OT: Ride malfunction at Ohio State fair
Do not watch the video if you have a weak stomach
with a more edited version. They stop this one before anything happens and you just hear one clank. No screams or anything. Still scary as hell, though. Seems fortunate more weren't killed. That seat thing doesn't look real light.
but yeah I have no desire to see that.
My Wife watched it yesterday morning and hasnt eaten since - she saw the longer cut version on Facebook and then later that evening she saw pictures of the bodies so ive been dealing with that all morning
If you listen real carefully to a version with sound (I've seen it 10 times), right before the "crash" you can hear a woman say, "No, this will be FUN!" Yikes, definitely not a future-seer.
Nozzle
Much.
from reports, the ride was inspected 4 times before it was ever run with passengers, and it STILL failed.
I've never been one to go on rides at state fairs, and this kind of strengthens my resolve not to.
We don't know what the inspection procedures were. Sometimes the maintenance/inspection manual is faulty. Sometimes there are undectable issues (for example, there may have been metal fatigue or some other part failure that was not detectable even during a careful and thorough inspection, or a general design failure in the ride).
The point being that we should not assume that by-the-book inspection would have prevented this. We can be sure that this one will be investigated thoroughly, given the visibility this is getting - and that issue will undoubtedly be a focal point.
That, along with missing fasteners, was my first impression when I saw the video. It seemed to fail at a point in the structure where stresses would be high.
Metal fatigue can be very difficult to detect in the best of cases. Dye penetrants, X-rays, vibration testing, and other means are typically needed. They're time-consuming and often expensive.
Metal fatigue, corrosion, fastener failure, or hydraulic failure. Something happened to cause the seating area to travel lower than expected, hitting the fixed frame.
Some of this could have been detected, some not. As you note, non-destructive testing of carnival rides is an expensive proposition and not foolproof. Metal fatigue (and hydraulic failure) can be particularly hard to detect.
Or it simply could have been opperator error.
From what I've seen, those rides are set up so that you hit a switch to turn it on, and it either goes off after a set period of time, or the operator hits an off switch. Hard to cause such a horrific accident by hitting an on-off switch.
There's a theoretical risk of overtemping the machinery by letting it run too long, causing a failure. And there may be a maintenance function that got overlooked (e.g., not checking lubricant levels or bearing wear if that's part of routine maintenance). None of that would, in my mind, be operator error though.
If I had to guess, the inspection probably entails some functional checks (e-stops work, harnesses latch, etc.) and some general visual inspections. If some interlock failed or a metal piece gave way or something like that, no daily inspection will ever catch it
From the video I saw, it looked like a whole carriage of that ride came off with a loud clank. That's probably a mechanical failure of some kind. I doubt an inspection would catch that
just a couple of miles from my house tomorrow and I know this ride has been shut down already. Not sure I feel safe getting on any of the rides now. Might just stick to eating the foods at the fair, because I'm sure they are all healthy and safe.,.
problem is that these are man made machines with a certain shelf life, depending on use and maintenence, but even under ideal conditions, these things are eventually going to fail, it is just a matter of how and when. So, really, every time you have ever rode a carnival ride, or even a rolller coaster, you were rolling the dice to some extent.
There have been times, however, when I have been in line for rides with my son at carnivals where I can visually see that the ride should probably not have still been in the rotation but I went ahead and rode it anyway, against my better judgment. It's kind of the "it won't to us" kind of thought but after watching that video I may not be riding any more high speed/height stuff at movable carnivals.
I remember going on carnival rides as a kid - perhaps just a naive kid or perhaps things were just safer back then? This story is why I have never let my kids go on carnival or state fair rides. Very sad.
You have to believe they are safer now with more stringent inspections, but these things are taken down, moved, and put back together on a weekly basis. Sooner or later someone will forget to tighten a bolt or misalign something. How much can they possibly inspect? How can the inspectors account for weight and repeated use? It's probably a matter of luck that more incidents haven't occurred in the past.
An inspection never guarantees proper operation or safety. Like you said, they can only look at so many things. I wonder if there's some sort of manufacturer's specs on replacement of some parts after so many uses. I'd imagine your run-of-the-mill onsite inspection really can't account for wear and fatigue on some of the structural parts. Nuts and bolts and gears are one thing but being able to determine if a main steel beam or arm or something is weakened is probably impossible to discern by an eye test.
was inspected and determined to be safe the day of the accident.
I don't do carnival rides. Can't trust the attendants who generally look like long-time meth users.
"Malfunction" seems a bit understated.
My rule of thumb is if you're not strapped in like a cosmonaut in a Soyuz vehicle, the ride's not safe.
*traumatized as a youth at Great America in Gurnee, and then at King's Dominion
Vladimir Komarov would like to have a word with you.
With the best and safest rides (Cedar Point) there's a moment of doubt - say, near the apex of the roller coaster ride just before the plunge - where you wonder if "this was a good idea." I guess that's what makes it exciting.
A community where I worked years ago hosted a county fair that suffered a fatality from a ride. I know it's an extremely small sample and they're probably safer than driving a car, but no thanks.
Even Cedar Point isn't safe... The Twisted Coaster is not safe by design. When the floor drops down before the ride starts, my feet can still touch the ground. I'm 6'5", so tall, but not freakishly tall. But if I didn't hold my legs up during the ride, I could've had my feet chopped off. I guess that adds to the thrill...
I get along fine with only one foot....it barely slows me down
As a kid in the late 60's early 70's when the carnival showed up they would hire us to help set up stuff. Our traing and skills were not that great to say the least but we thought it was awesome making some cash. I never rode them much after that.
The scariest thing here to me is how frequent little "carnival" pop up in strip mall parking lots. I've always assumed the bigger place like amusement parks and large state fairs were fairly safe until now. The danger is part of the fun but, you never really think your life is truly in danger. I wonder if they'll start testing these rides more like how they test airplanes
A friend of mine lives directly adjacent to the fairgrounds and heard the accident from her living room. Had no idea what that sound was until the news hit. Terrifying.
August 2nd, 2017 at 12:31 PM ^
At the Ohio History Center, the architectural salvage place, or Crew Stadium?
(Of course I don't know how loud it was, but it just doesn't seem like there's anything residential anywhere near the place where the rides go at the State Fair.)
And that's why you don't ride fair rides. Especially in Ohio.
Does anyone know the company that designed / built the ride? I'm wondering what other ventures they have. Not at all minimizing the human tragedy, but clearly there is an engineering failure in design, probability of modeling failure / potential human error, something...
Found it. KMG a Romanian / Dutch company... A big oil company, apparently....
Its a real tragedy what happened in Ohio. My kids and I were riding on the same ride from the same manufacturer called "Beach Blaster" at San Diego's Belmont Park on Wednesday when the accident happened. When I checked my news feed later it was a hug your kids and count your blessings kind of moment.
The kid who died was 18. He was going to start senior year of high school and enrolled in the marines last week. He was part of his high school's ROTC program. He worked with the police and I believe they called him a Junior Police Officer on the news.
But we do have a large-scale problem in this country, namely, counterfeit or improperly-treated fasteners and metal components. Chinese industry has flooded our markets with bolts, for example, which are backroom manufactured without heat/quench cycles and uninspected yet receive fake certifications and then are released into the markets. Weak fasteners like these have been found in aircraft and buildings inter alia. Americans have been killed when the cheap parts fail, and it's been estimated there are millions if not billions of apparently fine but inherently weak metal pieces installed just about everywhere.