COLUMBIA, S.C. — Before fairgoers can jump on their favorite rides, Daniel Yarnell and his crew of 50 inspectors must conduct daily inspections of nearly 70 rides.
“People think the fair comes and it just sets up and it’s there and it's just automatic, but there is so much logistics that go into it, I mean it's not just us that do the inspections, you've got 3rd party inspectors who come out, the state comes out and does spot checks,” Yarnell says.
Bigger rides can take 2 hours to complete inspections with 2-3 people working on it at one time.
“This ride has over 30 things that get checked daily, anything from the fencing, the signage, emergency evacuation procedures, and different bolt torks all has to be checked on a daily basis that's signed off on by the operator and inspector then they go through and have their weekly maintenance. There are all kinds of checkpoints on ones like this that go way up in the air, if you look up top, they have lights that show each seat is plugged in, so they check the sensors on that that’s just one example of the things they check," he adds.
Each ride goes through 3 different cycles before opening to riders.