I-Team 8: Fair Warning

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - By law, Indiana only has to inspect traveling carnival rides once a year. And starting Friday at noon, the state's biggest carnival of the year is open for business at the Indiana State Fair.

I-Team 8 has been following state safety inspectors all summer long. This is their biggest test.

While the midway isn't open yet it's still a busy place; busier still since safety inspectors with the state are doing their final checks.

“Most of the rides are pretty sound, pretty safe. No issues this year. None that I can recall,” said Fred Whitaker, an inspector with Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security.

I-Team 8 checked the most recent inspection reports for all the state fair rides and found that any previous violations had been fixed.

But inspectors did find an issue with one ride called Convoy which features miniature trucks circling a raised track.

Inspectors found that people could get too close to the inner workings of the ride, even touching the track. So they're demanding that a fence be put up behind it to keep people back.

Only five of the 40 rides on the midway face inspection this year, that's because the other 35 were already inspected within the past year. The company providing the midway has been here the past 20 years.

Mike Williams is the CEO of that company, North American Midway Entertainment:

“A lot of these rides by the time they get here are inspected by the state of Florida, by the state of Ohio, by the state of Wisconsin,” said Williams. He adds that his company also contracts with independent consultants to do continual inspections.

But the 35 rides not inspected now will be inspected later during the fair. That way when the company returns to Indiana next summer the rides will still be in compliance.

“They will not have to be inspected even then. They will be good until August of 2010,” reports Debra Jackson of Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security.

While four of the five rides looked at Thursday passed inspection, later in the day, IDHS officials revealed one major violation was found on a ride called the Silver Streak. The emergency stop switch on the ride wasn’t working. The ride will be shut down until repairs can be made and the state can inspect the ride again.

Inspectors will also be doing surprise inspections of rides during the course of the fair.