COLUMBUS – State officials say a midway ride at the Ohio State Fair that malfunctioned Wednesday night, killing one person and injuring seven others, had passed its inspection just days earlier.
UPDATE: According to The Columbus Dispatch, the Ohio State Highway Patrol identified the man who died as Tyler Jarrell, 18, of Reynoldsburg. Those injured were identified as 36-year-old Tamika Dunlap, of Reynoldsburg, 22-year-old Jacob Andrews, of Pataskala, 42-year-old Russell Franks, 19-year-old Keziah Lewis, 18-year-old Jennifer Lambert, 19-year-old Abdihakim Hussein, all of Columbus, and a 14-year-old boy whose family requested that his name be withheld.
Our hearts are heavy… pic.twitter.com/Lzc6fUz6WG
— Ohio State Fair (@OhioStateFair) July 27, 2017
The fair will be open Thursday but officials say the rides won’t be running until they’re all determined to be safe.
“Our team looked at [the ride], we had a third-party team look at it, it’s been looked at about three or four times over the course of two days,” said Michael Vartorella, chief inspector with the Agriculture Department‘s Amusement Ride Safety Division, the agency charged with inspecting all amusement-park and fair rides.
Director of Agriculture David Daniels says they started out the day with 11 rides that didn’t open because the inspection work wasn’t done on them. He says there are four rides that won’t be operating because they don’t meet the mechanical test.
Dramatic video captured by a bystander shows the Fire Ball ride swinging and spinning when it crashes into something and part of the ride flies off. Screams are heard as passengers are thrown to the ground.
Officials say an 18-year-old man who was killed was one of the people who were thrown. Three of the injured are in critical condition. The injured people range in age from 13 to 41 years of age, a Columbus Division of Fire spokesman said.
“Multiple passengers were ejected at high speed with high energy many feet — at least twenty, if not more – and then crashed at a significant distance from,” said Dr. Michael Evans, trauma medical director at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where three of the injured were reported to be in critical condition.
Evans expected those patients to remain hospitalized for one week.
Additional injured people were reportedly taken to Grant Medical Center.
In a statement, Gov. John Kasich said he is “terribly saddened by this accident, by the loss of life and that people were injured enjoying Ohio’s fair.”
Kasich said he has ordered a full investigation and also ordered that all fair rides be shut down until additional safety inspections can be completed.
Gov. Kasich's statement on tonight's incident at the Ohio State Fair. pic.twitter.com/PFjfHWMIab
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) July 27, 2017
“The fair is about the best things in life and then, tonight, with this accident, it becomes a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Kasich told to reporters Wednesday night.
In a statement early Thursday, the fair says its “hearts are heavy for the families of those involved.”
On its website, Amusements of America says that since its debut in 2002, the Fire Ball has become “one of the most popular thrill rides on the AOA Midway.” The company description of the ride says it swings riders 40 feet above the midway while spinning them at 13 revolutions per minute.
The company did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.