After the "Fireball" ride at the Ohio State Fair malfunctioned on Wednesday night, killing one person and injuring seven others, we wanted to take a look at how often carnival rides are inspected in Michigan.
The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) is the state agency that inspects the rides.
According to LARA, there are 50-100 million rides per year at carnivals, fairs and more across Michigan. The department inspects those rides once a year.
Michigan has five inspectors for the entire state, and on any given day, there are about 1,000 rides running during the summer.
Of those 1,000 rides, 100 companies are at fixed locations, while 212 come in with moving carnival operations with 887 rides in all.
Those companies must have a permit to operate and obtain that permit before March 1 of the year. Each ride must be inspected by the state but only once a year, and the LARA inspector can shut down an unsafe ride. LARA says after that, it's up to the carnival to keep up with inspections.
In 2016, there were 10 reports of injuries from carnival rides, but LARA said those were mostly due to rider error.
In 2014, an 8-year-old and 6-year-old fell from a ferris wheel at the Chelsea fair. It was determined that the girl's crutch got stuck which caused the bucket to tip.
Officials on Thursday inspected a ride at SterlingFest that is similar to the "Fireball" ride that had the accident in Ohio.
Inspection happening right now at SterlingFest on ride similar to "Fireball" Different manufacturer than Ohio's tragedy. @wxyzdetroit pic.twitter.com/mF7LGCUvGw
— Brian Abel (@BrianAbelTV) July 27, 2017
