Ride safety panel still not discussing Fire Ball
Three months to the day after a rusting thrill ride broke into pieces at the Ohio State Fair, killing a man and injuring seven others, the Ohio Advisory Board on Amusement Ride Safety made it clear that it won’t recommend any changes as a result of the tragedy.
But the state Department of Agriculture said Thursday afternoon that it’s opening an investigation into whether a former board member who operates a ride company had illegally removed yellow
ribbons that indicated a state inspector had shut down a ride at the Delaware County Fair.
The board of amusement-industry insiders charged with making recommendations to the state regarding “any subject pertaining to amusement ride safety, including administrative, engineering and technical subjects,” didn’t discuss ride safety at all Thursday — the second time it has met since the state fair tragedy. Instead, board members mostly bickered over who in the ride industry should sit on the board, which can influence ride- safety regulations.
Any advice on how to better protect the public after one of the most horrific ride failures in state history was off limits: board Chairman John Schlichter, a deputy director at the Department of Agriculture, opened the meeting by saying potential litigation and a pending departmental review prevent any discussion of the Fire Ball ride that failed on the opening day of the state fair July 26.
None of the panel members, representing Cedar Point, Kings Island, associations of fair managers, festivals and events, insurance companies, and others, protested Schlichter’s statement.
“We’re supposed to be an advisory board to the Department of Agriculture,” and that agency must guard against potential lawsuits from those injured in the Fire Ball failure, said Chris Small, in explaining why he supports the panel not wading into the incident. Small is officially one of two members appointed to represent the “general public,” but in reality is the president of American Testing Services, a Miamisburg, Ohio, metalurgical testing firm that works extensively with the amusement industry.
Small said he was chosen for his expertise.
“Amusement park rides see a combination of stresses and elements unlike any other comparable structures of their size and shape,” according to the American Testing Service website. This “demanding industry” requires “experience to know what to look for and how to look for it.”
But Thursday’s meeting didn’t focus on that. Representatives of the inflatable-ride industry complained they provide 60 percent of the Ride Safety Division’s funding through fees, but have no representatives on the board.
And then one former board member, Al Bozich of Bates Amusement Inc. in Wintersville, Ohio, complained about losing his appointment, and brought up what he felt was a botched inspection of one of his rides at the Delaware County Fair in September.
The state inspector had tied 25 yellow ribbons on rides, signaling that the ride had been officially shut down after Bates Amusement used duct tape to cover cracks on plastic. Bozich said he removed all of the ribbons because he thought the inspector didn’t know how to do his job. Bozich said he then complained to Michael Vartorella, the state’s chief ride inspector, and Vartorella reversed the inspector’s decision and allowed the rides to operate.
The Department of Agriculture has a different version of those events, said Mark Bruce, spokesman for the department.
“It is a violation to remove a tag placed by an ODA inspector, and until today’s meeting, the department had no proof who removed the tags,” Bruce wrote in an email Thursday afternoon after The Dispatch asked about Bozich’s statements. “We will look further into this matter.”
Bruce said Vartorella didn’t reopen the ride based on Bozich’s complaints, but rather because Bozich provided documents from the ride manufacturer that said the duct- tape fix was appropriate.
“An ODA inspector noticed several pieces of tape that appeared to cover cracks on the belly pans of the ride,” Bruce said. “Acting according to protocol, the inspector marked these items for further examination and determined the ride would not be allowed to be placed into operation until the issue could be discussed.
“There was no ‘ overruling’ — both the inspector and supervisor followed standard protocol for dealing with a question regarding the safe operation of a ride.”
Schlichter, a former state representative and Fayette County commissioner, declined to talk to The Dispatch following the meeting.
An argument on an Argyle Park neighborhood street ended with multiple gunshots and the city’s 108th homicide.
The victim was identified as Sean C. Boyd, 45, who lived on the Near East Side. A woman drove him to Ohio State University Hospital East, where he was pronounced dead at 8:29 p.m. — about 13 minutes after a 911 call about shots fired in the 1700 block of Kenmore Road near Joyce Avenue. The neighborhood is on the border of South Linden, where it was originally identified the incident had occurred.
The woman who called 911 said she was putting her son to bed when she heard the argument, punctuated with a flurry of shots.
“It happened so fast. Everyone was running and someone was shot,” the woman told a dispatcher.
When she heard the gunfire, the woman said she and her son moved to another room and ducked down.
The woman reported that she learned from another witness that the wounded man got into a silver-colored Jeep and turned south down Joyce Avenue, heading toward the hospital.
In the initial stages of the investigation, detectives said they had no suspect or motive.
Boyd’s death was the 108th homicide in Columbus this year. The city has already surpassed last year’s total of 106. The highest number of homicides on record in the city is 139 in 1991.