An N.C. State Fair worker was injured while disassembling a ride after the fair’s 2013 run ended Sunday night — the second accident in four days on the fairgrounds.
Brian Long, a State Fair spokesman, said a fair worker was injured at around 3:30 a.m. Monday while he was dismantling one of the two rides at the fair called the Vortex — the other Vortex ride at the fair was the site of another accident last week.
The worker was transported to WakeMed hospitals with a leg injury, Long said.
Monday also marked the first court appearance for Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow, a fair worker who was arrested and charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury. The charges come after a Thursday accident on the other Vortex ride that injured five people, who were also taken to WakeMed hospitals.
Two have been released, while Anthony Gorham, 29; Kisha Gorham, 39; and a 14-year-old youth were still hospitalized as of Monday. Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison has said an inspection found the ride had been tampered with and critical safety devices were compromised.
Richard Johnson, chief of operations at the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, said the judge denied to lower Tutterrow’s $225,000 bond. He said Tutterrow’s preliminary court date is set for Nov. 18.
Attendance at the fair for the two days after the accident was down from last year’s attendance for the same days — Friday’s attendance was about 10,000 less, and Saturday’s attendance was 17,000 less than 2012.
“It’s hard to say whether the decline was completely because of the accident,” he said. “Friday and Saturday nights were quite chilly, and that appeared to affect the size of the fair’s nighttime crowd.”
The year’s total attendance was 927,563 — about 37,700 people fewer than last year.
