Steven Schroeder said he faces up to three months in a back brace to heal an exploded vertebrae after he was injured on a thrill ride in Price County last month.

The Verona man was spinning around in an Octopus with his nine-year-old daughter, Mary, when the tub they were in crashed to the ground and he was thrown out of it.

"It was the experience from hell," Schroeder said in an interview last week on the day he returned to his home in Verona after a 10-day hospital stay in Marshfield. "I was very concerned about my daughter when this was going on. I was in excruciating pain. I couldn't get to her, and I could hear her crying in the background."

Now, Schroeder, 57, the technical director of the Overture Center for the Arts, said he'll have to wear a back brace for up to the next three months and be out of work indefinitely. His daughter was shaken up at the time of the accident and has since complained of headaches and whiplash, he said.

At least one other person complained of head and neck pain as a result of the ride failure, according to a Price County sheriff's report.

The Aug. 18 accident at the Price County Fair in Phillips, four hours north of Madison, is under investigation by the state Department of Commerce.

Tony Hozeny, a Commerce spokesman, last week said the agency could not comment on the accident or the ride because the investigation is not complete.

"Freak accident"

Dan Barbacovi, an owner of Spectrum Entertainment of Ironwood, Mich., which owns the ride, said the accident was caused when a knuckle holding one of the ride's arms failed, causing the arm carrying the tub to fall.

"It was a freak accident," Barbacovi said. "I've asked myself if I could've done anything to prevent this accident, and I couldn't."

It's hard to see if there had been wear on the knuckle, he said.

The Price County sheriff's report said the knuckle was not receiving grease and that the part had worn down through recent use. The report quoted the ride operator as saying he had last greased all of the machine's joints when he set up the ride three days before the accident.

Barbacovi said the ride had been inspected and passed in Michigan by both state officials and the company's insurance carrier shortly before the accident. A recent engineering analysis performed by a Green Bay company showed the ride was in good shape, Barbacovi said.

Officials from the insurance company and the engineering company wouldn't comment.

But a Michigan inspection official verified that the ride had passed muster in that state. Mark Doman, principal engineer for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth Commercial Enforcement Division, also confirmed that it is hard to visually determine if the knuckles on that kind of ride are worn.

Barbacovi said from now on, the company will take apart the knuckles each week, and he suggested that the manufacturer send out a safety bulletin to all owners of the ride about the potential for the part's failure.

Most painful experience

Wisconsin officials wouldn't say if the ride had been inspected by state officials this year. And state electronic records aren't clear.

But state ride inspectors usually make it a priority to check out Spectrum Entertainment because the company tends to get a lot of violations, said Greg Jones, administrator for Safety and Buildings, the state division that oversees ride inspections.

Schroeder said that the accident was the most painful experience of his life, while his daughter has vowed to never go on an amusement ride again. He said doctors hope the brace will help the vertebrae heal.

Barbacovi said the injury is his company's first serious accident.

"I haven't slept since it happened," he said. "It's the worst thing that's happened in my life."