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Accident at Ohio State Fair- 1 dead, 7 injured

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
WARNING: Whilst the video below doesn't directly show any gore, it does clearly show people being seriously injured and killed. Please watch at your own discretion.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/critical-injured-report-incident-ride-ohio-state-fair/story?id=48873623

One person is dead and seven others injured -- three of whom are in critical condition -- following an incident Wednesday night involving a ride at the Ohio State Fair, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

The Grant Medical Center in Columbus has admitted three patients, hospital spokesperson Mark Hopkins told ABC News. Two of the three patients are in fair and stable condition, while the third is in critical and stable condition. Hopkins said the hospital is not expecting any additional patients.

And Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center said it received three patients from the fair. It has not released the condition of the patients.


This is a screen grab from a video taken of a ride at the Ohio State Fair on July 26, 2017, moments before it had an accident, leaving multiple people injured and one dead.

The scene at the Ohio State Fair on July 26, 2017, after an accident involving a ride left one dead and multiple injured.

The official Twitter account for the Ohio State Fair confirmed the report at 7:37 p.m., tweeting, "There has been a report of a ride incident. We are investigating and will report information as available."

Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin said people were trapped on the ride, ABC Columbus affiliate WSYXreported.

In a statement, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he was “terribly saddened” by the incident and that he ordered that all fair rides be shut down under additional safety inspections are completed.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to those grieving and injured,” Kasich said.

Wednesday marked the first day of the fair, which is scheduled to run through Aug. 6, according to the fair's website.

Truly terrible. Thoughts to everyone involved.

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catsounds

Mega Poster
That's awful
:(
and it's the kind of thing you tell any friends that worry about ride safety would never happen, surely this is down to the owners of the ride not giving it the maintenance it needs?!?
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
That's awful
:(
and it's the kind of thing you tell any friends that worry about ride safety would never happen, surely this is down to the owners of the ride not giving it the maintenance it needs?!?
Seeing as it was the first day of the fair, I'd think it has to do with poor assembly of the ride. In no other scenario would such structural failure occur.

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Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
This is atrocious. Really awful.

I will admit, after watching that video, I can't help but think it's a miracle the fatalities weren't higher (although I understand the severity of the other three critically injured people remains unknown at the moment). I mean, the speed and height that thing falls from is just... it doesn't bear thinking about.
 

Bert2theSpark

Mega Poster
What?! There planning on reopening the fair today!?! I mean in the UK we have at least a few day closure when a ride incident happens. This incident is something you are most likely to see as a fake or as an Asian flat...
 

Lofty

CF Legend
This is terrifying - also, that video is quite potentially the most bad taste thing I've ever seen - the music... really? Thoughts go out to all involved and those that saw it.

This incident is something you are most likely to see as a fake or as an Asian flat...
What makes you say that?!
 

spicy

Giga Poster
Oh god, you literally think this couldn't happen! Terrible.

Does it hit the barrier or just break off? Has to be poor assembly as others have said :(
 

rctneil

Roller Poster
That's horrific. Terribly sorry to see that video. I hope the injured have a speedy recovery.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
Pretty shocking. Wouldn't want to make a snap judgement, but I am now curious as to what went wrong. Videos like this are awful but can also be insightful going forward with regards to health & safety.
 

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
I was at Great America when a friend that met up with us told us what happened and showed us this video. Genuinely horrifying to see that in the middle of such an amazing day at such a happy place, not to mention hearing that something like this happened an hour from my house the very day I left for my region trip. I'll never forget how horrified Connor and GuyWithAStick looked seeing that for the first time. Kinda freaky how two Ohioans heard it first from a couple of Chicago people, some of the locals we met up with seemed kind of surprised we didn't know more about it when asked. Absolutely horrible and devastating to hear this happened back in my home state, especially at an event I had toyed with attending.

Usually we joke about how sketchy these things come across but I've never actually not felt safe on one. If someone had told me this had happened at I-X Indoor Amusement Park where I was this March I would be very shocked.

Kasich said that everything's been inspected and is good to go and it sounds like everything's still on. Think he was also the one that said that metal fatigue (phenomenon that causes cracks to form when metal is repeatedly loaded and unloaded, think bending a paper clip back and forth over and over again til it snaps), which is usually caught by sending bolts in for testing or visual inspection of ride hardware for cracks before they grow. Interested to see what actually caused this.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
It's rare to find a ride accident that is truly a coin flip. Operator error, lack of safety inspection, human behavior; something else is always to blame. In this case however, it would appear the gondola arm physically broke in two, which at present seems a completely random event that would have been impossible to stop. I too am eager to hear about further inspection, as this accident really seemed unavoidable.

What's more, I've ridden this exactly swinging pendulum as well. Pretty nerve wracking to see video of a perfectly normal operation go south so quickly in the video.

What?! There planning on reopening the fair today!?! I mean in the UK we have at least a few day closure when a ride incident happens. This incident is something you are most likely to see as a fake or as an Asian flat...
All rides will remain closed. State Fairs in America actually pack in a lot of programming and run for a very limited time (2-3 weeks), such as livestock competitions and concerts (Pentatonix will be performing at the Ohio State Fair this year).

Seeing as it was the first day of the fair, I'd think it has to do with poor assembly of the ride. In no other scenario would such structural failure occur.
Per state law, all rides must be inspected and certified before opening. My only possible explanation here would be structural fatigue within the gondola arm, invisible to the naked eye inspecting the ride, hence the ride being certified to operate.
 

Pierre

Strata Poster
Why did the person who uploaded the video add AT music to it :eek: I mean wtf?

I actually logged on here to see if it was real as I saw it on Facebook and I'm always dubious of videos on social media, especially ones that seem to unrealistic to have actually happened. Sadly this was all too true.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
More tidbits coming forward.

First, the inspection report for the ride was clear and checked:
And an astonishingly upclose shot of the Fireball ride, where the seats separate from the gondola. Notice the breakage is not at a joint or welding point, but the steel arm itself sheering into two. There is a lot of discussion on the CoasterForce Chat of NDT x-ray, which is an industry standard technique for checking for fatigue and stress caused to steel, not visible to the human eye. It would appear from all that has been put forward, NDT is not a required portion of ride inspection by the state.

The severed cables I would guess are also restraint controllers, which would explain why restraints opened for the fateful rider?

20374732_2092654640760870_4387090590162856068_n.jpg
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Yeah that looks a lot more like metal fatigue than anything. Still a terrible occurrence.

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TLARides

Hyper Poster
I heard about this while in my hotel room in Louisville on a trip to Kentucky Kingdom. I have the theory that it malfunctioned. Normally these rides will extend their gates out to make sure the ride doesn't hit it, but it looks like it never extended that side. It can't be rust or poor craftsmanship, because this looks like a fairly new ride.

I honestly hope the 6 injured are okay.

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Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Full aftermath video of the accident today. Warning this contains graphic content and should be viewed at your own
discresion.

EDIT: I know this video won't embed on CF due to it's graphic content, but I'm removing the embedding altogether. The video below is extremely graphic, and contains footage of critically (and likely fatally) injured people. As Chris has said, please view entirely at your own discretion. Hixee

https://www.facebook.com/randomvideosforyou/videos/904314699720949/
 
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Ethan

Strata Poster
^ Not sure how I feel about the person who filmed that getting right up close to victims who were obviously not okay in any way. Not very nice to watch at all, kind of wish I didn't watch it now.

I really can't believe this has happened. Like somebody said earlier, it's scary to think that this wasn't operator error or the like.
 
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