Fair Ride Fatality

[dik]

From the AP:
"COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Inspectors repeatedly looked over a thrill ride while it was assembled at the Ohio State Fair and signed off on it hours before it flew apart in a deadly accident that flung passengers through the air, according to authorities and records released Thursday.

Investigators on Thursday worked to find what caused the opening-day wreck that killed a high school student who had just enlisted in the Marines. Seven other people were injured, including four teenagers."

Link:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/thrill-ride-ok-d-hours-before-deadly-ohio-state-fair-accident-1.3520967

 

[byrdj]

prayers and condolances to the families....

the one drawback of an engineering background was the more I learned, I quit amusement rides.
any device that is assembled and "inspected" overnight that can take my life is not for me.

graphic warning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhH_tCzoGMQ

 

[oldestguy]

This subject is something like gun control. One faction wants to eliminate the rides and another will be objecting to government controlling our lives. Hey, your swing in the backyard is too dangerous for your kids. You need a permit after the PE signs off. No simple answer.

 

[Spartan5]

I'm wondering if it was a design flaw/fatigue failure and not the on-site assembly that caused the failure. Just eyeballing it it looks like a tremendous load where the connection failed.

 

[dik]

I've reviewed a couple of amusement park ride structures and, for the most part, they are well engineered... like a PEMB. They attempt to minimise the weight for shipping and handling and the connections for simplicity of installation. I've found, in general, they are well engineered... just like PEMBs, but, I don't like them either.

Dik

 

[cranky108]

Is it just me, but on rides I rode years ago I noticed about half the bolts installed on the rides. I wondered why all of them were not installed.

But then again the ride operators many times looked like they were on something, and not paying attention.

Maybe the inspectors need to worry about there jobs.

 

[oldestguy]

cranky: When you are working for a carnival you likely are there because there isn't much else out there for your level of education and smarts. Add to it the rides are torn down after the crowd leaves near midnight and you have to be up again at dawn after a rough trip to the next town. So, in the dark a bunch of bolts get lost, at least you have some still the next day to assemble things.

 

[drawoh]

cranky108,

I recently was sourcing an enclosure for an IP66/Explosion proof (Ex_P) environment. I was advised by a couple of vendors that the fewer and more convenient the fasteners are, the less chance there is they will be left out at assembly time. This is a good DFMA issue.

--
JHG

 

[itsmoked]

All I can say is.. "what a moronic ride".

I can't fathom why people would ride such a sketchy uncomfortable ride.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[zeusfaber]

I remember hearing the (UK) HSE inspector who covers amusement rides interviewed on the radio a few years ago.

He was saying that he had a huge respect for the operators of mobile fairground rides who, though very often illiterate in every formal sense, nevertheless had a huge store of common sense, mechanical sympathy and deep-seated wish to stay in (what was often the family) business in the long term. He saw the fact that their rides are reassembled every week as a valuable inspection opportunity, in contrast to the much longer (if more formally scheduled) intervals for the fixed rides in amusement parks.

It might be selective blindness on my part, or selective reporting, but most of the Ride Incident stories I hear on the news seem to be about fixed rides.

Looking back to when my son was about ten, we took him and a friend to a well-known theme park in the Midlands. After he and his mate had come back all red faced and full of excitement from riding on Ob++++on on their own, I pointed out some of the obvious weld repairs on the structure of the ride we were queuing for next - and was quite surprised at how pale and quiet they went.

A.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

I am surprised more stuff doesn't go wrong. The ride is taken apart moved and reassembled all the time. When I take apart my pinball machines, I invariably end up with a few leftover pieces when I reassembly the mechanism.

I do find it pretty hilarious when an operator drops a bolt or throws out some loose bungie rope just before starting a ride to freak out the riders.

 

[3DDave]

HamburgerHelper - it's a nice thing surgeons don't do that.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

3DDave,

It isn't unheard of for a surgeons to leave sponges or other things in the patients or carry out the wrong operation. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S.

 

[hawkaz]

"Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S."

Yet this incident at the fair will get more publicity than all of the medical errors combined (unless the patient is Michael Jackson)

 

[3DDave]

I didn't say there were no mistakes, just that it wasn't to freak out the riders. I guess you were focused on your pinball failures.

 

[hokie66]

The ride manufacturer is saying that corrosion caused the failure. Apparently, the member which failed was a hollow section, and it corroded on the inside. No report on the age of the ride.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/corrosion-ride-caused-deadly-ohio-state-fair-accident/story?id=49067036

 

[itsmoked]

Dang. That opens it up to every one of the rides with coastal/wet ones being especially concerning. We have that ride at our local Boardwalk a hundred feet from the ocean.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[byrdj]

the ride manufactor website

http://www.kmg.nl/kmg/factory/factory_en.html

and a sales brochure of the ride

http://www.kmg.nl/kmg/factory/folder/folder_afterburner.pdf