Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green said today (Monday), Federal and State Inspectors are set to arrive in Atlantic by around mid-day, to look at The Octopus amusement ride on the Cass County Fairgrounds. The ride was the scene of an accident Sunday evening that sent five people to the Cass County Memorial Hospital. One of the injured, a teenage male, was later transferred to a hospital in Omaha for further evaluation and treatment. (Click on the individual pictures to open a separate page, and click again to enlarge the image)

Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green said a pin that holds the bulb/support rod section of the ride apparently sheared-off prior to the accident. You can see the apparatus at the center of this photo by KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

The accident happened at around 7:30-p.m., when a pin on top of the ride sheared-off, causing some of the buckets carrying passengers to slam into the ground.

Divots dug into the ground by the impact of the rides’ buckets.

Marks could be seen on the grass where the bottom of the buckets dug into the ground.

If you look closely, you can see grass hanging from the bottom of the bucket in the top center of this pic. The bucket had impacted the ground.

Green said the Inspectors are coming from the Iowa Department of Labor and U-S Consumer Product Safety Commission. Green said it’s unusual for this type of accident to happen, here. He said “We’ve been fortunate. We haven’t had anything like this at the Cass County Fair in my memory, and I’ve been coming to this fair since I was a kid. It’s just one of those things, I guess.”

The names of those injured have not been officially released, but early reports from law enforcement said the injured included an adult female and four teens (two females and two males). Green says two of the teens walked home following the accident. Their mother took them to the hospital.The ride is officially shut down on this, the last full day of the fair.

The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports two men were arrested on warrants last week. On July 18th, 30-year old Stephen Wallace Jones, of Stuart, was arrested by Stuart Police on an Adair County warrant for Failure to Appear for arraignment, on an original charge of Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense. Jones was being held in the Adair County Jail on $2,000 cash only bond.

And, 30-year old Adam Thomas Harris, of West Des Moines, was arrested July 20th at the Polk County Jail, on an Adair County warrant for felony drug charges. Harris was later released after posting a $500 cash only bond.

Delegates from Iowa head into the Democratic National Convention today (Monday) in Philadelphia, where a potential party squabble may erupt. The chairwoman of the Democratic NATIONAL Committee resigned Sunday after the release of email showing national party staff favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. Caleb Humphrey of Madrid is a Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

“What the Bernie camp has thought since the conception of this whole race is that the scales have been tipped in favor of Hillary Clinton,” Humphrey says. “Now we know unequivocally, in black and white, that this is true.” The solution, he says, is to dump Clinton and nominate Sanders. Sanders delegate Ingrid Olson of Council Bluffs says Clinton’s still probably going to win the nomination, but Olson warns there’s a “division” between Clinton and Sanders delegates from Iowa.

“They think we’re ‘one hit wonders’ and we’re here temporarily, but the people that I know are very dedicated and they’re here for the long haul. They are energized. They’re youthful and the party needs them if the party’s going to survive, otherwise we’re going to end up having a Republican candidate such as Donald Trump,” Olson says. “…They need to figure out a way to welcome us and not make us make us feel like outcasts.”

Andy McGuire, the chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, says party unity is a “work in progress.” “We need to continue to talk about the issues that we have in common and get to unity,” McGuire says. “When we talk about education and we talk about equal work for euqal pay and when we talk about college affordability — these are issues we all agree on.” Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin backed Clinton in the Iowa Caucuses and he predicts Democrats will unite.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help bring our party together, to work with both Sanders and Clinton people to get us united,” Harkin says. “…If all else fails, all I’ve got to say is: ‘Trump.’ That brings us together right away.” Iowa delegate Cindy Pollard of Newton was wearing an “I’m With Her” t-shirt Sunday night in Philadelphia. She expects “smooth sailing” for Clinton this week.

“I think it really will be,” Pollard says. “It’s going to be powerful in that room and I think when we go in there everybody will come together and it’s going to happen.” The Iowa delegates went to a bowling alley in Philadelphia for a pre-convention party Sunday night. It appeared the Sanders delegates gathered in their own bowling lanes, while the Clinton delegates teamed up in others. Eighteen-year-old Sruthi Palapniappan of Cedar Rapids, a Clinton delegate, noticed.

“I think we kind of just went into our own pods and then just realized: ‘Oh no,'” she says. “‘We accidentally divided.'” Fourth district congressional candidate Kim Weaver will speak with Iowa convention delegates later this (Monday) morning in Philadelphia.

(Radio Iowa)