'They have metal in their eyes,' say parents of youngsters injured by bumper car attraction at Valle de Abdalajís fair

Daniel is a 13-year-old boy who loves going to the fair in his village - Valle de Abdalajís - and especially to the bumper cars. Such is the boy's fascination for this attraction that he buys between 15 and 20 tokens to last him the whole weekend. However, last Saturday, something was not right when he went back home around 3am: his eye was bothering him.

At least 15 other children have reported irritation and discomfort in the eye after the fair. It is believed that what caused their injuries were small metallic particles or traces of grease that had fallen into their eyes from the electrical system on the roof above the bumper cars.

Daniel went to bed after the fair, but the discomfort and pain prevented him from falling asleep. As he didn't want to bother his parents, he got up by himself and tried to alleviate the pain by washing his eyes with water several times. However, the discomfort persisted the next day and his parents took him to the doctor. The doctor immediately said that Daniel was yet another child attending the health centre after the bumper cars that weekend. According to Daniel's father Antonio Jesús Pinto, who spoke to SUR, more than a dozen children had gone to the health centre for the same reason.

"The doctor told us that the child had a speck in his eye and that we should go to Hospital Materno [in Malaga]," said Pinto. After the doctor extracted the particle from his son's cornea, they had to go and get some special eye drops which, to their surprise, were sold out at the pharmacy "because of all the children" whose parents had purchased them.

Raquel Romero is another parent who got concerned when her 18-year-old son told her his eye was itching around 1.30am. She was shocked when the doctor said that her son "had eight metallic particles in his eye" and recommended that they also go to the hospital in Malaga for a specialist to see him.

Fortunately, the youth's condition has been progressing favourably since Sunday thanks to the antibiotic treatment prescribed to him. However, he still hasn't regained full clarity in his vision, which prevents him from being able to work.

María Remedios Armero is another mother of an 18-year-old son who complained of reddening and discomfort in his left eye. They didn't pay as much attention to it initially because he was wearing contact lenses. However, the discomfort increased as the hours went by. "I gave him some saline to try to relieve it, but when I took a good look, I realised he had an ulcer," María said.

The doctor confirmed that it was a lesion caused by small metallic particles trapped between the contact lens and the cornea. María's son will take the treatment prescribed to him for a week. They had to throw away the contact lenses and their case to avoid risks.

Resident of Álora Ana Romero's 15-year-old son Antonio ended up with two ulcers, one in each eye. The doctor at the health centre in Valle de Abdalajís assured her that the boy didn't have metallic particles in his eyes. However, when she heard that there were other similar cases, she took him to Malaga's Materno Infantil. "There they extracted three metallic particles: two from one eye and one from the other," Ana said, adding that the doctor in the hospital told her that he had attended to 20 children with the same issue.

Elizabeth Girona reported that her 14-year-old son had to stop in the middle of the ride. "He started to feel a strong stinging in his left eye," she said. She immediately took him to the doctor, where they found four metallic particles in his eye. Initially, the hospital doctor removed what they found in the left eye, but the boy had to go back later due to irritation in his right eye.

If there is one thing that unites all of these parents, it is the outrage they have expressed at what has happened. They believe that a large number of the injuries could have been avoided if the attraction had been closed on Saturday after the first cases were reported.

"I alerted the police, the Guardia Civil and several places and the attraction was still open," said Antonio Jesús Pinto. According to the father, mayor Virginia Romero knew about the incidents but the attraction was not closed down.

According to Raquel Romero, the health centre doctor had gone to the fairground and said that he had already reported the situation the day before, both to the town hall and to the Guardia Civil. He had promised to speak to the mayor and the police.

The parents of the injured children want to prevent the safety hazard from spreading. Pinto denounced the lack of action. He said that his objective is not to present a complaint that would damage someone's business. "The only thing I want is for any defect that has caused this to be fixed. Besides, many cases could have been avoided," he said.