Parents of Ferris wheel victim: 'Someone is responsible'

She was both "old and young," her mother said, a studious little girl who liked to have fun but dreamed of being a lawyer or doctor someday.

But Abiah Jones, 11, wasn't old enough to be alone on the 156-foot Ferris wheel in Wildwood on June 3, her parents said, and she shouldn't have died so young, while on a class trip with friends.

"This is the biggest loss and the worst thing I have ever been through in my life," Twanda Jones, Abiah's mother, said yesterday afternoon at a Center City law firm. "It's like a nightmare."

Abiah was on a trip with PleasanTech Academy, of Pleasantville, N.J., when she boarded the ride on Mariner's Landing Pier alone, falling from the top about 12:30 p.m. It was her first time on a Ferris wheel, her mother said.

Authorities said that they've found no eyewitnesses and that surveillance footage didn't show the moment that the fifth-grader fell out. A preliminary report issued by New Jersey's Department of Community Affairs said that Abiah was both old enough and tall enough to ride alone, and was most likely not "properly seated."

Attorney Larry Bendesky said that Jones should have been accompanied by another rider and would have been sitting if the Ferris wheel had a restraint device.

"If it had, Abiah would be alive today and her family wouldn't miss her so greatly," Bendesky said.

Bendesky said that his firm is investigating tragedies on Ferris wheels around the world, but noted that some amusement parks, such as Six Flags Great Adventure, in Jackson, N.J., have added restraints to their Ferris wheels. Twanda Jones suggested an "Abiah's Law" to ensure restraints.

Bendesky said that his office was still investigating the number of chaperones that the school sent on the trip and who exactly was responsible for Abiah's whereabouts. When asked if Abiah could have panicked or become dizzy atop the Ferris wheel, her father, Byron, said that she was "perfectly fine." He called the DCA's suggestion that Abiah wasn't properly seated speculation, considering that no witnesses had been found.

"Someone is responsible," he said. "I don't want to point fingers at anyone; we just want to make sure this doesn't happen to another child."

The Jones family said that no one from Morey's Piers, which has operated the pier and others in the Wildwoods for decades, has contacted them since their daughter's death. A spokeswoman for Morey's said yesterday that the organization respects the family's decision to hire an attorney. No lawsuit has been filed yet.