Fire Ball ride survivor speaks out after $20 million lawsuit judgement
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- One of the victims of the deadly 2017 Fire Ball ride crash at the Ohio State Fair said seven years of emotions are now at the forefront. Keziah Lewis is speaking out after a New Jersey court awarded her and the other crash victims with a multi-million-dollar judgment.
A judge ruled in Lewis and the other victims’ favor, finding the ride’s manufacturer, KMG, to be negligent. Lewis said it feels surreal but also bittersweet.
“It's like a chapter is closing, but at the same time, it's really never going to end,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she's spent the last seven years building a new life. She said she isn’t going to let anything shake that.
Investigators deemed the cause of the accident to be corrosion on a large part of the metal arm. A row of seats on the swinging ride snapped off, launching eight people into the air.
Lewis’ boyfriend Tyler Jarrell was killed. Lewis survived but has gone through 12 surgeries since.
She said the lawsuit feels like accountability for all those involved.
“It's definitely a hard moment because it is bringing up, like, all the feelings and emotions and everything from over the past seven years,” Lewis said.
KMG, an international company, was found guilty of negligence. The judge said the company knew about the problems for five years before the accident.
The judge awarded a total of $78 million to the victims of this crash. Some of that money will go to the estate of Tyler Jarrell; $20 million will go to Lewis.
Lewis said no amount of money will ever change what happened.
“No, because regardless, money is fleeting, it's temporary, but the things that I have to deal with every single day, they constantly keep getting worse and worse and it's something I have to deal with my entire life," Lewis said.
She said the last seven years have been an uphill battle. She said if she could survive the University of Cincinnati's campus to graduate last spring, she could do it all.
“It's been a lot of self-doubt and then also proving myself wrong," Lewis said.
She said she has watched good come from this tragedy like Tyler's Law, which requires proper inspections for all fair rides before they are used.
Lewis said the lawsuit ending comes at the perfect time, just weeks before the Ohio State Fair’s opening day.
“So I feel like, over the years, a lot of people might have forgotten about the potential dangers and the potential suffering that they could have just due to malpractice,” Lewis said. “So now I think it's perfect to make people realize like, ‘Hey, things are changing, things people are being held accounted for.’”
Lewis’ lawyer said since KMG is an international company, he expects a legal fight but said they won’t give up.
Lewis hopes to put the money toward a surgery she needs, saying she now feels secure enough to take time off work. She said she is also in the midst of writing a book. Once it is finished, she hopes this money could help her self-publish the book.