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Nine-year-old Isabella Carmichael was excited that she was finally tall enough to ride the Mega Drop ride at the Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile, Alabama.
Isabella's brother was filming as she eagerly waited for the ride to start. However, the young girl's joy quickly turned to fear when the ride started, and she realized her seatbelt wasn't fastened.
"She got into her seat and pulled the top harness down on her, but she could not reach the bottom buckle after that," Isabella's mother, April Piper told WRBW. "In the video, you can watch my daughter's fear escalating as she realizes she isn't buckled and even though they just buckled a little boy in next to her and that no one has come to check her seat at all."
Isabella and a family friend screamed for somebody to stop the ride as it began to ascend. The rider operator heard their screams and stopped the ride before slowly lowering it back down the ground.
Isabella was not injured, but her mother said the experience left her traumatized.
"Watching that video and watching her face go from happy to worrying about her seat belt," said Piper. "The pure terror that just flooded through her whenever that ride started moving. It was really hard to watch, and it's hard to stomach your child going through that much trauma."
Josh Woods, the Executive Director of the Greater Gulf State Fair, told WKRG that the ride operators received additional training after the incident.
"The primary safety device that allows the rider to operate, that was engaged. The secondary device, the buckling of the buckle, was not buckled," Woods told the news station. "There is a safety zone on the mega drop. It went up to the safety zone, and again workers are looking, constantly looking. They did notice that the secondary safety device was unbuckled. The ride was immediately stopped, and everybody was brought down safely."
April posted the video on TikTok, which you can watch below.