it to actually start ascending before the ride operators checked her seat! Like they are suppose to! And then a piece of my little girl broke right in that moment. NOW we know this was the same type of ride that just killed another little boy recently…his bottom belt wasn’t latched either…all I’ve gotten in response was an email “We take safety seriously here at the Greater Gulf State Fair and it is a priority. We have notified our Executive Director of this situation and will pass this information along to our Carnival company so if this happened, it won’t happen again!” IF this happened! My baby thought she was going to die literally…I’ve talked to two news stations and they are running the story but what do I do next? #traumatized #greatergulfstatefair #northamericanmidwayentertainment #takeresponsibility #negligence #thegrounds #mobilealabama #shesnotokay #replayinginmyhead #helpmeplease #makethisright #helpmehelpher #foryoupage #brokenhearted #dobetterbebetter #trustbroken #thoughtyoushouldknow

♬ original sound - April Piper
Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.