Ride company linked to past problems

The California-based carnival company involved in two accidents Saturday at the Spokane County Interstate Fair has a history of injury-causing accidents in Washington and other Western states.

Fair officials, however, say they’re convinced that Butler Amusements Inc. is doing everything possible to provide safe entertainment, and they have agreed to keep the midway open.

“I’m very confident in their safety record,” said Spokane County Fair and Expo Center Director Rich Hartzell.

On Saturday, a teenage boy had to get staples in his scalp after a ride on the Gravitron, an incident state regulators blame on “rider error.” Also that day two 13-year-old girls escaped injury when a broken bolt and missing pin caused one side of their passenger cage to disconnect and drop six inches on a ride called the Zipper, which flips riders upside down as their cages rotate along a moving oval boom.

Butler Amusements hasn’t been connected to past accidents in Spokane, but several riders at its carnivals in other parts of the state and in California have been killed and seriously injured, according to news accounts and regulators in both states.

•A 6-year-old boy fell to his death from a Ferris wheel at the 2006 San Joaquin County Fair when, after being put on the ride alone, he crawled out of a gondola car and plummeted 90 feet.

•A 35-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman were seriously injured at a 2000 San Jose fair when the chain broke on a Butler Amusements Whirlwind ride, throwing them 50 feet from their seat.

A California Department of Industrial Relations inspector later found that many of the chains on the ride’s seats were badly worn and needed to be replaced.

Police said that the ride operator was drunk.

•Seven people were injured by a hydraulic pump explosion on Butler Amusement’s Star Dancer ride at the 2001 Clark County Fair in Washington.

•Four people were trapped on a Butler Amusements roller coaster in 2003 in Monroe, Wash., when one of the wheels jumped a rail.

•More recently, two teens broke their arms on the company’s Tornado ride at the Clark County Fair last year. State inspectors ruled that the accident was caused by the teens grabbing a moving part of the ride they should not have.

Butler Amusements spokeswoman Andrea Owen said that the company’s rides are inspected annually by Washington state officials and that company officials inspect the rides daily.

She did not respond to questions about the two Spokane accidents.

Hartzell, the fair director, said that Butler Amusements had no accidents in the three years he’s worked at the fair and that he had experienced good safety practices with the company in his 15 years of working with it at other fairs. He added that he was pleased with the company’s response to the two weekend accidents.

In the first incident, a 14-year-old boy hit his head on a metal piece of the Gravitron, a ride that pushes people against its sides using centrifugal force.

The boy said the operator started the ride too early. But according to an incident report, the operator said the boy climbed up the walls of the ride despite warnings not to do so.

The Washington Department of Labor and Industries chalked up the accident to rider error.

In the second accident Saturday, two 13-year-old girls were riding the Zipper when part of the seat broke away after a bolt failed and a pin dropped out. Both girls were removed from the ride without injury.

“I’ve talked with the carnival folks since then, and they personally replaced – whether it needed it or not – every one of those pins in every single basket,” Hartzell said.

Washington Labor and Industries annually inspects all amusement rides operating within its borders.

The rides also undergo electrical inspections each time they are moved, said Brandi O’Shurak, a customer service specialist with the state agency.

For a company like Butler Amusements, which operates in multiple Western states, rides are inspected many times a year to meet each state’s requirements.

Carnival operators say their rides are safe.

According to the industry group Outdoor Amusement Business Association, 350 million Americans attend carnivals each year.

Using federally collected injury statistics, the group estimates eight ride-related injuries for every million riders.