Worker Falls to Death Taking Down Fair Ride

A carnival worker dismantling a Ferris wheel fell to his death Monday as crews were packing up game booths and taking down rides at the Seaside Park fairgrounds.

Robert Lee Davis, 42, of Galveston, Texas, was dead on arrival at Ventura County Medical Center, authorities said.

Davis and his supervisor were working to break up the Grand Wheel and transport it to the California State Fair in Sacramento, according to fair publicist Devlin Raley. To do that, a stabilizing pipe is attached to the wheel to keep it from bending as it is being collapsed.

At the time of the accident, Davis was riding that pipe, which was suspended by a cable about 30 feet up. “He was straddling that piece of equipment, as he has done numerous times before, when he apparently lost his balance, slipped and fell the 30 feet to the ground,” Raley said.

Raley said Davis--who was an employee of Ray Cammack Shows, the Arizona-based company that provides rides for the fair--did not appear to have been wearing a safety harness, as required by state safety codes.

Fellow workers who saw Davis fall to the cement head-first were shocked.

“Did anyone pray for him?” asked one agitated woman, who arrived shortly after the accident.

Grubby men sat on the back of a half-loaded truck, eyes red and bleary from lack of sleep. Some puffed on cigarettes. Others held their heads in their hands.

Davis’ supervisor stood behind a trailer and cried.

None of them wanted to talk.

George Costello of Los Angeles was near the fence watching the men take apart the Ferris wheel when he saw Davis fall.

“He was riding that yellow thing like a horse or something,” Costello said, pointing to the 25-foot-long yellow pipe. “The thing hit the ladder. The pipe twisted around and he fell right off. He hit the frame thing, head first.”

He said several of the men appeared to be wearing harnesses, but the harnesses were not attached to anything.

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Davis’ fellow workers rushed to his side and wrapped him in clothing and blankets to stop the flow of blood. One man tried to give Davis CPR, pumping desperately on his chest.

A fellow fair employee, who identified himself only as Ray, shook his head sadly as he dragged a bag of avocados across the parking lot.

“We have more trouble with people driving trucks than taking rides apart,” he said. He then added: “Everybody liked him. He was a hard worker.”

After Davis’ fall, Cal/OSHA investigators were on site within 30 minutes, interviewing employees.

They will check safety-training records to ensure that Davis was trained to properly dismantle the equipment and to see why he was not wearing a safety harness, a spokesman said.

“Whenever you work off the ground, you need fall protection,” said Dean Friar of Cal/OSHA. “And if it was not provided, we need to find out why.”

He said the agency will also ask why Davis was on the crane.

“An employee should not be riding up and down on a crane like that,” he said. “There is specific equipment for lifting people up and down.”

The investigation may take a month, Friar said. If it is determined that the employer knew workers were laboring in a situation that could cause injury or death, Cal/OSHA can issue citations with fines of up to $7,000. It can issue as many citations as there are code violations.

Monday’s accident was the second violent incident to mar this year’s Ventura County Fair, which concluded Sunday.

Last Tuesday three Santa Paula youths were injured in a stabbing at a concert--the first such incident at the fair since 1977.

Davis’ death was the first Raley could recall in his 18 years of doing fair publicity.

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’ A n employee should not be riding up and down on a crane like that. There is specific equipment for lifting people up and down.’

DEAN FRIAR

Cal/OSHA spokesman