Ohio state amusement ride inspector Ron Dean remembers one of the best roller coaster experiences of his life at Cedar Point on the “Top Thrill Dragster” ride.
“It was opening day, and me and another inspector were the first riders for the day," Dean recalled. "It was very cloudy out so the clouds were actually lying very low."
Dean went on to explain that the pair of inspectors knew that due to a combination of conditions: cold air, which makes the coaster wheels drag, and being the first launch of the season so the motor wasn't warmed up, meant there was a chance they would experience a rollback.
"So we knew that when it launches you, you don’t make it over the top and it actually rolls you backward," Dean said.
Tyler’s Law was signed into effect in 2019 in Ohio, to strengthen rules for amusement park rides.
Although they can be scary, rollbacks are a rare and safe occurrence, and most coasters have a brake system designed specifically for this.
For coaster geeks, rollbacks are a treat often referred to as a short-shot, giving the rider a ride and a half when the train comes back into the station where it is launched all over again.
"But it was just kind of neat because you actually went up through the cloud deck because it was so low,” Dean said. “That was a unique one. You probably can’t recreate that one."
Dean is the chief amusement ride inspector for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, where he has worked for the past 20 years. For a roller coaster enthusiast, this job can seem like a kid's dream come true at times.
“Most of the inspectors that are on staff now all have come out of the industry, whether it be the portable industry or amusement parks,” Dean said.
Dean worked at Geauga Lake Amusement Park near Cleveland.
"I started there as a ride mechanic, primarily on wooden coasters. So that’s where I got my start, working on The Big Dipper, if anyone remembers that one," Dean said.
The Big Dipper was the oldest operating wooden roller coaster in Ohio, and the seventh oldest in the U.S. before the park shut down in 2007.
WYSO joined Dean and his coworker Eric Head one day when inspecting portable rides set up at a Catholic school carnival.
A handful of rides were scattered across the blazing-hot asphalt parking lot, including a giant slide, a "berry-go-round" with oversized, spinning strawberry cars, and a gravity-type ride that spins, pressing riders against the wall as the floor drops out from under their feet.
As Dean and Head go through the inspection process on the gravity ride, they evaluate everything from the structural integrity, safety systems and signage, to general ride operations.
"A lot of these portable rides fold up onto this trailer, and then they get pulled down the road, and unfolded, and they have to get put back together," Dean said, checking a seat belt harness. "So that’s one of our biggest jobs when we come out to these portable shows is making sure that pins and retainers are all in place, and everything is assembled properly."
“There’s a misconception that portable rides are unsafe compared to a park ride. When in reality, these portable rides are looked at more frequently than the park rides are,” Dean said.
"And then there are structural components; we’re still going to climb up here, we’re going to look at welds, stuff like that, all these components, we’re going to look at as much as we can," Dean said. "We’re going to put our hands on bolts, we’re going to turn them to make sure everything's tight and in place."
This is Head's eighth year of doing the inspections with the state.
"But I’ve been in the amusement industry my whole life though," Head said, examining the undercarriage of the ride with Dean. "My family owned a carnival and we traveled around the Cincinnati area, and then I also did ride maintenance at Kings Island."
"I’ve got kids and I know the guys who work here, any of the inspectors here, and if we wouldn’t put our own kids on the ride, we are not going to let anyone else’s ride them either," Head remarked. "It's a serious job and that's the tougher part of it."
"To be safe we have to be the bad guys and sometimes that involves not allowing a piece of equipment to operate," Dean added. "That doesn’t make the ride companies happy. It doesn't make the patrons happy. But in the grand scheme of things it is the safest thing until we can make sure that everything is operating properly."
Tyler’s Law was signed into effect in 2019 following the accidental death of Tyler Jarrell on opening day of the Ohio State Fair when a Fireball Ride malfunctioned. The law aims to strengthen rules for amusement park rides in Ohio.
Following the incident, the state also increased the number of permanent amusement ride inspectors from eight to 10.
The State of Ohio license around 4,000 individual amusement rides throughout the year. Dean surmises that, "of those 4,000 rides, about 2,500 of those are probably inflatables."
The rising popularity of inflatable houses has spawned a rise in injuries among children. A 2012 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that 30 children are treated in emergency rooms for inflatable bouncer-related injuries every day. That's one child every 45 minutes.
“Inflatables have tags on the anchors and that’s something to look for when people rent inflatables," Head said. "Check on those front right anchors, there should be two Department of Agriculture tags there. If there’s not, don’t take them.”
Dean said that, "the general population, I don’t think, even understands that we exist sometimes. That people are out here looking at these rides. There’s a lot that we look at in the state of Ohio; that also includes our water parks, go-kart tracks, rock walls, bungee/trampoline items."
"If it's fun to be on, we're gonna look at it," Dean said.
