NEW YORK — A spinning amusement ride whirled into a worker’s head and killed him as he stood underneath it at a carnival on New York’s Long Island, police and festival organizers said Sunday.

A few weeks into his job with ride owner Zorlenzan Amusements, Michael Austin, 22, ducked under the Scat ride Saturday evening at the Feast of Mother Cabrini festival in Brentwood, said Suffolk County police and his employer. Austin was apparently trying to take care of something related to the ride’s music, they said. When he stood up, the ride, which features spinning baskets on a rotating arm, hit him and knocked him to the ground, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died shortly before midnight, police said.

Generally, safety procedures call for operators to wait until the ride is stopped before stepping beneath it, owner Pete Zorlenzan said by phone.