(Tulsa, OK) - All the rides that have been inspected so far at the Tulsa Sate Fair have been declared safe, and no ride will be allowed to operate until it is declared safe, said State Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields on Wednesday.

The Tulsa State Fair gets underway at 5 p.m. on Thursday, and inspectors will check out roughly 70 rides in all.

Fields said that inspectors also traveled to the New Mexico State Fair, the most recent place where the rides operated, and inspected them there.

"Tried to find things wrong before they got here, so whenever they got here, they'd have time fix them, get them ready, and we'd also have a better understanding of where to go look," Fields said.

For the past couple of years, the ride operators themselves also have to be certified before they are allowed to work at the fair.  He says many of the operators are local residents and have past experience working on particular rides.  He says safety trends have improved.  He was told by one of his inspectors that last year was the first time in roughly 20 years that there were no incidents related to operator error.