Expert: Ride inspectors should have seen problems
Investigation shows clues things weren’t right with fair ride.
The interview COLUMBUS — with the Ohio Highway Patrol investigator started out predictably: How long have you been an amusement-ride inspector? What’s your training? What types of things do you look for?
But it ended on the photo that shows a large crack exactly at the point where the Fire Ball ride at the Ohio State Fair broke off, killing one man and injuring seven others, some critically. The photo was taken by a bystander right before the ride flew apart on July 26.
Did you see that?
“I can’t say definitively I did or didn’t,” responded state Department of Agriculture ride inspector Ron Dean, one of six inspectors who took part in clearing the Fire Ball for operation that day.
What would your next plan of action be if you were to see something like that, the investigator asked.
“Well, it’s kind of hard to answer that, based on just a picture,” Dean said. “You know, and there is no specific course of action, per se. Everything’s kind of unique, and again, based on just the picture alone, I don’t know what direction it would go in that.
“That’s not something that we dictate what happens. We always fall back to the manufacturer.”
Ken Martin, an amusement-ride safety consultant from Virginia, said Dean’s answer is disturbing and shows that Ohio needs a major shake-up in its ride-inspection program.
True, it would be smart to get in touch with the manufacturer, Martin said, but in the meantime, you wouldn’t let little kids and other fairgoers get on that ride.
“The first thing would be, stop operation on the ride and revoke any and all approvals,” Martin said. “That would be the first thing you do.
“But the ride would definitely not operate until we look at that particular crack to look at how deep it was.”
While it’s not clear when the crack appeared, and it’s possible it wasn’t there when the ride was approved for operation the day it broke, what is now clear is that the Fire Ball was a tragedy waiting to happen. The ride, which spun riders 65 feet in the air, was close to breaking into pieces from interior rust.
An investigation shows there were other clues that things weren’t right with the Fire Ball.
Martin said one photo he noticed in a just-released Consumer Product Safety Commission investigation of the tragedy is akin to a “smoking gun.” It shows a severely rusted electrical box, part of the critical safety restraint system that locked and unlocked the over-the-shoulder safety bars on the gondola that broke off.
How did inspectors miss that rust when they checked off that the ride was visibly free of excessive wear?
“That’s enough right there” to shut down the ride, Martin said. “That box is supposed to be waterproof, watertight. I don’t have to warn you how dangerous water and electricity are.”
Dean declined to comment for this story. So did Mark Bruce, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, citing pending lawsuits and an ongoing department investigation.
The Highway Patrol’s final written report, released in August, never mentioned that an investigator had asked Dean directly whether he had seen the crack in photos. It also never mentioned that Dean couldn’t rule out that he had or hadn’t. Those facts were in recordings released last week.
Rather, the report said that investigators asked Dean “if he would have seen this crack, what if any action would you have taken?”
The rusted electrical box Martin spotted is just above where the Fire Ball’s steel arm broke off, apparently from extensive rust on the inside of the beam. At some point, the beam had corroded through enough to reveal a crack where the arm eventually snapped off.
Photos showing that crack were among about 100 shots a bystander took before and after the ride broke. Although investigators mentioned the crack photo in their report, the Highway Patrol at first withheld the bystander’s photos, citing his copyright. The Highway Patrol released the photos last week after The Dispatch had already published a photo of the crack with permission from the photographer.
One of those newly released photos shows the Fire Ball swinging high in the air, loaded with children and adults. Zooming in, a bulge appears on a different arm than the one that broke, but at the same location where the failed arm cracked.
Were other arms also deforming from interior rust?
“Our experts noticed issues in several of the other arms,” said Rex Elliott, an attorney representing Keziah Lewis, 19, a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati who was thrown from the ride. She remains hospitalized with injuries, Elliott said.
On a third arm, a photo shows a small patch of corrosion cracking through the paint near the same failure location, and “it actually looks like it was painted over once or twice,” Elliott said.
Six inspectors took part in the approval of the Fire Ball. None confirmed seeing cracks. One declined to be interviewed in the Highway Patrol’s criminal investigation, which concluded without charges.
The bystander’s photo of the crack brought the interview of state inspector Jon Kauffman to a temporary halt.
“And keep in mind, I’m not accusing you of missing that crack, OK,” investigator Chad Lyons told Kauffman as he showed him the photo on a laptop. “The question I have for you is if you would have seen this crack —”
“Hold on,” interjected Kauffman’s attorney. “I’m going to object to the question. I know we’re not in the courtroom, but you’re making a conclusion that that is a crack.”
“Well, I mean, it came off, so I know it’s a crack,” Lyons responded. “But if you don’t want to answer it, that’s fine.”
“OK, let’s take a break, let’s take a break,” the attorney, Michael D. Kauffman, says on the recording, which later resumed after the attorney and client talked privately.
“If you were to see this area as it is seen here during your inspection, what course of action would you have taken, if any?” Lyons asked.
“I would have taken a closer look, and that’s all I have to say,” Jon Kauffman responded, which ended the interview.
Lyons had asked earlier in the interview if Jon Kauffman had noticed any cracks, rust or blistering paint. Jon Kauffman responded that his inspection report was clean.
“There’s nothing in the report,” he said.
None of the inspectors could recall how long they had taken to inspect the Fire Ball.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable guessing,” Jon Kauffman said. “It takes as long as it takes.”
Despite saying they inspected the ride three times during its assembly, “we don’t track time on it,” Dean said. “Once we’re satisfied and everything.”
Emails show that Dean still had problems with the Fire Ball as late as 4:23 p.m. July 25, the day before the ride broke. He sent a list of three problems to fix to Bill Costagliola of the ride’s owner, Amusements of America. Emails also show that inspectors periodically updated spreadsheets to show which rides had passed inspection.
The Fire Ball’s listing turned green, showing it had passed inspection, in an email sent out at 5:49 a.m. on July 26, about 13½ hours before the ride broke. Sometime between 4:23 p.m. on July 25 and 5:49 a.m. on July 26, state inspectors decided the Fire Ball was safe.
None of the inspectors agreed to talk with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency’s report said, and one state Department of Agriculture inspector, Eric Head, wouldn’t talk to the Highway Patrol. A department lawyer said Head was in training and didn’t want to provide a statement.
Two other inspectors who looked at the Fire Ball worked for a private firm, Comspeq, on behalf of Amusements of America. The Highway Patrol interviewed them by phone.
John Dodson, one of the owners of Comspeq, is a retired Ohio Department of Agriculture ride inspector who worked for the state agency for two decades. He and a Comspeq employee, Tom Jones, told the Highway Patrol they noticed no rust, cracks or excessive wear.
Comspeq’s written inspection report is not among the material that’s been released. It’s usually submitted to the ride owner within 10 days, the Highway Patrol reported in August, but “due to the unusual circumstances, (Comspeq’s) insurance company wants to review the report before it is released.”
Toward the end of his interview with Highway Patrol investigators, Cesar Martinez, the man who was operating the ill-fated Fire Ball the day of the tragedy, was shown the crack photo.
“I didn’t see it,” Martinez said.
Earlier, Martinez had run from the ride as it was still slowing to a stop after it broke apart, according to photos and witnesses. The Highway Patrol had ordered that he be detained if he tried to leave the fair, but he was found 20 minutes later at Amusements of America’s office.
The same photograph was shown to Martinez’s supervisor, Davis Milan “Rico” Colon. “No, I never saw that. Nobody ever told me anything about that,” Colon said.
If he had seen it, Colon said, he would have shut the ride down.
Two former employees of Amusements of America told Highway Patrol investigators of ride-maintenance problems. Franklin Rictman of Coldale, Pennsylvania, said he quit because he felt that the company tried to cover up problems with its rides. Rictman said he helped assemble the Fire Ball at fairs across the country.
“I knew something bad was going to happen to one of the rides, but I didn’t think it would be the Fire Ball,” Rictman said.
Another man, who asked investigators not to reveal his name, said he saw employees paint over cracks so that inspectors would miss them. The Highway Patrol found a can of red paint and a wet paintbrush under the Fire Ball. The arm that broke was orange, but other parts were red.
The man said that those who work for Amusements of America have little training, work long hours and are threatened if they don’t comply with the wishes of their bosses.
Costagliola, safety director for Amusements of America, painted a different picture for investigators. He listed Ohio, along with South Carolina and Florida, as having some of the most professional ride inspectors. Costagliola said that the company also hired an independent inspector to inspect the ride, in addition to his employees’ monitoring of the ride.
Martin, the safety consultant, said he’s disturbed that the Highway Patrol never hired a metallurgical engineering consultant to examine the broken ride and help determine what problems should have been evident to inspectors and when.
After reviewing the photos and interviews, he made a blunt assessment: “This just goes to prove that we’ve got to change things.”