COLUMBUS, Ohio — While Ohio State Fair authorities are trying to piece together how a ride of theirs broke apart last week, all eyes are on the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), as the safety of all amusement rides in the state is its responsibility.

 

On the evening of July 26 a highly popular ride, the Fire Ball, broke apart while in operation, killing one man and severely injuring seven other people. Michael Vartorella of the ODA, and Ohio’s chief inspector of amusement ride safety, said, “We look at 4,300 pieces of equipment in our state alone; that includes waterparks, go-kart tracks, rides at Cedar Point and Kings Island.

“We take this job very seriously. When we have a tragedy of this nature, it hits us really hard. We do not rush through this. We look at it and pretend it’s our own.”

Fire Ball swings 24 riders back and forth like a pendulum 40 feet above the ground while they sit in four-seat carriages that spin at 13 revolutions per minute. Fire Ball is what Vartorella and others call a “spectacular piece.”

“We call it that because it is put up from multiple trucks and there’s a lot of electrical and hydraulic components involved,” he explained. “We check all the documentation associated with each ride. Each ride is inspected three or four times over a course of two days. It’s either pass or fail.”

The Ohio State Fair opened for “normal operations” Sunday morning, with rides reopening on the midway, reported ABC News. Franklin County Coroner Anahi Ortiz told ABC affiliate WSYX on Friday that Tyler Jarrell, 18, died of blunt force trauma, suffering head, trunk and lower extremity injuries when the Fire Ball malfunctioned.

The injured adult survivors were identified by authorities as Tamika Dunlap, 36; Russell Franks, 42; Keziah Lewis, 19; Jacob Andrews, 22; Jennifer Lambert, 18; and Abdihakim Hussein, 19. A 14-year-old boy was wounded as well.

According to The Associated Press, Jarrell’s family has hired an attorney to possibly pursue a wrongful death lawsuit. ABC noted that as of Friday, two of the injured remained in critical condition and two others were in serious condition, according to local hospitals’ statements.

The tragedy has prompted officials at other state fairs across the nation to take a closer look at such “spectacular” rides. Officials in Indiana and Kentucky had decided to not put the Fire Ball into operation at their state fairs this month. The Dutch manufacturer of the Fire Ball instructed all fairs in the United States to stop operation of the ride as soon as word got out about the accident.

Plenty of blame is going around. Some feel the manufacturer, KMG, should have done more to examine the design of the ride for signs of metal fatigue in its swing arm. Many are pointing the finger at the ODA. “We look at these rides at different stages,” Vartorella said. “They arrive at the fairgrounds on trucks, we take a look at them when they’re static, look at them as they’re erected and look at them after they erected. We then operate the ride to ensure they’re safe to operate.

“We’ll look at structure, we’ll look at operation, at electric components and look at manufacturers’ specifications to ensure they go up correctly.”

Inspectors at Kings Island north of Cincinnati say their rides are inspected each morning. They say they even walk the path of roller coasters to ensure there are no structural deficiencies to the tracks.

ODA records provided to media showed passing marks on inspections of 36 items, including possible cracks, brakes, proper assembly and installation.

“All rides at the fair are checked several times when they are being set up to ensure the work is done the way the manufacturer intended,” said ODA Director David Daniels.

 

“The Fire Ball was inspected three or four times before the fair opened,” Vartorella said. “Some work on all the rides was delayed by heavy rains but the inspections were completed and not rushed.”

After the accident at the Ohio State Fair, fairs in California, New Jersey and Canada shut down similar rides before KMG issued its order. KMG told Ohio officials that the unit at their fair was built in 1998 in the Netherlands. Fortythree such rides are used around the world, 11 of them in the United States.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is also investigating this accident. It estimates there were 30,900 injuries associated with amusement park attractions last year that required an emergency room visit. There have been at least 22 deaths associated with amusement rides in the U.S. since 2010.

“This ride was inspected multiple times,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich said. “We’re concerned, not only here in the Buckeye state, but there may be things we can learn to help those in other states as well.”

‘Structural issue’

When an amusement ride malfunctions, the investigation typically focuses on three possible causes, according to an Ohio expert: ride responsibility, operator error or design/technical.

Dennis Speigel is president of the Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services, a consulting firm to the amusement park industry. He took a look at the bystander video of the accident on the Fire Ball.

“This is not rider responsibility. This is not operator responsibility,” he opined. “This is some sort of structural issue.” Speigel said it’s too early to definitely say what happened, but he examined the moment in the video when the car with the chairs came off.

“Whether it be fatigue of a bolt or a connection – but that’s where it came off, right there.”

The manufacturer of the ride is wellknown and respected in the industry, according to Speigel. And rides go through several layers of inspections, including one that looks for structural issues.

“There’s a lot of tension on that ride on every arm,” he explained, adding these rides are generally safe, but an accident like the one at the state fair will “send shock waves through the entire industry. “If we’re not safe, we’re out of business,” he said.