A very timely piece consider the Thanksgiving eve incident in Arkansas involving a child and an Orbiter.
http://www.saferparks.org/about_saferparks/editorials/congress_child_safety.php
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Congress To Modernize CPSC, Strengthen Child Safety
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For Parents For Kids Safety Regulation Database
Editorial by Kathy Fackler - November 23, 2007
Four leaders of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have introduced a bi-partisan bill designed to overhaul consumer protection standards and implement major changes at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Saferparks applauds Representatives Dingell, Barton, Rush and Stearns for moving children’s safety to the top of the Committee’s agenda. Rep. Barton stressed that children should not be “sickened by their playthings” and partisan politics should not get in the way of good policy. I heartily agree.
Children should not be killed or maimed by thrill rides, either, yet this happens every year. While the Commerce Committee is enacting stronger child safety protections for toys, I urge the Committee to remove the loophole that leaves amusement park rides exempt from all federal safety oversight.
Children are at highest risk for amusement ride injury. Half of all ride-related accidents and three quarters of falls and ejections involve children under 13.
Only 27 state governments have safety officials authorized and trained to investigate amusement ride accidents, and many of the existing state programs lack the engineering expertise needed to deal with accidents on complex rides. Investigation of serious accidents, including fatalities, is often left up to the park or the park’s insurer – the two entities with the most to gain from suppressing the evidence.
No central agency is empowered and funded to ensure that lessons learned in one park or one state are systematically shared nationwide across all segments of the industry.
Accidents happen everywhere, even at amusement parks. No business niche or brand name is immune. In June of this year, 13-year-old Kaitlyn Lassiter had both legs severed in a gruesome accident at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, when a cable snapped on a drop tower ride. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture employs several ride inspectors, but their authority to investigate has been superseded by a judge involved in the civil suit. State officials cannot examine the cable until the court dispute over cable testing is resolved. Five months after the accident, the state still hasn’t released any technical information on the incident, such as the age of the cable or the ride’s maintenance history. Meanwhile, similar drop towers are in operation in other states, some regulated and some not. There isn’t any agency to coordinate a coherent response or ensure that critical information is discovered and shared.
If this girl’s legs had been severed in a lawnmower accident or an ATV accident, the CPSC would have investigated. If she were an employee of Six Flags, instead of a paying customer, OSHA would have investigated. In 2006, two cables snapped on a carnival drop ride in New York. The children on board that ride were much luckier than Kaitlyn, suffering only minor injuries, yet the CPSC was authorized to investigate that less-serious accident because it didn’t happen in an amusement park. What is so special about amusement park companies that they should be exempted from such basic public safety policy?
The 1981 loophole exempting permanent parks from compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Act created an artificial division in public safety policy for amusement rides, and families like the Lassiters are clearly paying the price. A partial hash of state and local codes cannot replace what’s missing. There is no public safety authority to track hazard patterns on amusement park rides, set national standards to protect the safety of children, or ensure that information on defects discovered in a ride in one state are shared with state or local regulators in every state.
I respectfully ask the members Congress, while they are reforming our child safety laws, to examine the consequences of shielding the amusement park industry from federal safety oversight. The millions of children who visit U.S. amusement parks every year deserve safe thrills every bit as much as they deserve safe toys.
How Can You Help?
If you believe that U.S. product safety policy should cover children's amusement rides as well as children's toys, call or write your representative and the committee leadership. Ask them to remove the loophole exempting amusement park rides from federal safety oversight. Here are links to contact information:
Find your representative
Representative John Dingell, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Representative Bobby Rush, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection.
Representative Joe Barton, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Note: Congressman Barton represents Texas, one of the 23 states without a government ride inspection or accident investigation program. In 2003, the Texas legislature passed a law protecting manufacturers from lawsuits in cases where a patron is killed or injured by any thrill ride that has been in operation longer than 15 years.
Representative Cliff Stearns, Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Note: Congressman Stearns represents Florida, where theme park rides are exempt from both state and federal safety oversight.
The Facts About Amusement Ride Safety
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 100,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to amusement rides, inflatable amusement devices, and waterslides between 1997 and 2004.
60,000 injuries were related to use of amusement rides.
20,000 injuries involved inflatables. The annual injury count tripled from 1997 to 2004.
20,000 injuries were related to use of public waterslides.
Children are at highest risk of amusement ride injury.
Half of all accidents and 3/4 of all falls and ejections involve children under 13.
Restraints and bracing points in many rides approved for children are designed to fit adult bodies and can leave small riders vulnerable to falls or forceful ejection.
Amusement park rides are NOT subject to federal safety regulations. Only 27 state governments have safety officials authorized and trained to investigate ride accidents.
State and local government regulatory programs, where they exist, keep track of individual rides and the way they're operated within a specific jurisdiction. The better state programs audit and supplement industry’s safety measures through independent inspections of the machinery and safety records.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) looks at safety problems on carnival rides, go-karts, and inflatables through a wider lens.
The CPSC can track problems that occur on multiple rides in different states, establish uniform safety standards, negotiate hazard mitigation plans with manufacturers, and broadly disseminate urgent safety information to industry and consumers nationwide.
No public safety agency is empowered to perform those critical duties for rides operated at U.S. amusement parks.
Saferparks is a public 501(c)(3) charity. Your tax-deductible donation will support Saferparks' public service mission to prevent amusement ride injuries through research, information sharing, and advocacy.
