Pea: God, I don’t think anyone was breathing.
Alex: The carriage came in, painfully slowly. There were eight people sitting in it, in pairs. Their faces were white. We all looked at the little boy in the front row. Christ, he couldn’t have been more than eight.
Terry: I repeated the instructions I’d given to the first carriage. Nobody move. I went to the boy first, since he was definitely injured. He was speaking, though. Conscious. His mum rushed over and I had to physically hold her back. I whispered to her that it wouldn’t be long, but we had to do this properly. We got him out and onto a stretcher. His legs were spattered with blood but I was pretty sure they weren’t broken. I told his mum she could come over, as long as she just held his hand and didn’t try to move any parts of his body. After that, getting the others out was fairly quick and straightforward. And then we took those three to the hospital, the boy’s mother holding his hand all the way.
John: It wasn’t as bad as it had seemed at first. Thank Christ for that. The boy’s legs were injured, but not seriously. And theparamedic claimed that another two people might need to be treated for whiplash, but I was pretty sure that was overkill. I breathed out, long and hard. Cathy reached for my hand.
Cathy: I didn’t know what would happen with the park. I didn’t care. I was just so glad that little boy was going to be all right.
Pea: I hate myself for it, but you can’t help what your brain thinks, can you? One of the first things I thought was that this might mean that AJ and Zak’s trip would be off.
Cathy: No one was thinking about the AJ Silver trip, no. That was the least of our worries, at that point.
John: It definitely entered my head, yes. Not at the time, when we were waiting to see that the boy was going to be okay, but a bit later. I remember thinking that we needed to keep this quiet, make sure the AJ Silver crew didn’t get any wind of it. I wasn’t prepared for a stupid accident to derail everything.
Pea: The police came when we were having tea. Shepherd’s pie. None of us were really eating it, just pushing it around. They asked Mum and Dad some questions and said the ride would need to remain closed until it had been properly checked over and repaired if necessary. Dad was in a horrible mood after they left.
Cathy: I called the hospital that evening and was told the boy had been checked over and sent home. He had a few cuts and bruises on his legs, but he was fine. I stood in the hall for a long time after we ended the call. I didn’t realise I was crying until Pea came out of the lounge and put her arms around me.
Pea: I was on my way to the kitchen to get a cup of tea, and Mum was in the hallway, weeping, the phone in her hand, butnot connected to anyone. I took it from her gently and hung it up. I gave her a hug, asked what had happened. Was it the boy, I wondered? Was it worse than we’d thought? She just said, ‘He’s okay. He’s fine.’ Over and over. And I realised it was relief. That’s why she was so moved.
John: Of course we made sure we knew the boy was fine first. That was our top priority. Once we knew that, Cathy visibly relaxed, and then she said she was going up to bed. That she was exhausted from it. Sebastian was already in bed. I waited for Pea to go up the stairs, and then I called Tony Hastings, at the local paper.
Tony: Tony Hastings. Yes, I was the editor of the local paper back then. I’d known John for years. I’d already heard about the accident when he called. He sounded shaken. Asked if I could possibly keep it out of the paper. I said it was too late, that we’d already gone to print. He got angry then. Asked how we’d done a story without any input from Wildworld. And I told him we’d been calling Wildworld’s phone number for hours, hoping to ask if anyone would speak to us. He went quiet for a moment, and then he said there’d been no one in the office, that they had closed to visitors, and everyone left onsite had been dealing with the incident. I said I was sorry for him, but there was nothing I could do. The printing presses were running as we spoke. It wasn’t as if I could halt circulation.
John: I thought Tony was a good guy, but he wasn’t prepared to help me out.
Tony: He asked if it was about money. I said I didn’t know what he meant. He said, very slowly and clearly, that he was asking whether I could make the story go away if he gave me enough money.
John: I didn’t offer him money.
Tony: I asked how much we were talking about. I think he said a couple of grand. I laughed at him and ended the call.
Danny: Does anyone else have the feeling that someone’s head is going to roll for this?
John: I didn’t sleep at all that night. The next morning, I put the word out that there was a staff meeting first thing. Everyone knew about the accident, of course. I’d sent a few of them home early the previous day, because once we were waiting for the ambulance there was nothing much anyone could do. We met in the food hall, everyone sitting on green plastic chairs. I stood at the front, scanned their faces. Said that everyone was aware there had been an incident and I needed to get to the bottom of how it had happened.
Straight away, I saw that Tim Gooding was looking down at the ground. He was a student who did a few hours for us here and there. ‘Who was manning the rollercoaster when it happened?’ I asked. I had the rota in my hand, so I knew what the answer should be.
Tim: I’m Tim Gooding. I was down on the rota to man the rollercoaster all afternoon. From one until closing.
John: Tim looked up, met my eye. But didn’t say anything. ‘It says here, on the rota,’ I continued, ‘that Tim was on the 360 yesterday afternoon.’
Tim: I left for five minutes. I was bored shitless. It was about half two, and there was so much of the afternoon to go. I was dying for a fag. I saw Eddie walking past and called him over. Eddie did a bit of everything. Litter-picking, cleaning, maintenance. He wasn’t officially trained to look after the rides.
Eddie: My name’s Eddie Watson. Tim asked if I could cover him while he went for a cigarette. I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have training on rides. But he said he’d cleared it with Mr Hunter, and I believed him.
John: I asked Tim directly if he’d been there when it happened. He looked sheepish. Said he’d gone for a cigarette. I just about managed to stay calm. Asked who he’d left in charge. He said Eddie.
Eddie: Tim said to me it was just a case of getting everyone in their seats, lowering the safety bar and hitting a button to make the carriage go. Then when the button lit up, it was ready for the next one. It sounded simple enough.
John: Eddie wasn’t trained on ride management. He did all sorts around the place, and he’d been with us for a couple of years, but he’d never asked to manage rides and I’d never thought to train him on it. I looked at him, then. He was in his thirties, and I knew he had a young family. His face was ashen. I asked why he’d agreed to look after the rollercoaster when he knew he didn’t have the requisite training. He said Tim had asked him to and shown him what to do. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep my cool. I dismissed everyone other than Eddie and Tim, told them to check the rota and get ready for the day, and then I sat down at a table with those two men. They were both wearing the uniform of black trousers and a green Wildworld polo shirt. I didn’t know where to start with them.
Eddie: I said I was sorry. I genuinely was. After it happened, I’d stayed in the booth until Tim got back, and he’d said, ‘Holy fuck, man. What the fuck are we going to do?’ That boy’s mum was shouting and crying, and I didn’t know how serious it was,or how it had happened. I’m not proud of it, but we ran. We ran to the exit and didn’t look back.
John: I said that what I didn’t understand was how it had happened. Even with someone inexperienced at the controls, you simply can’t send a second carriage until the first one is near the end of the track. The button lights up when the next one is ready to go, and if you press it before it lights up, nothing happens.
Eddie: I told him that the button lit up, and then I pressed it. It was the truth.
