$ USD
General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
CHALKIDIKI – In another tragic amusement park incident in Greece, a 19-year-old on a spinning chair ride died at a hospital after it broke away at high speed, sending him flying into the air, his brother next to him and his mother watching from below.
No names were given but state broadcaster ERT said he sustained massive injuries in the fall and that the park’s owner was arrested but the operator ran away, leaving the ride at full speed before bystanders brought it to a stop.
Another brother also witnessed the horror with a report that the seat broke away when the operator cranked up the speed, no details given whether the ride was operating above allowed limits.
The incident took place in the seaside village of Pefkochori in northern Greece’s Halkidiki region and the brother on the ride with the victim described how it happened and that the operator told them he would “push it hard.”
“At first, the ride was stable, but then it started going very fast. Suddenly, I saw our seat detaching. I looked at my brother and said, ‘Giannis, the seat is coming loose.’ He looked at me, unable to say anything, and then he disappeared,” he said.
“He was thrown into the air due to the high speed and died. Our mother and other brother were watching below, screaming. They saw him die. The operator managed to escape while the ride was still in motion, and I had to hold onto a metal bar to save myself. Others stopped the ride; otherwise, I might have died too,” said Proto Thema.
The victim’s grandmother was heartbroken and said, “It’s so unfair what happened to our family. Our child was lost unfairly. My son, the boy’s father, cried all the way from Athens to Chalkidiki, unable to believe that his child had died. Giannis was supposed to start flight school in a few days, and they had even prepared a uniform for him, but fate has destroyed us all.”
In 2022, four people were injured on a ride in an amusement park, Allou Fun Park,in Athens, a 21-year-old suffering serious chest injuries and a 24-year-old man a ruptured spleen when they were thrown out of a car ride.
In 2019, a 14-year-old girl was killed when falling off a ride in Almyros in Volos in central Greece because it was going too fast and an investigation found the ride produced 123 horsepower instead of 15 as declared to authorities.
The woman who ran the business was charged with negligence and endangerment but no report whether she was ever prosecuted or the extent of inspections of amusement parks or carnivals that are set up intermittently.
In 2014, a 13-year-old boy was killed and his 9-year-old sister was seriously injured at a water park in Southern Athens when high winds lifted a big inflatable they were inside and smashed it into a metallic barrier 30 meters (98 feet) away.
The park was closed and its abandonment shown by urban explorers on social media after other reports it was shoddily built and unsafe and had taken over a natural forest area. The owner and two managers were detained but no reports of any prosecution since either.
