Santa Clara, CA: A recent review of an amusement park accident at the Ohio State Fair which killed one person, has found that the operator of the ride is responsible for the incident. However, the cause remains undetermined.
The report was made Dennis Speigel, the president of the Walnut Hills-based International Theme Park Services, a consulting firm to the amusement park industry, after reviewing bystander video of the ride breaking. Not only did it kill one person, it also injured seven others.
Amusement park accidents involve incidents that occur in all types of amusement parks. These include large-scale parks, such as Disneyland or Disney World, Six Flags theme parks, and water parks down to smaller, traveling carnivals, animal parks, state fairs and school carnivals. Accidents occur at all types of amusement parks, carnivals and fairs and can involve park guests and outsourced workers who maintain the grounds.
Investigations are usually done following an amusement park ride malfunction and they focus on possible causes, including ride responsibility, operator error or design/technical.
In the Ohio State Fair, the incident involved a chair coming off a ride. This may have been caused by fatigue of a bolt or a connection but it remains to be determined.
The manufacturer of the ride, Netherlands-based KMG, is well-known and respected in the industry, according to Speigel. The company issued a notice Thursday asking owners of similar rides they manufactured to stop running them until an investigation is complete.
