Tod Lindsey emerged from beneath Cedar Point's 79-year-old racing horse carousel, carrying a flashlight and covered in grease.
"There are a lot of moving parts down there and they all need to be lubricated, so you get pretty messy," he said of his new coat of grime.
Cedar Point may have opened to the public yesterday, but Ohio Department of Agriculture inspectors like Mr. Lindsey have been at the Sandusky amusement park for nearly four weeks - examining its 67 rides for any structural integrity problems and safety concerns.
Yet as the 2004 season for roller coasters, Ferris wheels, and other amusement rides gets under way, a review by The Blade has found that both Ohio and Michigan have only a handful of inspectors to oversee the safety of thousands of rides at hundreds of locations.
Ohio has just six inspectors who are charged with inspecting more than 2,200 amusement rides at 98 permanent parks, 68 go-kart tracks, and 251 portable ride companies that travel around the state. Over the last two years, 13 citations have been issued to companies operating amusement rides without a license, and inspectors fear there are more out there.
In Michigan, the Department of Labor and Economic Growth is busy year-round overseeing inspections of amusement rides spring through fall as well
as ski lifts in the winter. Just like in Ohio, every ride that operates in Michigan has to have a license and an initial yearly inspection before it can be operated.
Yet Michigan has even fewer inspectors than Ohio: only four in the field plus an engineer who oversees the program.
"We request that each carnival have an on-site, certified inspector who travels with the carnival," said Andrew Metcalf, Jr., who is in charge of Michigan labor department's Bureau of Commercial Services, which oversees inspections. "They are supposed to keep a log and if we were to go on the site and find out that the logs were not kept up, then that particular ride could be cited and the carnival too."
Some amusement ride operators - and even inspectors like Mr. Lindsey - told The Blade that the inspection programs in the two states are too understaffed to handle the workload.
Dwayne Macek, office manager of Kissel Bros. Shows Inc. in Cincinnati, said inspectors do a good job, but he quickly points out that their numbers are woefully low. Among the firm's many stops across Ohio: the annual Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish festival in South Toledo.
"There are too many events to do," Mr. Macek said. "We move every week, and with the shortage of quality inspectors, we are seeing them half as often as we did five years ago."
Kissel Bros. was lasted cited in 2002. Inspectors ruled that a 3-year-old girl fell out of an inflatable ride and broke her arm because the attendant was not paying attention.
Dave Sexton, owner of Party Animals in Barberton, Ohio, agreed that there are too few inspectors.
"They are spread way too thin," he said. "There are the huge places like Cedar Point, plus all the traveling carnival ride companies that go place to place."
As one of the inspectors responsible for keeping track of all that, Mr. Lindsey is aware of the monumental job at hand.
"I believe with the way the division operates, as far as being efficient if we had eight inspectors on staff, and if they were in the proper locations, the division would run more efficiently," he said.
Ohio usually has eight inspectors, but two are on paid administrative leave because criminal charges have been filed against them in connection with the death of an 8-year-old boy last year.
Inspectors Theodore Brubaker and Kalin Turner were indicted by a Lake County grand jury in connection with the death of the boy who was electrocuted by a bumper car ride Aug. 13 at the county fair near Painesville, Ohio. The two men had inspected the ride the previous day.
The Lake County prosecutor's office allege the boy, Greyson Yoe of Madison Township, was shocked and eventually died Sept. 2 because the ride was not properly grounded. The two inspectors broke the law, the prosecution alleges, because the two inspectors failed to properly inspect the ride.
Three other people - Eugene Chaffee, whose now defunct amusement company owned the ride; Nicholas Rock, an 80-year-old electrician who worked for the Lake County Fair, and James Highway, a Buffalo, N.Y., man who was the ride supervisor - were also indicted. The defendants are scheduled to stand trial this summer.
Mr. Lindsey declined to talk in detail about the charges against his colleagues, but he did say he was surprised by the allegations.
Fatal accidents such as the one last year in Lake County and the one May 1 in which 55-year-old Stanley Mordarsky was killed at Six Flags New England amusement park in Massachusetts exemplify the need for close scrutiny of rides, critics of the amusement park industry say.
Mr. Mordarsky, who had cerebral palsy, died when he was thrown from the Superman Ride of Steel roller coaster. The coaster's cars were made by the same manufacturer, and are similar in design, as the cars on the Millenium Force at Cedar Point, Mr. Lindsey said. As a matter of precaution, the state contacts the manufacturer to see if there is anything inspectors need to be concerned about.
Traveling amusement ride companies, like the one that owned the bumper car ride on which Greyson died, received the majority of warnings and fines last year from Ohio inspectors, said Melanie Wilt, an Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesman.
In 2003, several companies operating in Ohio were fined for simple violations, such as not attaching proper decals, and more serious infractions like improper insulation of electrical wires or operating without a license. The latter violation can result in a fine of not more than $1,000 for the first violation and not more than $5,000 for each subsequent violation. A total of 22 fines were issued last year totaling $39,600.
"Anytime you come upon a ride and see there is a disregard of any maintenance, it gives me the impression that the ride owner has little care for his equipment," Mr. Lindsey said.
When a state inspector orders a ride shut down for repair, it can be returned to service the same day provided the problem is corrected. Inspectors then do a follow-up inspection to make sure the issue was addressed.
Permanent amusement parks and traveling ride operators in Ohio are all required by law to conduct daily inspections of their own, keep maintenance and training logs, and make repairs as needed. Mr. Lindsey said some portable rides companies expect state inspectors to operate as their maintenance staff, telling them what they need to fix instead of taking a proactive approach.
"I take grave concern when that happens because we are not here to be their maintenance program," he said.
Places such as Cedar Point and Kings Island have their own maintenance crews, who "do a good job of inspecting and maintaining the rides," he said.
Cedar Point has 130 maintenance workers, including 48 permanent mechanics, said Jack Fletcher, the park's maintenance manager.
Ms. Wilt said that when inspectors have found problems with roller coasters or other rides at the big amusement parks, the issues are usually remedied quickly and without sending a warning letter.
Cedar Point, Geauga Lake amusement park in Aurora, Ohio, and Kings Island near Cincinnati, get a good deal of attention before opening for the season, Ms. Wilt added. Geauga Lake amusement park resumed using its old name this year after Cedar Point's parent company, Cedar Fair LP, purchased the facility from Six Flags Ohio.
In the past several years at Cedar Point, for example, inspectors have found cracked, broken, or worn wood on the park's wooden coasters - the Gemini, the Mean Streak, the Mine Ride, and the Blue Streak. Some cracks were found in the metal of steel coasters, but they have needed little maintenance.
Robin Innes, a park spokesman, emphasized that the coasters with inspection problems all passed follow-up state safety inspections.
Traveling amusement ride companies have to file their travel itineraries with Ohio and Michigan regulators so inspectors can do surprise checkups during the season.
Last year, eight companies were cited for operating in the Buckeye state without a license; six were cited for itinerary violations, and four for unsafe operation.
Kathy Fackler, president of Saferparks, a San Diego area nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing amusement ride-related accidents, said that despite their handful of inspectors, amusement ride inspection programs in Ohio and Michigan are two of the best in the country. But her compliment came with a footnote.
"Safety regulations across the country are appalling in almost every state," Ms. Fackler said.
The amusement ride industry in some states, such as Utah, is completely unregulated, she said.
Michigan ride inspectors last year took 41 personal injury reports and seven mechanical failure reports. They issued 158 safety orders.
Thirty-one people were injured in July, 2001, on a ride at Michigan's Adventure amusement park in Muskegon. Inspectors later concluded that the accident was caused by a mechanical failure and that the park - which is also owned by Cedar Fair - may not have done proper inspections of the ride. State inspectors also found deficiencies in maintenance and inspection logs at the park. The ride, a rotating disc that tilts into the air like a Ferris wheel while riders spin around in separate cars, was shut down after the incident.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, mobile amusement rides accounted for an estimated 3,000 injuries to riders in that were treated in hospital emergency rooms during 2002, the most recent years for which figures were available. From 1987 to 2000, for mobile and permanent amusement rides, there were an estimated 4.5 fatalities per year on amusement rides.
While that figure may not seem high compared to the number of people who visit amusement parks, safety advocates such as Ms. Fackler argue that patrons do not expect to die or be injured when they board a roller coaster or some other "amusement" ride.
Mr. Metcalf said inspectors work hard to prevent such tragedies.
"If we think a ride was unsafe mechanically, where it would injure someone, or there was a likelihood of danger to the public, then my people can shut it down right there on the site," he said.
Contact Ignazio Messina at
imessina@theblade.com
or 419-724-6088.
First Published May 9, 2004, 11:00 a.m.
