Board doesn’t mention accident at meeting
Though a thrill ride at the Ohio State Fair broke apart just two weeks ago, killing a man and injuring seven others, board members of the Ohio Advisory Council on Amusement Ride Safety never mentioned it when they met on Wednesday.
The meeting at the state fairgrounds lasted approximately 45 minutes, as the 18 board members discussed mostly changes to the inspection of inflatable rides, including the possibility of using drones to aid in the inspection process.
Board members discussed
House Bill 49, which would make changes to the inspection of inflatable amusement rides, as well as changing inspection fees and adding two members from the inflatable amusement ride industry to the board.
The board also heard an update on the number of amusement ride violations and accidents in Ohio this year to date — 10 violations, seven from inflatables and three from portable rides, and one accident. A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture later acknowledged that the one accident was the fatal Fire Ball tragedy.
One of six four-passenger gondolas on the ride broke off July 26, the opening night of the Ohio State Fair, killing 18-year-old Tyler Jarrell and injuring his girlfriend and six others. Four of the seven
injured remain hospitalized.
Time was set aside for members of the public, with about 20 in attendance, to comment.
Only then did one person mention the Fire Ball. Kevin Weiging, owner of UltraSound Special Events, asked the board to consider more representation for the inflatable-ride industry on the advisory council. He said that just as much time should be allocated to inspecting inflatables as is given to thrill rides, hesitantly mentioning the Fire Ball as an example.
Brett Gates, communication director for the Department of Agriculture, said afterward that the board does not normally discuss specific accidents regarding amusement rides.
“It wouldn’t be fair to comment on what happened because it is an active investigation and the department is assisting the Highway Patrol,” Gates said.
The purpose of the board,
Gates said, is to act in an advisory capacity and approve recommendations that affect amusement-ride safety.
The Dispatch reported last week that the workload of Ohio Department of Agriculture amusement-ride inspectors has grown significantly since 2007 without any increase in the number of inspectors, according to state records.
Between 2007 and 2015, the number of amusement ride licenses issued by the state after safety inspections increased 30 percent, to 3,762.
The number of licensed portable-ride companies — such as Amusements of America, which brought the Fire Ball to the Ohio State Fair and other companies that set up rides at county fairs and festivals throughout the state — also increased, from 312 in 2007 to 348 in 2015.
“A large part of that increase can be attributed to an increase in inflatables, which we do inspect, in terms of the numbers of rides inspected,” Gates said after the Fire Ball incident. However, inflatable rides do not necessarily take less time than other rides to inspect, nor does their expanded presence signal a decrease in non-inflatable rides, he said.
Two metal experts told The Dispatch this week that the steel arm to the gondola that broke off the Fire Ball might have had water inside it that caused it to corrode from the inside out. The State Highway Patrol investigation into the cause of the accident continues.
The next Ohio Advisory Council on Amusement Ride Safety is scheduled for 10 a.m. Oct. 26 at the Department of Agriculture Office of Communication in Reynoldsburg.