Sadly this is true. Two kids lost their lives in an unfortunate incident at the Oakland’s Amusement Park in Enugu state in eastern Nigeria.
What is however not true is the Teacup ride having a mechanical error.
As published by the Nigerian newspaper ThisDay and corroborated by pulseng.com It was rather a series of bad decisions and procedural errors that resulted in the loss of two young lives and critical injuries for the other victims.
The ride was started after a group of seven kids had sat down, as the ride gathered speed, some of the kids attempted to get up and leave the spinning and rotating ride at which point the ride operator attempted to get on the moving ride to keep them in their seats which as expected got him injured.
The adults around on seeing the operator injured went into panic mode, went into the control room and attempted to stop the ride but unfortunately instead increased the speed which led to more pandemonium and eventual injuries and immediate fatality of two siblings.
According to wikipedia “Typically, each set of six teacups has a center bearing mounted underneath, similar to a car wheel bearing mounted on a circular floor capable of turning 360 degrees. The circular floor of the cup sits on a larger turntable-like floor. This is driven by a motor through a starting device, the ride when started begins to spin slowly and build up speed as the operator applies more power. When in operation, the ride operator spins each cup while the turntable spins the entire ride base. They are driven by a motor fixed to the base in either the middle or the outside, the motor fixed in the middle will have a gearbox which changes direction as well as give the correct ratio to the desired speed. The motor fixed on the outside will again have a gearbox but will be attached to a small rubber wheel which sits along the rim under the platform.”
The safety issues that made this incident possible would include the absence of seat belts or a form of restraints for kids once kids are seated for the ride, absence of Chaperone per cup if belts are not in place, emergency shutoff buttons around the ride and the singular staffing of the control room which meant no qualified and experienced person was in the control room to stop the ride as the events unfolded.