The One Silent Ride Is Talk of the Fair

The bumper cars were banging. The Ferris wheel was turning. But as the Orange County Fair reopened Tuesday, talk quickly turned to the one ride not running: the Adrenaline Drop.

The ride was shut down Sunday after a 30-year-old woman’s thrill plunge wasn’t sufficiently slowed, and she was hurt hitting a foam mat on the ground. State officials say the two safety nets designed to catch her weren’t high enough -- why, they don’t know -- and the ride is closed indefinitely.

Kids pointed at the closed attraction. Parents stacked their hands like the ride’s nets and tried to explain.

Paulien Lombard of Tustin wondered why anybody would want to pay $35 to fall without a cord or harness into a cocoon of nets, with only a gymnastics-like mat below.

“I saw that thing and thought it was just insane,” said Lombard, 47. “I don’t risk my life just for fun.”

At least 300 people had taken the plunge since the fair’s opening day. Nine had their turns before Aidyl Sofia-Gonzalez, of La Canada-Flintridge, plunged low enough to strike the mat about 12:40 p.m. Sunday. Sofia-Gonzalez was hospitalized overnight.

State investigators said Monday that the ride’s safety system failed. They should complete their testing by Friday.

“This carnival stuff is pretty precarious in the first place,” said Brad DeSoto, 45, of Costa Mesa. “I’ve always been leery about even the little rides.”

DeSoto said he’s tried to teach his kids to check out what’s dangerous: “I’ll always ask, ‘Would you go on this?’ ”

Chris, 9, and Alex, 7, looked up at the 130-foot-high tower. They shook their heads no.

On Sunday, the two blue nets of the Adrenaline Drop were supposed to soften and then stop the fall of riders who were first raised in its cage, then released through a trap door. A rider’s fall is supposed to stop 10 to 15 feet above the ground.

The ride is owned by Amusement Management International, based in Carrollton, Texas. Its owner, Alan Putter, was operating the cage during the woman’s fall, said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA.Putter declined to comment on Sunday’s incident, except to say: “As soon as the ride was over, I took myself over and had myself drug-tested. I was clean.”

He said he brought 12 workers to the Orange County Fair, six of whom were ride operators who had worked for four to five months. They are trained rigorously, he said, learning safety procedures and taking written exams.

Sofia-Gonzalez’s free-fall is on a videotape made by ride operators. The tape was turned over to Amusement Management’s insurance company in St. Paul, Minn., said Fryer. State officials have requested the tape, ordinarily sold to the rider for $15.

The Adrenaline Drop was the only ride at the fair operated by AMI. Ray Cammack Shows, based in Arizona, operates the other 59.

That company continued with its standard morning safety checklists, said spokesman Tony Fiori, “though human nature tells me they’ll be checking each other twice.” Ride operators said each ride has its own quirks, so what happened on the Adrenaline Drop didn’t affect their daily routines.

Rides still teemed with kids Tuesday afternoon, partly because of the day’s free admission for those 12 and younger. At 3 p.m., 19,750 people had entered, about 3,000 more than the equivalent day last year.

Mike Reed of Long Beach checked out the Adrenaline Drop while eating at the nearby Chuck Wagon. He remembered the rush the ride gave him last year. “I don’t know if I’d ride it again. Not since the accident,” he said. “It never bothered me before, but I don’t want to hit the ground.”

Reed, 50, said he would find his thrills on other rides -- they don’t scare him.

Elaine Baldwin, 42, of Garden Grove watched her two daughters rise slowly and fall swiftly on the Mega Drop. She agreed with Reed. “There are so many planes that go up and so few that crash,” she said. “You only talk about the ones that crash. This is just like that. You can’t be afraid of everything. You’d have to quit living.”

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Today’s Highlights at the O.C. Fair

Hours: Noon to midnight. Location: 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

Farm Bureau Day

Information: www.ocfair.com or (714) 708-3247

Noon: Tasty tomato sauce contest

1 p.m.: Fiber arts demonstration

2 p.m.: Candy-making with classic cake decorations

7 p.m.: Blue Oyster Cult in concert

8 p.m.: Duran Duran in concert

8 p.m.: People pretzel contest

Source: Orange County Fair & Exposition Center

Los Angeles Times