ATLANTA — An Atlanta police report details the chaotic moments after a 5-year-old boy got pinned between a curvy bolted chair and the staircase wall of Atlanta's Sun Dial restaurant. The restaurant has a revolving floor that gives diners a 360-degree view of the city while eating.
The parents were sitting at a table adjacent to the window, viewing the city, and the child was playing and wandered off behind tables there.
Sgt. Warren Pickard said the floor rotation was clockwise and Charlie Holt was moving counter-clockwise, trying to get back to his parents. The space in which he was stuck between the wall and the chair measures just about 5 inches.
“Sometimes, things without rhyme or reason happen, and that's what we have,” Pickard said. “I thought about it all night and into the next day, (about) what could have possibly been done to save him.”
The family's waiter jumped the staircase and shut off the rotation device, rather than relying on an automatic sensory shut-off. That allowed patrons, employees and the family to rip the chair from the floor and get to the child.
“People acted heroically,” Pickard said. “They tried to rescue the kid.”
The Sun Dial closed over the weekend, and there has not been any update about when it may reopen.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Office of Insurance and Fire Safety confirm they are not regulators in this case and Atlanta police say from their standpoint, this is considered an accident.
There are no intentions to file charges against anyone.
Cox Media Group
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