10-year-old boy cracks skull after he’s tossed from Illinois carnival ride named Moby Dick

A 10-year-old boy was left with several broken bones and a cracked skull after he was violently tossed from a carnival ride in Illinois over the weekend, according to officials and a report.

The young boy was thrown from his seat on the ride named Moby Dick at the Taste of Summer Festival in Antioch Sunday afternoon, officials said.

The boy, identified as Huntley Daniels, was badly injured, suffering broken ribs, a broken femur, a broken arm, a cracked skull and broken jaw, his family told CBS 2 Chicago.

His teeth were also shoved into his gums from the impact of hitting the ground.  

“You never think it would happen to you,” the boy’s grandmother, Dawne Pohlman, told the station. “You think, ‘Oh, this is just fun – this is what we do.’ But then it happens.”

Daniels was airlifted to one hospital before he was later transferred to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital where he underwent surgery Monday morning.

Before Sunday’s awful scene, Daniels went to the carnival every year.

“It’s unacceptable. It’s supposed to be a great place; fun place for kids, and honestly, I don’t think I would ever want a child to be on a ride like that again,” the enraged grandmother told CBS.

Moby Dick was inspected this year and received a state permit, police said.

Following the scary moment, Mayor Scott Gartner shut down all rides.

Authorities, along with state regulators, are probing if any recklessness or negligence led to the incident.

“The carnival was packed, and so a lot of people experienced seeing it,” said Charles Smith, operations commander at the Antioch police department. “It’s a traumatic event for our community.”

One mother who was waiting to ride Moby Dick with her son saw Daniels one the pavement and not moving.

“I turned and I hear a woman screaming,” Erin Maloney told WLS-TV.

“And my son said, ‘Mom, look.’ I turned around and this little boy was just on the pavement, not moving not responsive.”

With Post wires