State Fair rides reopen; investigation continues

Accident on Fire Ball ride killed 1, injured 7; attendance down.

— Rides at the COLUMBUS Ohio State Fair reopened Sunday for the first time after a fatal accident on the Fire Ball ride killed one and injured seven others.

Eighteen-year-old Tyler Jarrell died after the incident. Three of the victims remained in critical condition as of Sunday.

But as investigators were still piecing together what happened, most fair attendees and vendors were ready to begin moving on.

Most of the rides have been shut down since Wednesday’s tragedy. The smaller Kiddieland rides reopened on Friday, as did the Giant Slide and the Sky Riders.

The Dutch manufacturer of the Fire Ball ordered similar rides to shut down worldwide. The Fire Ball remains closed at the fair.

A co-owner of the company providing rides at the fair has told WCMH-TV in Columbus he’s certain a mechanical failure caused the ride to break apart.

Jarrell’s family has hired an attorney to possibly pursue a wrongful death lawsuit.

Early Sunday, fair officials announced on Facebook that rides would reopen.

The ride closures and the news of what happened kept many away from the fairgrounds.

Friday’s attendance was down more than 15,000 from a year ago, said fair spokeswoman Alicia Shoults. Thursday’s attendance was down more than 13,000 compared to 2016.

About 35,902 people attended the fair on Thursday and 42,403 on Friday, Shoults said. Attendance figures were not available for Saturday or Sunday.

“The inspectors are going through everything with a fine tooth comb; they’ll probably be the safest rides in the country,” said Ronald Doege, co-owner of six Pronto Pups corn dog stands.

Doege, of Pensacola, Florida, has experienced a hit in some of his stand’s sales. At the stand in front of the Celeste Center he said the sales at that location were on par Wednesday and Thursday, and down just a little Friday. Sales at a location by the Midway were down dramatically.

“It’s probably 60 percent down,” he said. “It relies on flow back and forth from the big rides to the small rides.”

Still, Doege won’t close that stand. His father-in-law has been going to the fair for 40 years, and “the fair has bounced back every time before,” he said.

“Everyone’s happy to be here and just thankful they’re all doing OK,” said Madi Baker, 15, of Plain City, who was working at Miller’s Olde Fashioned Ice Cream.

Jeannene Judson of Bowling Green came out to the fair with her family for her daughter’s 4-H competition.

As Judson, her daughter Hannah, 13, and other family friends crowded around a table in the Taste of Ohio food building, Hannah lamented not being able to ride the rides on Saturday.

“I love rides. I was upset because I wanted to ride,” said Hannah, who hasn’t been scared off by the accident. “It was kind of more of a one in a million thing. I doubt it’ll happen again.”

The show barns, however, seemed popular.

Traffic inside the Shoppes at North Commercial barn was heavy, and the vendors inside didn’t seem to run into the slow sales those outside experienced.

“I thought it would be dead and we’ve been very busy,” said Patsy Ryan, owner of The Nut Shack. Her husband, Craig, said sales are better than last year, when it was broiling outdoors.

Across the grounds at the agriculture barns, it was just like any other day at the fair.

Karen Holley of Bowling Green was watching her grandson, 15-month-old Chance Holley, play with the calves the family will show Sunday inside the beef barn.

“It’s not affected anything in any of the livestock barns,” Holley said.