Catholic Church bans inflatable rides at southwest Ohio festivals

CINCINNATI (AP) — The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has banned inflatable rides at Roman Catholic church festivals in southwest Ohio fearing the kind of incident in which a child was slightly hurt last weekend.

Police in Middletown say a gust of wind blew an inflatable slide from its mooring at a softball tournament, carrying an 11-year-old boy with it.

He was examined at a hospital and released. But church officials who imposed the ban earlier this year said they didn’t want to risk something more serious.

The archdiocese has 218 parishes, and about half of them have festival fundraisers during the summer.