BATON ROUGE, LA—Mitchell Brothers Amusements who puts on the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair says they are mapping out the rides and then the State Fire Marshall will begin inspections for each one.
Mitchell Brothers Amusements Co-Owner, Gus Mitchell, says, “Safety is our number one priority. They have several field agents out here inspecting the rides, climbing all over them, top to bottom. They do a very thorough, very good job.”
Mitchell says in nearly a decade of running the fair they’ve been blessed with just minor accidents. He says, “Traveling rides are probably more safe than amusement park rides are because they physically take them up and put them down every single week and the people who operate these rides are the people who set them up and take them down.”
He says all codes have been stepped up in all amusement companies across the country following the tragic accident in Ohio early this year—“Doing more lengthy things that we’ve ever done before with NDT testing and reporting. We have on-site safety people that are on-site all the time. We have naarso inspectors level one and level two and we have third party inspectors along with the insurance company.”
There will be around 50 rides at the fair this year—“Ranges from kiddie rides to medium size rides for the family and we have some new additions at the fair this year for those thrill seekers.” Including the “Rock It”—this fair is one of the only carnivals in the southern region that has it. Mitchell sayts, “It comes from Italy. It does a loop to loop, spins, it’s about 90 feet tall.” The Greater Baton Rouge Fair kicks off this Thursday at 5pm and lasts until Sunday, November 5th.
www.gbrsf.com