Frightening video of a toddler getting flung from ride puts Houston Rodeo innational spotlight

Carnival and amusement park rides are meant to simulate a free fall without actually putting the riders life in peril.

Unfortunately, such was not the case on Wednesday during a run of the Techno Jump ride at The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, when a 3-year-old girl slipped under the lap restraint and was flung through the air (the video shows her feet over her head) before hitting the platform below.

Initial eyewitness Rodeo accounts claimed that the toddler had slipped from under the bar on her own early on in the ride, and dropped just a few feet. A video given to KTRK Ch. 13 by a parent who was filming his daughter, though, shows that the fall took place several rotations in and from a much greater height than first thought.

Now, national and international news outlets such as the Huffington Post and The Daily Mail are reporting on the toddler's Rodeo nightmare.

The 3-year-old girl — who did meet the height and weight requirements for the ride — suffered contusions and a concussion. She is resting at home after having been rushed to Texas Children's Hospital post fall.

RodeoHouston has since changed the height and chaperone requirements, and officials maintian that much of the fault lies with the young girl's mother — who left her in the care of her 8-year-old brother after a last-minute decision to leave the ride.

"We are going to have to ask the patrons, and we have done so continually, do not put a 3-year-old child on a ride . . . and not ride with it," Rodeo chief operating officer Leroy Shafer said.