A ride operator has been accused of being intoxicated at the St. Michael the Archangel Fair in Tullytown.
On Sunday around 9:45 p.m., two Tullytown officers were flagged down by a grandmother who alerted that she was concerned the operator of the Kiddie Carousel was possibly intoxicated.
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The grandmother of seven relayed to officers that she watched the ride operator press the button to start the ride her grandkids were approaching when she spotted the worker who “appeared intoxicated and was unsteady on his feet. She said she stopped her grandkids from entering the ride and left to find officers, police said.
A second grandmother spoke to officers and said her 4-year-old granddaughter was on the ride. She stated she noticed after the ride had started that the operator appeared drunk or high and was drinking out of a thermos. She believed the ride was full of children. After her granddaughter got off the ride, she saw the ride operator and another fair employee get in small argument, police said.
The ride operator was identified as Dante Chilton, 34, who has no fixed address.
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Police said Chilton smelled of alcoholic beverage and admitted to drinking. He also allegedly failed a field sobriety test and a portable breath test “detected a significant presence of alcoholic beverage.”
Chilton was charged with a felony of the third degree count of endangering the welfare of children and a summary offense of public drunkenness, and disorderly conduct. He was arraigned and sent to the Bucks County Correctional Facility on 10 percent of $75,000 bail.
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Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
