“Dear Amber, Thank you for your call I do support Tyler’s Law. I am so very sorry your loss. My wife Fran and I loss our daughter Becky in a car accident.”
It was part of a letter Tyler Jerrell’s mom, Amber Duffield, read that was from Governor Mike DeWine.
It gives her family hope for Tyler’s Law.
Tyler was killed when the Fire Ball ride broke apart while it was running at the Ohio State Fair.
Duffield said to see this new version of Tyler’s Law which is now House Bill 189, make its way to the Ohio Statehouse, makes all of her work seem worth it.
“Yes, they had not forgotten,” said Duffield. “As with anything as time goes not only do representatives forget because they have so much on their plates already, but so does the everyday person. You know it didn’t happen to them. It wasn’t someone they knew.”
There are a few differences from this bill and the previous one.
The biggest difference was moving it from the Agriculture committee to the Transportation and Safety committee.
Ohio Representative John Patterson said he beileves that decision will help this bill pass.
“The safety aspect of it is the defining factor in why it was placed in that particular committee,” said Patterson. “There’s more expertise there to deal with the public safety component of this bill.”
This bill would also require better record keeping such as changes to the ride since the last inspection, information from manufacturers regarding warnings or alerts since the last inspection, and also where the ride was previous to coming here to Ohio.
They’re changes that the Director of the Department of Agriculture, Dorothy Pelanda, said they have already made, and she wants it to be put into law.
“My goal as the director is to ensure that every time whether it be a bounce house at a church festival, whether it be rides at a county fair, or the rides at our Ohio State Fair are safe,” said Pelanda.
Duffield said she still feels some doubt but looks forward to the day this bill becomes law.
“There is still a slight shadow but in truth, because there are are so many more supporters at this time, we’re very optimistic that this will get done this general assembly. There’s always hope. There’s always hope.”