Wrongful Death Suit Filed After 11-Year-Old Girl Falls From Ferris Wheel

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Morey’s Piers, after an 11-year-old girl who fell from a Ferris wheel on the boardwalk on the pier.

Abiah Jones’ parents filed the wrongful death suit after their daughter fell from the Giant Wheel on Morey’s Mariner’s Landing Pier. She was rushed to a hospital, but died from her injuries soon after.

The suit doesn't specify an amount being sought but it asks for a jury trial.

Morey's spokeswoman Lindsey Young said the company would not comment on the lawsuit.
Jones’ parents, Twanda and Byron allege that it was their daughter’s first time on the Ferris wheel and she was not told the carnival ride’s safety procedures.

The lawsuit file also stated that she was told by the ride's operator to “get on the ride by herself,” and that Morey's representative was supposed to install safety restraints on the ride but failed to do so. There is no suggestion from Morey’s that the company had plans to install the restraints.

At the time of the wrongful death, the young girl was on a class field trip.

The state Department of Community Affairs that oversees amusement parks, said that the cause of the fall was undetermined since there were no witnesses of the fatal accident.

One of the pier’s surveillance cameras did catch images of the girl during the fall, but “the video does not show the victim leaving the gondola,” a report states.

The state also came out with a report that strongly recommends that Ferris wheel operators “immediately adopt a policy requiring that there be a minimum of two riders per vehicle” to prevent similar accidents. But the report did not recommend restraints for Ferris wheels.

The report stated that Jones was by herself in gondola three, almost to the top of the Ferris wheel before falling.

“The fact that Abiah Jones was alone in the gondola without any nearby passengers may have led her to take a risk that she would have been convinced not to take if there were other riders in the gondola,” the state said in its report.

It did not appear that any mechanical or operational error took place. The state officials inspected the ride on March 17. It passed that yearly inspection.

State inspectors also checked the ride’s manual and found that children older than 10 could ride alone. Morey’s Piers also uses a 54-inch height requirement, in which the girl met.

There are no seat belts on the ride but each gondola is partially surrounded by steel bars and the doors open inward and are latched from the outside. The doors to the girl's gondola were still closed and latched and the railings were in good shape after the fall.

There is a warning sign as people wait in line that says to keep all body parts inside the gondola at all times, remain seated during the entire ride, and to not sway the cabin.

The sign also explains that the wheel will stop for a short amount of time.

Morey's Piers President Will Morey said that the Morey organization inspects all of the rides on a daily basis.

State inspectors rode in the same gondola that Jones fell from to test it and nothing out of the ordinary was reported.