Tragedy at Ohio state fair, 1 dead, 5 critical on fire ball ride, 26 July 2017

gregjrichards

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Breaking News- Tragedy at Ohio State Fair, 1 person has died, 5 people are critically injured with life threatening injuries after Fire Ball Ride malfunction.

One person has been killed and another five are fighting for their lives after a ride malfunction at the Ohio State Fair.

A sixth person was also injured, but they are said to be in a stable condition. Social media posts suggest the accident took place on the Fire Ball ride.

Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin confirmed the injuries and the death on Wednesday night, WCMH reports."


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ride-malfunction-Ohio-fair.html#ixzz4nzMvLjpb

IMG_0096.jpg
 
Delayed by rain and flooding, amusement ride inspectors from the Ohio Department of Agriculture made up for lost time Monday to guarantee the safety of fairgoers at this year’s Ohio State Fair.

With the 12-day fair opening Wednesday, fairground workers scrambled to set up the final food trailers and rides for one of the nation’s largest fairs.

Inspectors were met with several rain delays and flash flood warnings when they showed up to the Ohio Expo Center last week.

“The rain slowed us down a little bit. Usually a lot of this stuff would be up a lot faster,” but everyone is trying to work safely despite the uncontrollable elements, said Ron Dean, an amusement ride inspector who has been with the Ohio Department of Agriculture for 13 years.

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170725/ohio-state-fair--rides-will-be-ready-despite-set-up-delays

I found this article interesting. Was the ride put up in a rush?
 
I have never trusted the rides at any kind of a "traveling fair" and would never allow my kids to go on anything that wasn't on the ground. I always figured there was too much taking apart and putting together of the rides at these things. Plus there were usually skeezy looking guys who operated the rides.

We were lucky to live in a city that has a beautifully maintained amusement park, Kennywood Park.

So sorry for the victims and families in Ohio.
 
Warning video of catastrophic ride malfunction at link. Very difficult to watch.

A news reporter tweeted it.

Chris Tye
Chris Tye @TVTye

DIFFICULT TO WATCH: Video of ride malfunction tonight @OhioStateFair killing 1 and injuring at least 5 more. @wkyc

Ride Malfunctions at the Ohio State Fair
https://t.co/NLtRiQ51ev?amp=1

The person who has died is an 18 year old male. May he Rest In Peace.
 
I hadn't heard this on our news yet.... but it really is sad that we can't trust our lives (and our children) to be safe on these things. I do think the taking apart and putting together consantly could be a factor. Sounds like this had to be put together quickly to be on-schedule.

I hate hearing a life has been lost. I hope the rest will be able to fully recover.
 
OMG ... the video made the horror come to life. How scary and terrifying for those on the ride and any who saw it happen. It will stay with them forever. :tears:
 
Updated:
Officials are reporting 7 injured. Of those, 5 are critical and 2 are in stable condition. (1 death)

http://fox8.com/2017/07/26/first-responders-on-way-to-ride-incident-at-ohio-state-fair/
 
This really bothers me. Where i live we have quite a few festivals and fairs with traveling rides and my mom always let me go on them as a kid. Now that I'm a parent I don't take my kids because of these things. Ugh. I know I'm going to have to fight them on it as they get older and it already stresses me out to think about. How sad, I'm so sorry to everyone involved.


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I have never trusted the rides at any kind of a "traveling fair" and would never allow my kids to go on anything that wasn't on the ground. I always figured there was too much taking apart and putting together of the rides at these things. Plus there were usually skeezy looking guys who operated the rides.

We were lucky to live in a city that has a beautifully maintained amusement park, Kennywood Park.

So sorry for the victims and families in Ohio.

Just an FYI...the ones are the ground are dangerous too. A girl got her scalp ripped off riding one where I live. It was pretty awful.
 
Delayed by rain and flooding, amusement ride inspectors from the Ohio Department of Agriculture made up for lost time Monday to guarantee the safety of fairgoers at this year’s Ohio State Fair.

With the 12-day fair opening Wednesday, fairground workers scrambled to set up the final food trailers and rides for one of the nation’s largest fairs.

Inspectors were met with several rain delays and flash flood warnings when they showed up to the Ohio Expo Center last week.

“The rain slowed us down a little bit. Usually a lot of this stuff would be up a lot faster,” but everyone is trying to work safely despite the uncontrollable elements, said Ron Dean, an amusement ride inspector who has been with the Ohio Department of Agriculture for 13 years.

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170725/ohio-state-fair--rides-will-be-ready-despite-set-up-delays

I found this article interesting. Was the ride put up in a rush?

So sad. Not surprised this happened. The state government recently passed a law relaxing regulations on these kinds of inspections. They put it all under the Dept of Agriculture which has no one with enough experience to supervise inspections. So the old inspectors are working for new bosses who don't understand how inspections are done. A lot of people argued against these changes for this reason. They also changed the oversight board to add more members who own amusement parks and ride companies.

Wish I could post a link but my tablet doesn't work well on this. Just search for the article on google. one was published in the Norwalk Reflector on July 10.
Just a warning. Don't ride on amusement park rides in Ohio until they re regulate and increase inspections. I live here, I won't allow any of my family to ride.
 
I think it is disgraceful the fair is reopening today could they not have closed it for one day as a mark of respect? It will be interesting to see if charges will be filed in the coming days. It is horrendous the tragedy has been filmed I was really hesitant to post it but did so because it helps understand what went wrong. At least it could be used at evidence in court should charges be filed or negligence claims for the person who died and those seriously injured. It's a miracle that several people weren't killed.
 
I think it is disgraceful the fair is reopening today could they not have closed it for one day as a mark of respect? It will be interesting to see if charges will be filed in the coming days. It is horrendous the tragedy has been filmed I was really hesitant to post it but did so because it helps understand what went wrong. At least it could be used at evidence in court should charges be filed or negligence claims for the person who died and those seriously injured. It's a miracle that several people weren't killed.

Didn't they shut down all the rides?

I would be surprised if they shut down the entire fair.
 
In 2013 the Ohio Dept of Agriculture Amusement Ride Safety Division had 11 employees (and spent $1.17 million on inspection)

These 11 employees are responsible for inspecting two large parks, Cedar Point and Kings Island, as well as ALL the county fairs. That's a lot of rides to inspect "regularly" (not to mention any "surprise" inspections that are suppose to occur). Maybe this is typical for all states??

And, I wonder if there are more or less employees now?

http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/ne...spect-amusement-rides/FZbHyU8ReVL5vbRsMSqjQL/
 
I luckily dont like riding rides anymore but I sure rode them with my friends growing up. I dont think we ever thought about safety too much and we just expected everything to work right.

Thinking about it now I do think the traveling fairs where rides have to be taken down and put back up seem like the ones that would be a little more dangerous. But of course even at major theme parks with long time favorite attractions those can and do have issues too.

Luckily its a rare instance for these accidents but still is very scary.
I remember we talked about the two major incidents not long ago with the water slide and the raft type ride that killed people too.

I wonder what the odds are of an accident when factoring in all the different places. I would think it would have to be pretty rare but still when it happens to someone you know then statistics dont matter much.

Just so sad. Beefing up the inspections and enforcing them seems like the best way to help prevent future accidents. Gotta throw some money at this to make sure the operators and ride controllers do the best job they can to make them safe. And shut down a ride when it doesnt pass.
That seems to be the only real solution because I dont see these attractions going away.
 
The video is awful to watch but I watched it to try to see what happened.

From what I can tell I think the weight of the round thing at the bottom went down too low as it swung toward the bottom and fence area.

I wonder if the top support beams buckled or something which made the bottom of it get too low. Its hard to tell what happened because of all the moving parts.
 
Many of the local news stations were interviewing people who were also on the ride. They said that terrible shaking was occurring and they were screaming to stop the ride. The operator of the ride appeared to pull an emergency brake and a loud metallic boom was heard, then the ride began to disintegrate on the upswing. I'll try to find an article to post which confirms this report.
 

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