Ohio State Fair accident still haunts survivor 7 years later

Keziah Lewis wanted a different answer.

But no matter how many times she asked, she didn't get one.

Lewis had no memory of how she got into the hospital bed that she woke up in seven years ago.

She asked why she was hospitalized, drifted back to sleep, woke up and asked again and again and again. Each time Lewis said she came to, she confronted a "surreal" nightmare instead of leaving one behind in her dreams.

The Fire Ball, a ride at the Ohio State Fair, broke apart mid-operation . The disaster killed her boyfriend Tyler Jarrell and injured several others, including Lewis, who was 19 at the time.

"I kept asking: Where's Tyler? Where am I? What happened?" she said. "And I remember hearing it and I just didn't believe it ... so I'd go back to sleep and then try again."

Video from the disaster showed Lewis being thrown nearly 50 feet through the air and colliding with another gondola on the ride before crashing to the concrete below it.

After the incident, Lewis suffered from physical and psychological injuries that include a lifelong neurologic deficit in her right foot that requires ongoing physical and cognitive rehabilitation. Lewis now walks with a cane, has undergone 12 surgeries since the disaster and will soon have a 13th on her right foot.

In the years since Lewis woke up in the hospital, Ohio lawmakers passed Tyler's Law, a bill in her boyfriend's name to try to prevent similar incidents from happening again . The state also changed who it contracted with for fair rides.

Ohio State Fair officials told The Dispatch on Friday that rides made by KMG — the Dutch manufacturer of the Fire Ball — have not been allowed at the fair since the 2017 disaster. Records obtained by the news organization, however, showed that a KMG attraction called "Crazy Surf" was scheduled to be at the 2024 fair set to kick off July 24.

After questioning by The Dispatch, a spokesperson said the ride had actually appeared at the 2023 state fair and that upon hearing that it was scheduled for this year's event, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered it pulled from the 2024 lineup of rides .

Another KMG ride, Inversion 360, had also appeared on the state fair's website until The Dispatch asked about it Thursday. That ride's listing was made in error, a state fair spokesperson said, and it was removed from the website. KMG did not respond to a request for comment.

Knowing the Fire Ball and similar rides made by KMG are still out there is the kind of thing that makes Lewis' attorney Sean Alto fear the 2017 disaster won't be the last of its kind.

"I'm inclined to believe that it will happen again, whether it's in Ohio or elsewhere. ... And I think unfortunately it will take another tragedy for legislatures to catch up," Alto said.

'There's a ton of them out there'

When David Bertozzi realized what he had stumbled upon, he knew it might be the end.

As an amusement ride inspector, Bertozzi was acutely aware of the Fire Ball disaster in Ohio five years earlier.

On this day in 2022, Bertozzi was inspecting another Fire Ball in a different state, and it became clear the ride was not in good shape. It was so damaged that Bertozzi said it was barred from operating again.

"There was excess rust in the turning part of the claw," Bertozzi said of that particular inspection. "There's a ton of them out there."

Even after the 2017 tragedy, pendulum rides like the Fire Ball that swing riders back and forth and up high are popular, said Bertozzi, who is also president of the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials .

The nature of the ride and the disaster have forced inspectors like Bertozzi to take even greater care when examining them. That level of review can sometimes include X-rays and inspecting not just the way a ride is put together but also any corrosion, he said.

But not every state, Bertozzi said, requires rigorous inspections — meaning a ride could be cleared in one state for operation and be required to undergo repairs in a neighboring one.

Often, Bertozzi said it's inspectors that communicate with each other whether a ride was damaged, showed problems or injured a patron in another state. Bertozzi said he wishes there was more communication between states and a baseline for inspections required across the country.

"It's not unusual for a guy to leave Pennsylvania and come to Ohio to find out that last week this one thing was OK and this week it is not," Bertozzi said. "My big thing is I want all of the states to do the same thing."

Despite the patchwork of state amusement ride laws across the country, Bertozzi praised Ohio's ride standards and legislators who passed Tyler's Law in 2019 following the Fire Ball disaster.

Read More: Ohio State Fair's Fire Ball tragedy survivor gets multimillion-dollar judgment

Safety remains a top priority for rides, state fair spokeswoman Alicia Shoults told The Dispatch.

Before rides arrive in Columbus, they all undergo annual, non-destructive testing inspections and engineering reviews, Shoults said. Once rides arrive at the state fairgrounds, they undergo pre-fair structural ride inspections performed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Amusement Ride Safety Division. A second operational inspection occurs during the fair and there are daily structural inspections completed by the ride foreman and daily structural and operational inspections are performed by an independent ride safety consultant, Shoults said.

Tyler's Law, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine for the victim of the Fire Ball tragedy , required amusement ride operators to provide proof of ride maintenance and repairs, upgraded the qualifications required of ride inspectors and granted the Ohio Department of Agriculture authority to adopt rules to help ensure rider safety.

"Tyler’s Law makes Ohio’s ride safety standards some of the strongest in the country," Meghan Harshbarger, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Agriculture said via email. "ODA continues to bolster its amusement ride safety program with additional staff to complete additional inspections."

Attorney: 'Be skeptical' of fair rides

This wasn't the first time that Alto, Lewis' lawyer, said he's seen a law get changed due to a tragedy. But he's hoping it will be one of the last times.

Alto called Tyler's Law a "good start," at trying to make sure a fair disaster like 2017's doesn't happen again in Ohio. Since the law passed five years ago though, Alto said not much else has been done.

"I think there can always be more done. And I think to the question about what can people do? Be skeptical," he said. "We know that the state inspectors and third-party inspectors approved (the Fire Ball) just before the fair opened and we know what happened."

Along with pushing for change in the years since the Fire Ball tragedy, Alto has been fighting for his client to get her due in court.

After almost seven years, a New Jersey court on July 5 returned a $20 million judgment for Lewis and against KMG . Of the $20 million the court awarded Lewis, $10 million was designated as punitive damages, according to her law firm Cooper Elliott.

The judgment was welcome news to Lewis, now 26, who accumulated more than $2 million in medical bills by December 2017.

Whether or not Lewis will be able to collect that judgment remains to be seen though, Alto said. Since KMG is based in the Netherlands, Alto said it could prove difficult to enforce the judgment and a lawsuit may need to be filed abroad as well.

Alto praised his client for continuing to push forward in her legal battle and said he'd understand if it was just too much for her.

But seated in a conference room at Alto's office last week, Lewis gave no indication she'll back down. As she's recovered, Lewis said she's tried to stay positive and is doing more of what makes her happy.

After pausing her education at the University of Cincinnati because of the accident, she finished her bachelor's degree in creative writing there. She's writing a post-apocalyptic romance novel that she hopes to self-publish.

Lewis has also found comfort in artwork she likes to make and in spending time with her pets. She adopted two cats and three dogs after the incident.

And for the first time since 2017, Lewis said she's attending festivals and concerts again this year — though she often finds herself seated, listening to music rather than dancing around with people in the front row like she used to.

"I can't move quite the same way as I would want to, or used to. But I feel like I've gotten a lot stronger," she said. "Things get better."

Still, what Lewis lost that day in 2017 hangs over her.

Lewis had actually gone to the state fair with Jarrell in July 2017 to try to cheer herself up after her grandfather's funeral earlier that day.

By that evening she'd lost her boyfriend and the life she had before she walked through the fair's gates — the last thing she remembers. She then woke up in that hospital bed and found herself needing to relearn how to sit up on her own and walk again.

And while Lewis said she hoped for a different reply every time she woke up in the hospital and asked what happened, she herself had just one, clear answer as to whether she's moved on from that day seven years later:

"I wouldn't say I have."

mfilby@dispatch.com

@MaxFilby

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State Fair accident still haunts survivor 7 years later