After Injury, Ride Will Not Reopen

Orange County Fair officials said Thursday that they will not reopen the Adrenaline Drop ride, on which a woman was injured this month.

The announcement came hours after the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued a preliminary order to Total Thrill Rides, owner of the free-fall ride, requiring it to make safety modifications before Adrenaline Drop can operate again in California.

Alan Putter, owner of Total Thrill Rides, and fair general manager Becky Bailey-Findley said it was a mutual decision to take down the attraction after a 1 1/2-hour meeting Thursday.

Bailey-Findley said at a news conference that both sides believed Putter couldn’t get the ride running before the fair ends Aug. 3.

Neither Putter nor a spokesman for the state agency would say whether the changes were considered major or minor. Putter said he had made most of the required changes but he didn’t have the time to test the ride and retrain the operators. Putter said he and fair officials “didn’t think it was in the best interests of the fair” to test the ride while fair visitors watched.

The orange and blue ride will be taken down Monday, a day the fair is closed.

Riders on Adrenaline Drop are hoisted high in the air in a basket. The bottom of the basket is a hatch that opens, allowing the rider to fall into a flexible double net.

Aidyl Sofia-Gonzalez, 30, was hurt taking the plunge July 13 when the net system failed to rise high enough. When she fell, the net system stretched to the ground, allowing her to strike a 4- to 5-inch-thick foam pad with a thud, state investigators said -- while her husband and two children watched.

Sofia-Gonzalez spent a night in a hospital. The ride has been closed since the accident. She and her family have not commented on her injuries.

Riders are routinely offered the chance to have their ride videotaped and to buy the tape. The tape showing Sofia-Gonzalez’s plunge could be an important piece of evidence.

As part of the preliminary order the state issued, Putter is required to give investigators the tape. Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said investigators wanted to review the original, not a copy. He said Monday that the two sides agreed to work out a time for investigators to view it.

Putter said a state investigator already has seen the tape and that he had turned it over to his insurance company. “We’re trying to work out how we can get that to them,” he said. “We’re not trying to keep any secrets.”

Putter said he was worried that the media, especially tabloid TV shows, could “misinterpret” the tape.

Asked if investigators had told him what specifically caused the accident, Putter said, “You can take inferences from the preliminary order,” but he declined to elaborate.

The order indicates a lack of communication between operators, and a ride in need of more safety devices.

The order instructs the ride owner to add safety switches and a buzzer to ensure that operators on the ground and on the platform above work in synchronization to prevent a rider from falling at the wrong time.

The order also requires the operators the use radios and signals to communicate.