The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Operator defends actions over wheel breakdown drama
Dundee’s big wheel returned to action last night after a breakdown drama halted the popular attraction and left passengers stranded in mid-air.
Despite reports of panic around the Slessor Gardens ride on Tuesday afternoon, its operators said the mechanical malfunction was dealt with under normal safety protocols to get everyone off the ride.
No one was hurt in the incident, but one parent who witnessed the scenes branded the handling of the situation as “crazy”.
Ride bosses admitted staff had scaled the structure without proper safety equipment, saying it was “in the heat of the moment” as they tried to empty the packed wheel.
A replacement part has now been flown in from Italy to keep the big wheel – nicknamed locally as the Dundee Eh – running until its scheduled visit ends on Sunday evening.
Thousands of visitors have enjoyed spectacular views of the waterfront and the city since the attraction was set up but one parent said he was shocked by Tuesday afternoon’s scenes.
“The queue was going down steadily and we were just making our way up when the people at the front started quickly dispersing,” he said.
“It filtered back that had broken down.”
The man described staff as “quite panicked” as they tried to manually handle the gondolas into position at the foot of the ride for passengers to disembark. it
“I have a background where health and safety is high on my agenda and just thought it was crazy the way it was being dealt with.
“People were being asked to help them get the ride to a stop. I told them they should stop and not involve members of the public but was told it was none of my business.
“I backed off, phoned the police and ended up just leaving,” he said.
It is not thought police were involved over the incident and ride firm boss John Thomson said the situation had not put anyone in danger.
“It wasn’ t a great problem. When the ride has a malfunction we have to evacuate it using the emergency procedure and that was exactly what was done,” he said.
“When people are exiting it you may have to push or pull it to get it to the correct position and that was what happened.
“In this situation it uses a 24-volt back up and it is a manual operation but there was no drama and the movement ( on the big wheel) would have been due to the counterweight.
“Our man did go up into a safe area on a platform. Ideally he should have had a harness on and we do have harnesses, but in the heat of the moment you are just trying to get people to exit safely.
“I can understand people might have been alarmed, but I can’t stress enough that this was a normal procedure and there were no issues for the guys operating the emergency system.”