Casino Pier Toms River Nj
- Toms River Nj Weather
- Casino Pier Toms River Nj Weather
- Toms River Nj Map
- Casino Pier Facebook
- Casino Pier Toms River Nj Zip Code
- Casino Pier Toms River Nj 10 Day Forecast
What’s next for the Casino Pier Carousel in Seaside Heights?
This past weekend was the last opportunity to take a ride on the landmark before it is disassembled sometime next fall and put in storage in preparation for what just about everyone hopes is its future relocation at the north end of the boardwalk.
800 Ocean Terrace, Seaside Heights, NJ 08751 - Casino Pier is an amusement park on a pier in Seaside Heights. It is 7 miles east of Toms River in northeastern New Jersey. The closest hotels are just to the west near Central Avenue. Amusement and Water Parks around Toms River, NJ - AARP. Logout; Home. Member Benefits. Health & Wellness; Restaurants; Entertainment. Toms River, NJ; Amusement and Water Parks Amusement and Water Parks. About AARP in Toms River; Events. Casino Pier and Breakwater Beach Waterpark. Seaside Heights, NJ. Funtown Amusement Pier.
Is there any question about that?
There is. Whether the carousel will ever be turned on again depends on whether enough money can be found to refurbish it, borough officials have said. This was largely the passion project of Borough Attorney George R. Gilmore, the embattled Ocean County Republican chairman and Seaside Heights native, who is currently on trial in federal court for tax evasion. Without his leadership, no one knows for certain what will happen to it in the future.
So, is there a plan?
Yes. Well, sort of. Seaside Heights wants to create a nonprofit foundation that would help raise money for repairs to the historic merry-go-round, and which could also assist with operating costs once it has been placed in a new building on the boardwalk. The borough, which took ownership of the carousel after a controversial land swap, is looking to house it in a two-story museum with a gift shop it wants to build at Samson Avenue. It’s all about the money.
What’s the big deal about it, anyway? It’s a carousel.
There’s a great deal of history behind it. The Dr. Floyd L. Moreland Dentzel/Looff Carousel, as it’s formally known, has been in Seaside Heights since 1932 and it’s evolved into the symbol of the town. The carousel was built in 1910 and initially was located at Burlington Island Park near the Delaware River. A 1928 fire destroyed most of that amusement park, but only partially damaged the carousel. It was fixed, disassembled and moved to Seaside Heights during the Great Depression.
Joe Condon of Queens, New York, was taking in the rides, howls and fun at Casino Pier Thursday night with his wife and two kids when he heard a different kind of scream.
Condon turned and caught a glimpse of a woman toppling off the entrance ramp of a children’s ride called the Crazy Bus, he said.
Toms River Nj Weather
The accident left a 51-year-old Philadelphia grandmother with minor injuries when she tried to get her two grandchildren off the ride as it malfunctioned and unexpectedly moved again, police said.
“It was really scary,” Condon said. 'It was just unexpected. It was just the whole moment of hearing the scream and hearing her fall on the floor. You always see kids screaming on rides, but this was an adult scream.”
Casino Pier shut down the ride and contacted the state Carnival-Amusement Ride Safety Unit, part of the Department of Community Affairs, which inspects rides.
The ride is a 'brightly colored school bus that moves in a vertical, magic carpet motion,' according to Casino Pier's website. Any rider under 42 inches must be accompanied by an adult, the web site reads.
PREVIOUS: Grandmother injured by amusement ride in Seaside Heights
PREVIOUS: Enjoy your ride: NJ has 'best' amusement safety rules
Maria Mastoris, spokeswoman for Casino Pier, said the ride will remain shut until an investigation is complete.
'Our concerns are for the safety of everyone, and the recovery of our injured guest,' she said in an emailed statement. 'We do not operate any ride deemed unsafe, and we are committed to working with the state inspectors to fully determine the cause of the malfunction.'
All Casino Pier's rides are inspected daily by the company's maintenance and operations crews, she said.
Tammori Petty, spokeswoman for the state Department of Community Affairs, said the call was made to the state's Carnival Amusements Ride Hotline about 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
Petty said the central region supervisor of the safety unit was at Casino Pier Friday investigating the cause of the incident.
'Until we determine what happened and why, the ride will remain shut down,' Petty said in an email.
The state last inspected the ride on Wednesday. There is no record of incidents with the Crazy Bus over the last five years, she said.
Frantic scene
After failing to find security staff, Condon called 911 to report the accident, he said. For a video of Casino Pier, scroll up.
Police officers went to the ride about 9:30 p.m. to respond to the first aid call.
Seaside Heights Police Chief Thomas Boyd told the Asbury Park Press the woman might have been thrown over an adjacent railing when the ride moved, according to an earlier Press report.
While help was arriving and security staff descending on the scene, the woman’s two grandchildren remained stuck alone on the ride, Condon said. He described them as toddlers.
PREVIOUS Casino Pier Accident: Crazy Bus ride shut down; state notified
Mastoris declined to discuss Condon's account.
The rough replica of a school bus is attached to two arms that allow it to revolve like a ferris wheel while the bus remains level. The children were stuck on the ride after it rose to its highest point, Condon said.
“The two kids are leaning over the edge to look down,” he said. “They’re crying and they’re scared.”
Security staff and another woman with the children tried to calm them down.
'It was some time before they got the ride down,' Condon said.
Once the children were down from the ride, Casino Pier staff gave both a flashing, neon light-up toy to distract them, Condon said.
Casino Pier Toms River Nj Weather
“it seemed to work,” he said.
The other woman with the children took charge of them as the grandmother was taken away on a stretcher, Condon said.
Medics from Tri-Boro First Aid took the woman to Community Medical Center in Toms River for treatment of minor injuries, Seaside Heights police said. They offered no further information on the woman.
Toms River Nj Map
Condon said, “Everything was handled well” with the incident. But it threw off his night out with his wife, 18-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, he said.
Casino Pier Facebook
“It was kind of like a feeling like — you know what? — not really in the mood to get on a ride,” he said. “We kind of got out of the moment at that time.”
Casino Pier Toms River Nj Zip Code
Ken Serrano: 732-643-4029; kserrano@gannettnj.com