Health and Safety executive is investigating an incident in which three boys narrowly escaped serious injury when their ride came off its hinges at a fairground.
Finbar hamill (13) and his 12-year-old friends Adam McBroom and Paul Flynn sustained only cuts and bruises in the incident at Murray's fairground at Ballyoran hill in Portadown, Co Armagh.
What should have been a night of fun turned to horror when the Rock 'n' Rolla metal-caged wheel left the track and hurtled out of control with them inside.
Finbar's father Noel Hamill said the family found out when one of the boys' parents left him home. His son, who arrived home shaking and crying with fear, later spent the night in A&e undergoing tests including a brain scan.
Mr Hamill, from Ashgrove Manor, said he was unhappy at the way Finbar was treated by fairground staff and insisted an ambulance should have been called instead of giving the boys money.
"I would have been happy enough if they had brought Finbar home and explained what had happened," he said.
"They could have been killed," he said.
"None of this should have happened. The ride should have been safe for the public to use."
A spokesman for Murray's said the incident had been reported to the health and Safety executive.
Last night a spokesman for the authority confirmed that it was investigating.