The state was just beginning to ramp up efforts to inspect electrical systems at county fairs in 2004 when a carnival worker was electrocuted while setting up a ride in Belmont.

Inspectors of the state Bureau of Electrical Safety and Licensing had planned to check out the Belknap County 4-H Fair, but the fatal accident happened before they could get there, according to Mark Hilbert, the bureau's chief electrical inspector.

"When the incident occurred, it gave us the substantiation, you could say, to bring the program to a different level," Hilbert said.

Stephen Miner, 18, of Ware, Mass., collapsed while setting up a "Raiders" ride at the Belknap County Fairgrounds and died as a result of electrical shock. OSHA fined the carnival operator $5,100 for safety violations.

Today, the state has safety inspectors who check the rides and separate inspectors from Hilbert's bureau who examine electrical systems, including rides and concessions, at major fairs and carnivals -- when they can get there.

"We have limited resources to go everywhere every weekend," Hilbert said.

Briggs Lockwood, chief of the state Tramway and Amusement Ride Safety Bureau, welcomed the extra eyes.

"It's quite possible we may be looking at something we're familiar with and move on and they come around and say this needs to be addressed," he said.

After a 15-year-old girl, Lisa Santuccio, died on a carnival ride in Conway in 1981, residents the following year passed an ordinance requiring stricter inspection of any relocatable carnival ride. In 1983, the Legislature pushed through tougher laws statewide.

Contacted recently, Lisa's father, John, was reluctant to discuss his daughter's death 28 years later.

"We did get a lot of laws changed," he said. "It's just something I can't talk about."