Fair Injury Not Reported Late After All, State Says

State regulators on Thursday cleared the company that operates rides at the Orange County Fair of failing to report an accident that occurred Sunday.

Traci Tomack, 23, an aspiring actress from Northridge, suffered a broken jaw, broken teeth and facial wounds requiring more than 20 stitches, her parents said, after a large metal pin came loose from the ride she was on -- the Booster -- and struck her. The accident followed by several hours an accident on a different ride that resulted in a fair patron’s brief hospitalization.

On Wednesday a spokesman for the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health said officials from Ray Cammack Shows, which operates the Booster, had not reported the accident until late that morning. But on Thursday the spokesman, Dean Fryer, said Cammack officials had reported to an amusement park ride inspector Monday morning that a pin from the ride had cut a woman’s lip.

“That information was not clearly conveyed to me,” Fryer said. Fair officials joined representatives of the ride company on Thursday to defend their handling of the incident.

In a news conference, Becky Bailey-Findley, general manager and CEO of the Orange County Fair, said a state inspector who was on the fairgrounds Monday to investigate the first accident was notified about the Booster accident.

“We took advantage of the fact the state inspector was there,” she said. “We told him not only about the accident but that the problem had been fixed.” Bailey-Findley also said she didn’t know of any other ride-related injuries this year.

The state labor code says the ride operator must “immediately by telephone” notify the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which has a 24-hour answering service, when an injury requires more than “ordinary first aid treatment.”

Because the accident happened late on a Sunday evening, the company met the rules, Fryer said.

“They completed their obligation of reporting,” Fryer said.

Paramedics treated Tomack at the fair, and a friend drove her to an emergency room.

Though Tomack’s injuries were far more serious than a cut lip, “our folks feel [ride operators were] totally aboveboard, and our folks would be surprised if there was intentional misreporting,” Fryer said. “We’ve had an excellent working relationship with them.”

This is Cammack’s ninth year at the Orange County Fair. It operates 59 rides.

Tomack was injured about 10 hours after a La Canada-Flintridge woman was hurt on the one fair ride that Cammack does not operate: Adrenaline Drop. On it, riders free-fall 70 to 80 feet into a dual safety net that, inspectors say, was not raised high enough. The net system only partially broke the woman’s fall, and she made a hard landing on a ground mat. She was hospitalized for a day and apparently suffered no serious injuries.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the agency had joined the state in seeking the cause of the earlier accident. The Adrenaline Drop is closed indefinitely. Marcia Kerr, the spokeswoman, also said the commission was trying to determine whether it should look into Tomack’s injuries on the Booster.

The pin that struck Tomack was one of eight holding the bolts that attach the Booster sign to the attraction and are not necessary for the ride itself to function safely, a Cammack spokesman said. The pin is about a half-inch in diameter and 6 inches long.

The Booster, somewhat like a giant two-bladed propeller, consists of a 131-foot beam that spins on its center, with four passengers strapped in on each end. The beam rotates about 50 mph.

The ride was shut down after the accident. All eight pins were replaced, and the ride was back in operation Tuesday, after the fair’s scheduled day off.

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Times staff writer Claire Luna contributed to this report.