Dunking booth fun doused by injuries; McGregor broke two toes
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Clerk & Master Richard McGregor will be running the final leg of his race for circuit judge in a walking cast, the result of a broken big toe and second toe on his right foot. The injury, McGregor says, could not have come at a worse time given the fact the five judicial candidates are in the midst of their final campaign push before the Aug. 1 election.
“This happened at the worst time possible,” McGregor said. “I’ll do the best I can, but this will greatly limit me. I’ve been advised to stay off it as much as possible.”
Complicating matters is the fact McGregor is diabetic and has some infection in one of the toes. Exerting himself on the injured foot could have severe repercussions.
“I’d rather lose an election than a foot,” McGregor said, noting his mother lost a leg to diabetes years ago. “I was planning to go door to door, but that just won’t be possible now. I hope the voters will understand why I won’t be able to get out as much as I would have liked to.”
The accident happened while the judicial candidates were participating in a charity dunking booth during the downtown July 4th celebration. McGregor said someone walked up and hit the target, dunking him while he was not looking.
“It’s OK if you’re prepared for it, but when someone trips it while you’re not looking, that can be dangerous,” McGregor said, noting he fell awkwardly into the water with his feet slamming against the front of the booth.
“We’ve all agreed they’ll be no more dunking booths during this campaign. The things are just too dangerous. About everyone ended up getting bruised,” McGregor said.
While sounding like a freak accident, the injuries suffered by McGregor were only the most recent in a rash of dunking booth accidents in which volunteers for charity have been injured.
Judicial candidate Peg Stewart did not participate in the downtown event after being warned against doing so by friend and local dentist Dr. Dennis Jeter, who was reportedly injured a couple of weeks before while in a dunking booth.
“I took a beating,” Jeter said, noting his neck still hurts more than two weeks after the event. “I like helping the community, but I sure won’t get in one of those again and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else does either. Maybe someone can come up with another idea to raise money. Something a little safer.”
Jeter said one problem, along with the cramped nature of the booth, was that children were not supervised and were able to come up and hit the target which dunks the person on the machine. Jeter said in many instances he was not fully seated when the machine activated without warning, throwing him awkwardly into the tank.
McMinnville Police Captain Bryan Denton was injured during the same charity event as Jeter, suffering a hairline fracture to one of his toes. His injury was suffered in much the same way as McGregor and Jeter.
“I wasn’t looking and a kid came up and hit the target and I fell weird. I’m still not sure what I hit my foot on,” Denton said. “I don’t fault the kid, he was just trying to have fun and didn’t realize. It’s been about two weeks and the toe is still swollen.”
Denton said his injury was suffered in a dunking booth which was either the same one used downtown Saturday or one which closely resembled the one used downtown.