Teen Traumatized After Pizza Parlor Amusement Ride Crash

13-year-old Kayla Simpson was out at John's Incredible Pizza in Riverside, California with some friends for an afternoon of fun. Instead she was part of a traumatizing event.

Kayla was on a train-themed ride when it malfunctioned and stopped abruptly. The sudden halt caused the occupants to slam their faces into the front of their train cars.

“My daughter doesn’t even want to go on a roller coaster ever again,” said Kayla's mother Michelle Simpson. “She woke up crying in the middle of the night because she was having a nightmare.”

Michelle Simpson

The Riverside Fire Department says that a wheel on the Incredible Express ride disassembled. Six children were riding at the time, one was hospitalized and the others suffered minor bleeding and bruising.

Kayla says the ride operator left immediately after the accident. “I was scared,” she said. “The person controlling the ride ran away to get management.”

“We are sorry that this happened. There is a good record of safety for this location, which is one of 12 – we just opened one in Las Vegas,” John’s Incredible Pizza Inc. spokeswoman Laura Kroth said. “We are on this, and we are there for the guests who were affected. We are working in conjunction with Cal/OSHA to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”