Woman dies from fall at Southern California fair attraction

Woman dies from fall at Southern California fair attraction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman at a county fair in Southern California died after falling from an attraction that normally has participants jump onto a giant cushion, authorities said on Friday. A sheriff's spokeswoman could not immediately say how far the woman fell but local media reported it was about 35 feet (11 meters). Sabrina Gordon, 31, plummeted on Thursday evening from an elevated platform, hitting the ground and not the cushion that is part of the FreeDrop attraction at the San Bernardino County Fair, said Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Gordon was taken by helicopter to a hospital where she was pronounced dead early on Friday, Bachman said. The attraction at the fair in Victorville, a community about 60 miles (97 km) northeast of Los Angeles, was shut down following the fatal drop, Bachman said. It was unclear what led the woman to fall and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department investigation into her death continues. Witnesses told the Victor Valley News that Gordon reached out for the scaffolding, apparently hesitating in her jump, hit her head on the structure and missed the large cushion below. The FreeDrop attraction, which had previously been set up in Arizona, allows participants to climb to a platform supported by scaffolding, jump off and land on a huge cushion on the ground. Representatives from the company that owns the attraction and the San Bernardino County Fair did not immediately return calls seeking comment. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bill Trott)