Sizzler ride

August 18, 2007

Sizzler seat belts ordered after 2 boys hurt on ride

State public safety officials yesterday ordered the four amusement companies licensed to run Sizzler carnival rides in Massachusetts to install seat belts on the whirling devices before they run them here.

The move came in response to a directive from the ride manufacturer issued after a 6-year-old boy and his 7-year-old brother were ejected from a Sizzler at a Kentucky county fair July 25 when the ride’s lap bar lifted while the ride spun.

Wisdom Industries of Colorado issued the safety bulletin Aug. 1, saying the ride can be used safely without belts but that the recommended change is “to continue to prevent incidents from occurring.”

The only Sizzler operating in Massachusetts is on Martha’s Vineyard, in a carnival run by Cushing Amusements.

March 16, 2006

Guilty plea in carnival ride death
Manager gets probation in precedent-setting trial

WORCESTER— A carnival manager pleaded guilty yesterday to manslaughter and was sentenced to 2-1/2 years probation for causing the death of Andrew R. Fohlin, 38, on a Sizzler amusement ride at a Shrewsbury church festival on Sept. 19, 2004.

With his plea, Brian R. McCullough, 40, of Hernando, Fla., a lifelong carnival worker with an eighth-grade education, admitted he failed to properly repair the 25-year-old ride, a centrifuge-like device that flung Mr. Fohlin to the parking lot pavement when his seating compartment broke apart....

Other observers said privately that Mr. Conte may have opted for a plea bargain because his key witness and others from the rough-and-tumble carnival world may have had trouble under tough cross-examination.

December 17, 2005

Wife of Sizzler defendant allegedly pressured witness

WORCESTER— A key witness in the case against Brian R. McCullough, a carnival maintenance supervisor charged with manslaughter in the 2004 death of Andrew R. Fohlin on a Sizzler amusement ride, was pressured by the defendant’s wife to recant his story, a prosecutor said in court yesterday.

Laurie McCullough, Mr. McCullough’s wife, was with Richard Cruz, the carnival employee who testified to a grand jury that Mr. McCullough’s alleged negligence caused the ride to break apart, when a state police detective delivered a subpoena to him in April, Assistant District Attorney Richard L. Greco said. At that time, Mr. Cruz told the trooper he invented his allegation.

November 16, 2005

Doubt cast on testimony about Sizzler

WORCESTER— Saying a key witness recanted testimony against him, the amusement company manager accused of recklessly causing a death last year on a carnival ride in Shrewsbury asked a judge yesterday to dismiss the manslaughter charge he is facing.

A lawyer for Brian R. McCullough, 39, of Hernando, Fla., has filed a motion in Worcester Superior Court claiming that prosecutors knowingly withheld from the grand jury that indicted Mr. McCullough last spring a statement by witness Richard Cruz that would clear Mr. McCullough.

The witness, Richard Cruz, a ride operator who worked under Mr. McCullough for Jaro Amusements of Carlisle, told a state police detective that he made up a story about Mr. McCullough failing to properly bolt a seat on the Sizzler ride three months before the Sept. 19, 2004, incident that killed Andrew R. Fohlin, 38, at a Shrewsbury church festival. Mr. Cruz said he concocted the account because of an earlier run-in with his boss.

in Mr. Cruz’s statement to Trooper Thomas J. Poirier, the self-described illiterate ride operator said he “made up the story on the spot” when the detective interviewed him in Florida on Jan. 5 as part of Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte’s criminal investigation of the Sizzler malfunction.

July 15, 2005

Ride operator arraigned in Sizzler death -
Florida man remains free after pleading not guilty

WORCESTER - The amusement supervisor charged with causing the death of 38-year-old Andrew R. Fohlin on a carnival ride in Shrewsbury last September pleaded not guilty to manslaughter at his arraignment yesterday in Worcester Superior Court.

Brian R. McCullough, of Hernando, Fla., indicted June 17 as the person responsible for the operation of the Sizzler ride, is the first person charged in an amusement death in Massachusetts.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

November 8, 2004

Sizzler’s owners blast state report

Jaro says DPS is at faultv

BOSTON— The owners of a carnival ride that threw two men to the ground, killing one of them, unleashed a blistering attack yesterday against state safety officials, questioning their qualifications and accusing them of a “dismal performance.”

Jaro Amusements Inc. released the statement yesterday in response to the state Department of Public Safety’s final report on the Sept. 19 accident, in which a car on the Sizzler ride at a church fair broke apart in midair.

“This report is a blatant attempt by the DPS to turn the spotlight away from its own shortcomings, and admittedly dismal performance, toward the owner of the Sizzler ride, Jaro Amusements, Inc.,” the statement said. “Jaro has faithfully followed its regulatory obligations with regard to the Sizzler and all of its other rides.”

September 20, 2004

Man killed on church fair ride

Glavin Center resident

SHREWSBURY- One man died and another was seriously injured yesterday after falling out of the “Sizzler” — a spinning carnival ride — at the annual St. Mary’s Parish Family Festival. A third man suffered minor injuries.

All three were residents of the Irving A. Glavin Regional Center, according to an official at the center, located on Lake Street in Shrewsbury. Their names were not released.

Police Chief A. Wayne Sampson said police were called about 2:15 p.m. to the carnival, which was held in the parking lot behind the church, at Main and Summer streets.

Chief Sampson said the man who died and the man who was seriously injured were in the same seat on the ride. He said police are investigating whether the seat was broken and how it disintegrated. Pieces of the seat wreckage could be seen from behind the yards of yellow police tape put up to secure the crime scene. It was unclear if another seat hit the victims.

last updated 18-Aug-2007 08:49 AM

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