At the Greene County Fair in northeast Tennessee, three girls were injured after an apparent mechanical failure caused them to fall from a ferris wheel. And last week, eight people were hurt in Memphis after a ride operator prematurely released their safety restraints.
Those events prompted the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville to hire an additional inspector. State regulators don’t require it. Tennessee relies on amusement operators to
hire their own inspectors and safety permits issued by other states.
State Fair Manager Scott Jones, who has been involved with the event for nearly 30 years, thinks there is strong support for government oversight.
“I would say that all the fairs across Tennessee — and festivals and ride operators for that matter — would welcome having Tennessee ride inspectors,” he said.
This year the state did allocate nearly $500,000 to hire five new people for the Labor Department’s Amusement Device Unit.
A department spokesman says the Greene County incident has caused them to reconsider what exactly they should do with those funds. Regardless, the agency says the new hires are most likely to serve as regional consultants and that their onsite duties would be limited.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM