State Fair yanks ride by firm behind 2017 tragedy
Shahid Meighan and Max Filby
Ohio State Fair officials said on Friday they are pulling an amusement ride manufactured by Netherlands-based KMG — the same company that made the Fire Ball amusement ride that killed one and severely injured several others at the fair in 2017 — after a Dispatch review of public records found the ride was to be at the 2024 fair and that it operated at the 2023 fair.
Fair officials told The Dispatch and other media they no longer would have KMG rides in the wake of the Fire Ball tragedy. But The Dispatch found through a public records request that KMG’s “Crazy Surf ” ride was planned to be in the Kiddieland area of this year’s fair, set for July 24-Aug. 4, and had been at the 2023 fair.
“Following the tragic accident in 2017, we have been clear with our amusement ride provider, Talley Amusements, that we did not want rides manufactured by KMG at the Ohio State Fair and had been assured that no such rides would be at our event,” Alicia Shoults, assistant general manager for the Ohio Expo Center and State Fair, said in an email Friday evening.
“Unfortunately, today, we discovered that a ride that is manufactured by KMG was, in fact, at the 2023 Ohio State Fair and planned for the 2024 Ohio State Fair,” Shoults said. “Immediately upon learning of this, Gov. DeWine ordered the Ohio State Fair to pull the ride from this year’s lineup. Rest assured there will be no rides manufactured by KMG at this year’s Ohio State Fair.”
Shoults said there were no incidents involving the Crazy Surf ride’s operation at the 2023 state fair.
The collapse of a gondola on the Fire Ball amusement park ride at the 2017 Ohio State Fair killed 18-year-old Tyler Jarrell and injured several others, including his girlfriend, Keziah Lewis.
As the ride was in motion, the gondola seat that Jarrell and Lewis were in suddenly broke off. Jarrell was thrown high into the air and landed on the ground about 50 feet from the ride. He was pronounced dead at the scene, The Dispatch reported at the time.
Video from the disaster also showed Lewis being thrown nearly 50 feet through the air, colliding with another gondola on the ride before crashing to the concrete below.
Lewis sustained critical injuries, which led to more than $2 million in medical bills by December 2017, according to Cooper Elliott, the law firm that represented her. Lewis’ physical and psychological injuries include a lifelong neurologic deficit in her right foot which requires ongoing physical and cognitive rehabilitation, her attorneys said in a news release.
Of the $20 million the New Jersey court awarded Keziah, $10 million was designated as punitive damages, according to Cooper Elliott.