A blocks display crashes down at a children’s New Year’s Eve celebration inside a Massachusetts arcade, injuring 10 people, authorities say.
The display at the In the Game arcade in Peabody toppled when balloons attached to it were “pulled down,” the Peabody Police Department said Tuesday. The incident occurred during the arcade’s “Noon Year’s Eve” celebration. Police called it a Lego display, but a company spokesperson said it was not their product.
Video from the arcade, filmed a day before the incident, captured two massive nets holding hundreds of colorful balloons that were attached to large blocks displays on what appeared to be the second floor of the arcade.
Once the celebration began, staff had difficulties releasing the balloons from the netting. An individual yanked too hard, causing one of the eight-foot displays to fall 12 feet to the ground, the Peabody Fire Department Chief John Dowling told The Independent.
Ten people sustained “minor” injuries, like “cuts and scrapes,” Dowling said. Eight were taken to the hospital for treatment, while the other two refused ambulance rides. Six of those injured were children and four were adults, the fire chief said.
Lawren Turco, who was at the New Year’s Eve event with her family, told WBZ-TV about the incident: “Large [blocks] were everywhere, kids were crying, there were tons of people all in the office some with ice packs over their heads and people allowing their children to steal the [blocks] like souvenirs.”
Turco continued: “It was pure chaos. I had no idea of the true events until after the incident.”
When The Independent reached out to In The Game for comment, representatives said they were working with authorities and directed questions to the Peabody Fire Department chief.
Following the incident, some Facebook users posted comments below the arcade’s video of the NYE display.
One user sarcastically remarked: “Wow, that was such a great idea....”
“Minor injuries but the point is. The weight alone. Why would they tie to a display that was not secured? Just saying the way it fell,” one user wrote.
Another person noted the event has happened before without incident: “They had this event for a few years now with no issues, accidents do happen. Maybe if people hadn’t grabbed the netting maybe it wouldn’t have come down.”
This article has been amended to better describe the toys that fell from the ceiling in the incident.
