Horror as mother and her three-year-old daughter are ‘flung’ from a spinning teacup ride at famed Margate amusement park
A mother and her three-year-old daughter were injured after being ‘thrown’ from a spinning teacup ride at a famous amusement park.
Kate Davies and her daughter Poppy enjoyed a fun family day out spinning around on a teacup at Dreamland Margate in Kent.
Moments later, disaster struck when the ride came loose from its base and the two men were thrown against the railing with a crash. Meanwhile, people screamed and rushed to help.
The ‘traumatic’ incident left Kate feeling dizzy and with blurred vision, as well as suffering nasty cuts and bruises, while little Poppy was hit on the head.
Kate’s eight-year-old son Freddie, who was also in a teacup, also suffered a cut lip when he was jolted when the ride malfunctioned. He was banned from the theme parks after witnessing the incident.
Kate Davies (pictured) was left with nasty cuts and briefly blurred vision after she and her three-year-old daughter Poppy were thrown from a teacup ride
After the attraction at Dreamland Margate malfunctioned, the toddler was left with a bump on her head, while her brother Freddie (bottom left) is no longer allowed in the amusement parks at all.
Kate said: ‘It’s pretty awful. For my children it’s been quite traumatic because we’d gone there for a nice day out and then this all happened quite quickly.’
The 38-year-old teacher and her husband William took their two children to Dreamland last Wednesday for what they hoped would be a fun day out for the whole family.
The family walked over to the teacups, Kate and Poppy jumping into one teacup and Freddie into the other.
When the operator asked her if she wanted to be spun around, Poppy enthusiastically replied yes.
“Every time we went by, she would spin the teacup around and before I knew it, the whole teacup would come loose from the base and as it was spinning, it would fly forward and land in the railings of the ride,” Kate said.
‘I remember it shooting forward and I had this really bad pain in the back of my head. I had my daughter next to me.
‘I could hear people screaming and I could hear my husband William.
‘He just turned around to put his coat in our bag when he heard all that screaming.
“He saw that the ride had fallen apart and he got scared because at first he couldn’t see exactly what was happening to us. He panicked.”
“I just remember it being thrown forward and feeling this really bad pain in the back of my head,” Katie said.
Dreamland called an ambulance for the family, but the operators said it would be a long wait, so William, 41, drove with his wife and children to QEQM Hospital
Kate’s scratches and bruises after the incident at Dreamland Margate
Poppy was lifted out of the cup as Dreamland staff and the public rushed to help.
Meanwhile, people gathered around Kate. They asked her if she was okay and if she could stand. She felt dizzy and had a sharp pain in the back of her head.
“I remember the back of my head and my arm hurting really bad,” the mother of two said.
‘People asked if I could stand, but I felt very weak and dizzy.
“I said, ‘I don’t think so,’ and then the vision in my right eye went really blurry.”
Dreamland called an ambulance for the family, but the operators said it would take a long time for the ambulance to arrive. So William, 41, drove his wife and children to QEQM Hospital.
The trio were examined and later released.
Kate said: ‘It was actually very fortunate that we landed the way we did because we could have gotten our arms or legs stuck in the railing. Also the impact on my head could have been much worse or my daughter could have been trapped.’
She added that staff that day were “very helpful and accommodating” and offered free food and drinks.
Dreamland bosses have also invited the family to return to the amusement park, but they all feel insecure.
“People asked if I could get up, but I just felt really weak and dizzy,” Kate said
Kate and her two children Freddie and Poppy were checked over in hospital and later discharged
“We wanted to book Legoland but William now says he doesn’t want to go,” Katie said.
‘The last thing we want is for our family to stop going to amusement parks because my son used to love rides.
‘I love these types of rides too, but they do scare you. If something as small as a teacup goes wrong and you get hurt, it’s scary to think what could happen in a bigger accident.
‘We still have no explanation for what exactly went wrong.
‘It worried us because you think: “I don’t know if the attractions are being properly maintained.”‘
MailOnline has asked Dreamland Margate for comment.