Woman Badly Hurt in Fall Off Ride at Knott’s : Amusement park: Witnesses say she may have been trying to climb out of fast-spinning ride. Incident follows injuries at fair.

BUENA PARK —  A woman was in critical condition with head injuries Thursday night after she fell from a high-speed, spinning ride at Knott’s Berry Farm, authorities said.

The woman, identified by Fire Department officials as Cheryl Vandegrift of West Covina, fell from the Tampico Tumbler about 2:40 p.m. as it was twirling riders, park officials said. It was unclear how far she fell, but the ride is 30 feet at its highest point.

Park paramedics and Fire Department officials found Vandegrift, estimated to be about 30, unconscious inside a gate surrounding the ride. She was bleeding from the left side of her face and was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, said Dave Dorn, a Fire Department captain.

Fire department officials said witnesses told them that Vandegrift appeared to be trying to climb out of the ride while it was spinning. Park officials said they were investigating that claim and could not yet confirm it.

A preliminary investigation by safety management personnel found no mechanical malfunctions, a theme park spokesman said.

It was the second accident in three days at an amusement park ride in Orange County. Eight people were injured late Monday night in Costa Mesa in a chain-reaction collision of an Orange County Fair roller coaster after the ride’s operator apparently failed to activate its brakes.

Knott’s Berry Farm’s Tampico Tumbler, opened in 1987 in the park’s Fiesta Village section, spins riders who sit in two-person gondolas. Each gondola is attached to the ride’s central hub. As it spins, both clockwise and counterclockwise, the ride raises and lowers it passengers. A metal bar in each gondola lowers over passengers’ laps to keep them in their seats, officials said. Park officials said Vandegrift’s lap bar was down at the time of the accident. Riders also must be at least 4 feet 4, as Vandegrift is, to board the ride.

Vandegrift was riding with another person who was not injured, said park spokesman Bob Ochsner. Ochsner said he did not know if park officials had spoken with that rider or other witnesses by late Thursday.

Fire Department officials said people at the scene told them the woman may be slightly mentally disabled. Doctors, who operated on Vandegrift late Thursday, were not able to confirm that, said hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff.

Park officials said they have not had any previous problems or accidents with the Tampico Tumbler. The ride was shut down immediately after the accident and it has not been determined when it will reopen, a park spokesman said.

Knott’s officials said they check all the park’s rides each morning and that there were no problems with the Tampico Tumbler. As part of the investigation into the accident, investigators with an independent theme park consulting group, Coulter Consulting Group of Delaware, Ohio, will inspect the ride today. Coincidentally, members of the Coulter Group already were at the park Thursday as part of a previously scheduled overall inspection of Knott’s operation, a spokesman said.

Knott’s officials said that before Thursday they have had two other major ride-related incidents, both in 1983. In one incident a man jumped off the park’s parachute sky jump ride and committed suicide. In the other incident a boy fell off a stagecoach ride and broke his leg and jaw, Ochsner said.

In 1991, Knott’s Berry Farm officials closed the popular XK-1 as a precaution after an accident in which a woman was thrown to her death from an identical ride at an Ohio amusement park. Like the Ohio ride, the Knott’s ride involved a simulated airplane flight in which the rider can use controls to move the car in different directions as it turns.

In Griffith Park in Los Angeles last month, one children’s train crashed into another, flipping one car onto its side and sending seven children and eight adults to the hospital with minor injuries.