Sarah Scholten remembers the moment her thrill-seeking amusement ride turned into a nightmare.
"I remember it all … as it was flipping, I thought 'this is going really slow, it's not doing what it's meant to do' and that's when the music stopped, it went silent, and then [I heard] just screams and we fell," Ms Scholten said.
The Spin Dragon ride at the Royal Adelaide Show had malfunctioned, sending its rotating mechanical arm plummeting to the ground.
People waiting in line below were crushed and 37 people were injured.
"We were screaming 'let us out, let us out' and I felt like it was forever before someone came to click every single harness up before we could jump over the people who were screaming," she said.
"That has never left me."
A constant physical reminder of the accident in 2000 is back pain that she attributes to the broken coccyx she suffered in the accident.
Despite the significant incident, no national database of show rides was enacted.
The call for one has come this week from South Australia's deputy coroner Ian White, as part of his findings into the death of 8-year-old Adelene Leong, who was thrown from the Airmaxx 360 ride at the Royal Adelaide Show in 2014.
Twenty-two reports were made regarding minor injuries at the Royal Melbourne Show and WorkSafe Victoria lifted the minimum height restriction for passengers to 130 centimetres before the ride arrived in Adelaide.
Ms Scholten supported the call for a national database, saying Adelene's death was tragic and the way the industry was managed needed to change.
"Why wasn't there a regulation? Surely that should have come in after our ride. That is truly shocking," she said.
"You have children's lives in your hands. If the government doesn't do anything, that's on them."
The mother of two has taken her two young sons to the Royal Adelaide Show but said it was difficult.
"I don't want my fears and my Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to ruin their lives but I don't want them to go on to [a ride] that isn't safe for them," she said.
"They haven't been on thrill-seeking rides … I need to be able to see that nothing is going to go wrong but how can you trust them [the rides] with your children's lives?"
'Really hard reading'
Agricultural Shows Australia represents 580 agricultural shows across Australia.
Executive Officer Katie Stanley said the organisation was "extremely supportive" of a national database.
She hoped all of the deputy coroner's recommendations would be enacted.
"What we have to take into consideration is that there are shows that are not ag shows that have rides at them," she said.
"We would love to work with the government moving forward to see what is possible to ensure this never happens again and that we have the right information, and we can share it to all our members."
Royal Adelaide Show general manager Michelle Hocking agreed.
"I think that would go a long way to helping because if there are any issues with any rides, they should be on that national database and we would know about it," Ms Hocking said.
She said a database would also help smaller event organisers such as school fairs select safe rides.
"If there was that database that you could go to and check or the regulator could check to see if there were any issues, you just wouldn't have them," she said.
Ms Hocking described the report as "really hard reading".
She said the deputy coroner's report indicated the ride's operators were under financial stress and were "cutting a lot of corners" as a result.
Ms Hocking said while, "90 plus per cent of the ride industry are good, hardworking people", there were some who did the wrong thing.
"We can continue to do everything we do and constantly refine and review what we do, but when someone's out to do something that's illegal, it's really hard to pick that up and that's exactly what's happened in this case," she said.
Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of SA chief executive John Rothwell said changes had already been made since Adelene's death, but organisers would work through any other recommendations handed down by the deputy coroner on Tuesday.
A Safe Work Australia spokesperson said it was considering the recommendations.
The spokesperson said a 2018 review of work health and safety laws had led to "new requirements for improved record keeping and operator training for amusement devices".
"It is now up to each jurisdiction to incorporate the changes into their WHS laws," the spokesperson said.
