Product Liability Trial Ends with $78 Million Jury Verdict for Fatal Fair Ride Failure

Keziah Lewis, et al vs. KMG International BV, et al

Case Background

On June 06, 2019, Plaintiff Keziah Lewis and others filed a Product liability lawsuit in the New Jersey State, Somerset County Superior Court (Case number: SOM-L-000737-19). Judge Robert A. Ballard presided over the case.

Cause

On July 26, 2017, a catastrophic accident occurred at the Ohio State Fair involving the Fireball amusement ride. The ride, manufactured by KMG International BV, held 24 riders and operated by swinging them back and forth up to 22 feet in the air while simultaneously spinning them in a circle. Its structure consisted of a single swing arm attached at a pivot point at the top, featuring six gondola support arms extending from a central hub. Each four-seat gondola connected using 10 bolts to the end of a hollow vertical tube. Keziah Lewis (19) and her boyfriend Tyler Jarrell (18) attended the fair when the Fair Ride Accident occurred. During operation, the gondola detached, causing Lewis to be ejected and crash into another gondola before falling to the concrete below. Jarrell was launched approximately 60 feet through the air before striking a tractor-trailer's fifth-wheel plate. Russell Franks (36) and Tamica Gillam Dunlap (30) remained constrained in the detached gondola as it crashed onto the parking lot surface. Prior to the Fair Ride Accident, KMG allegedly received notifications about corrosion problems inside the hollow gondola tubes and thinning tube walls from a ride operator over the past decade. This c