A scary incident occurred on Saturday October 28, 2023. It was not part of the planned festive spooky entertainment. A teenage girl who was working as an actor at the Seven Cedars Farm in Smithfield, Rhode Island, was struck by one of the haunted hayride tractors.
The girl is now in critical condition, reports local station 10WJAR. She suffered broken bones and internal injuries. The farm shut down haunted hayrides for the remainder of the season because of the incident.
The teen was hit in the woods at around 8 p.m. local time. Around 30 people witnessed the event, with many of them helping lift the tractor off of her. Steven Quattrini, the deputy fire chief in Smithfield, updated the public about the unfortunate event.
“The individual that was struck was an employee there, she was an actor there and she got caught up underneath the trailer and got dragged under the rear wheels," he stated. “It was fortunate the operator of the tractor when he realized there was a problem going on behind him stopped it immediately, he was assisted by other occupants that were on that trailer and physically had to lift it up, so the trailer is probably 25 feet long probably 10 feet wide they had to lift that off of her to pull her out.”
More from LittleThings: Obsessed Toddler Insists On Taking Her 'Creepy Chloe' Doll To Disney And Beyond
The teen is a student at Smithfield High School. The school is aware of what happened and is working to support all who were impacted by it.
“I would like our families to know that we have a full counseling support team in place at Smithfield High School to assist students beginning Monday morning,” Dawn Bartz, the Smithfield Public Schools superintendent stated.
Seven Cedars Farm posted about the accident on Facebook on Sunday morning. “We are absolutely devastated by this incident and we want to send our thoughts and prayers to the actor and her family involved,” the statement began. “We are completely heartbroken over this and we hope she has a speedy recovery!”
“We want to thank the town of Smithfield Fire and Police departments for their quick response and providing the necessary care for her. We apologize that we had to stop the hayride but we felt like it was the right thing to do and there was no way we [could've] carried on after that,” it went on to say. “We apologize to those on the wagon itself who had to witness this incident and are truly grateful to those who stepped in to help at the scene.”
Refunds will be issued for those who had future tickets. This is not the first accident that occurred at the farm. Another actor was injured a couple of years ago but not as severely.
This year's incident is still under investigation. Officials did clear the farm to operate regular hayrides but say they will have a safety meeting about using actors.
