OC Fair 2018: How do you know that OC Fair carnival ride is safe? Ask this guy
When a young man died and seven other people were injured after they were thrown from a ride at the Ohio State Fair last year, similar rides around the country – including one at the OC Fair – were shut down for inspection to ensure they were safe to operate.
It was an extra layer of safety added to a regime that already includes daily reviews of rides and detailed spot inspections throughout the four-week run of the OC Fair, officials said.
Such accidents are rare – OC Fair spokeswoman Terry Moore couldn’t remember the last time someone got hurt on a ride at the Costa Mesa fair – and industry officials say they do everything they can to ensure amusement seekers have fun and go home unharmed.
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“Most people in this business don’t want to hurt anybody because you could lose a fair. Financially, you could lose your business,” said Allan Scanlan of Coulter Associates, a firm that provides safety inspections, audits and training for amusement ride operators.
Scanlan would know if the OC Fair’s rides are safe because he’s the guy the fair hires to make sure they are.
He’s worked in the industry more than 40 years and travels the country all year long inspecting rides.
At a big fair like Orange County’s, Scanlan said he’ll arrive about 10 days before opening day. Some rides are checked over before they’re removed from the trailer that hauled them in, and he’s always on site as they’re being assembled. He also checks a list of the fair’s rides to see if a manufacturer has sent out any updates or safety bulletins.
Portable amusement rides that travel between carnivals must be inspected annually by Cal/OSHA, which will require that any problems be fixed before giving the operator a permit.
In the past three years, Cal/OSHA has inspected about 1,000 rides annually and investigated an average of five accidents per year, none of them fatal. Any incident with a ride that results in serious injury must be reported to the state agency.
Once the OC Fair begins, the foreman of each ride will look it over each morning and run it to make sure it’s operating properly. Scanlan picks several rides each day to inspect and make sure the operator is enforcing any safety rules.
“The majority of stuff that happens out here is human error, and the majority of the time it’s the guest” doing something they shouldn’t, he said.
For example, according to Cal/OSHA records, in 2014 a woman broke several fingers while sticking her arm outside a Ferris wheel gondola to take a selfie, and a child was injured in 2015 when she unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of a moving ride.
Some of the OC Fair’s higher-velocity rides bear signs telling people not to bring cell phones because they may fly out of pockets and injure someone.
When Scanlan looks over a ride, he checks everything. Are fencing, safety signs and padding in place? Do the seat belts and lap bars fasten and release? Are there any bare electrical wires, loose light fixtures or damage to the ride that could cut someone? Is every bolt and pin – some rides have several hundred of them – where it should be?
If the ride uses hydraulics, Scanlan will check the hoses for any leaks or cracks. He looks for a fire extinguisher. He makes sure the tires that cushion the bumper cars aren’t flat.
Problems can still occur.
Scanlan said the most common issue is poor maintenance.
The manufacturer of the ride that malfunctioned in Ohio concluded the accident was caused by a corroded support beam, which apparently wasn’t noticed during inspections.
But most amusement rides are heavily engineered and tested before they’re released to the public, Scanlan said, and they’re subjected to several layers of safety checks once they’re in use.
“The OC Fair goes above and beyond what is required by law for ride safety by utilizing an independent inspection firm in addition to running the rides through all required inspections,” Moore, the fair spokeswoman, wrote in an email. “We are proud that there are three levels of inspections on our rides.”
Scanlan and Outdoor Amusement Business Association President Robert Johnson both said Ray Cammack Shows, or RCS, which operates the midway rides and games at the OC Fair, is a high-quality company with a good safety record.
“I tell people they’re like the Disney of the carnival business,” Scanlan said.
Johnson said his association has a committee reviewing the Ohio accident to come up with new safety guidelines.
But with an estimated 300 million riders annually on portable rides – not including fixed rides such as theme park roller coasters – and only a handful of deaths if any, he said, “For the most part these rides are pretty safe.”