Ohio State Fair Accident: Ride had visible crack at point of failure prior to accident.

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The interview with the Ohio Highway Patrol investigator started out predictably: How long have you been an amusement-ride inspector? What’s your training? What types of things do you look for?

But it ended on the photo that shows a large crack exactly at the point where the Fire Ball ride at the Ohio State Fair broke off, killing one man and injuring seven others, some critically. The photo was taken by a bystander right before the ride flew apart on July 26.

Did you see that?

“I can’t say definitively I did or didn’t,” responded state Department of Agriculture ride inspector Ron Dean, one of six inspectors who took part in clearing the Fire Ball for operation that day.

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What would your next plan of action be if you were to see something like that, the investigator asked.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to answer that, based on just a picture,” Dean said. “You know, and there is no specific course of action, per se. Everything’s kind of unique, and again, based on just the picture alone, I don’t know what direction it would go in that.

“That’s not something that we dictate what happens. We always fall back to the manufacturer.”

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While it’s not clear when the crack appeared, and it’s possible it wasn’t there when the ride was approved for operation the day it broke, what is now clear is that the Fire Ball was a tragedy waiting to happen. The ride, which spun riders 65 feet in the air, was close to breaking into pieces from interior rust.

An investigation shows there were other clues that things weren’t right with the Fire Ball.

Martin said one photo he noticed in a just-released Consumer Product Safety Commission investigation of the tragedy is akin to a “smoking gun.” It shows a severely rusted electrical box, part of the critical safety restraint system that locked and unlocked the over-the-shoulder safety bars on the gondola that broke off.

How did inspectors miss that rust when they checked off that the ride was visibly free of excessive wear?

“That’s enough right there” to shut down the ride, Martin said. “That box is supposed to be waterproof, watertight. I don’t have to warn you how dangerous water and electricity are.”

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The Highway Patrol’s final written report, released in August, never mentioned that an investigator had asked Dean directly whether he had seen the crack in photos. It also never mentioned that Dean couldn’t rule out that he had or hadn’t. Those facts were in recordings released last week.

Rather, the report said that investigators asked Dean “if he would have seen this crack, what if any action would you have taken?”

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The rusted electrical box Martin spotted is just above where the Fire Ball’s steel arm broke off, apparently from extensive rust on the inside of the beam. At some point, the beam had corroded through enough to reveal a crack where the arm eventually snapped off.

Photos showing that crack were among about 100 shots a bystander took before and after the ride broke. Although investigators mentioned the crack photo in their report, the Highway Patrol at first withheld the bystander’s photos, citing his copyright. The Highway Patrol released the photos last week after The Dispatch had already published a photo of the crack with permission from the photographer.

One of those newly released photos shows the Fire Ball swinging high in the air, loaded with children and adults. Zooming in, a bulge appears on a different arm than the one that broke, but at the same location where the failed arm cracked.

Were other arms also deforming from interior rust?

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Emails show that Dean still had problems with the Fire Ball as late as 4:23 p.m. July 25, the day before the ride broke. He sent a list of three problems to fix to Bill Costagliola of the ride’s owner, Amusements of America. Emails also show that inspectors periodically updated spreadsheets to show which rides had passed inspection.

The Fire Ball’s listing turned green, showing it had passed inspection, in an email sent out at 5:49 a.m. on July 26, about 13½ hours before the ride broke. Sometime between 4:23 p.m. on July 25 and 5:49 a.m. on July 26, state inspectors decided the Fire Ball was safe.

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