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State Fair Worker Injured While Taking Apart Ride

www.flickr.com/photos/ncstatefair
NC State Fair

Officials with the North Carolina State Fair say a worker has been injured while disassembling a ride.

Fair spokesman Brian Long says a 35-year-old man was hurt early Monday morning when a piece of one of two rides called the Vortex fell on him.

The ride is not the same one that injured five people last week.  The man's name and condition have not been released.  He was taken to WakeMed Hospital. 

State fair organizers say this year's midway is expected to be one of the best attended of all time.  Final attendance figures for Sunday will be released Monday.  

North Carolina agriculture officials say this year's success comes despite the incident last week that injured five people. 

Sheriff's deputies arrested Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow, 46, after finding signs that the Vortex ride he operated was tampered with. 

State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler says he didn't want that incident to ruin the fair experience.

"This investigation is focused on one ride," Troxler says.  "This one ride is the only ride that this operator has at the State Fair, so this is a focused investigation on what happened on this one ride."

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison says Tutterrow faces serious charges.

"Three counts with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury," Harrison said.

"There's not a whole lot more I can tell you about this because it is an ongoing  investigation.  The question I know is going to be asked is will there be other arrests.  The answer is yes, probably will be."

Two of the five victims have been released from the hospital.  One of the victims was a ride operation assistant.  Tutterrow was not injured.

Gurnal Scott joined North Carolina Public Radio in March 2012 after several stops in radio and television. After graduating from the College of Charleston in his South Carolina hometown, he began his career in radio there. He started as a sports reporter at News/Talk Radio WTMA and won five Sportscaster of the Year awards. In 1997, Gurnal moved on to television as general assignment reporter and weekend anchor for WCSC-TV in Charleston. He anchored the market's top-rated weekend newscasts until leaving Charleston for Memphis, TN in 2002. Gurnal worked at WPTY-TV for two years before returning to his roots in radio. He joined the staff of Memphis' NewsRadio 600 WREC in 2004 eventually rising to News Director. In 2006, Raleigh news radio station WPTF came calling and he became the station's chief correspondent. Gurnal’s reporting has been honored by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, the North Carolina Associated Press, and the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas.
Will Michaels is WUNC's Weekend Host and Reporter.
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