July 3, 2007
Amusement Ride Safety Editorial
by Ken Martin, Amusement Ride Safety Consultant
As a child and teenager I always looked forward to summer, it was my favorite time of the year. Swimming, camping and going to the amusement park with my family. I always knew there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Perhaps then I did not even realize what the word safety stood for or the destiny that life was preparing me for.
Now summer has an entirely different effect on me. Just when I think I have seen or heard it all, something occurs that has me wondering how that could have happened. I am speaking of incidents involving amusement rides, some resulting in death and all too often serious injuries.
The amusement ride industry is self regulated. There is no one agency, government or law that applies across the board. In addition there are no record keeping requirements that will account for incidents or even near misses involving amusement rides. This self regulation is further complicated by a few states that adopt these industry standards into law and then attempt to use them as an enforcement tool.
This self regulation is conducted through the American Society of Testing and Materials F-24 Committee on Amusement Rides and Devices. The 400 or so of us that serve as members of this committee, meet several times a year and many more times by phone and email. We are the backbone of amusement ride safety. Why is that? There is nothing else. That is the way the amusement ride industry wants it. Minimal records, minimal training, minimal information all add up to Bad Safety.
One may ask, why minimal records? Years ago in California, then a park called Marriott’s Great America had an incident involving the death of a teenager on a roller coaster. In those days the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had oversight of fixed sight and portable amusement rides. The CPSC came in and conducted an investigation. Strangely enough the “records” had been removed. As a result of the CPSC investigation and subsequent retrieval of the records, a heavy fine was given to the amusement park. Shortly thereafter the amusement park industry successfully lobbied the United States Congress and CPSC oversight was removed fixed sight amusement rides. Portable rides still fall under the CPSC jurisdiction. No differences in the rides, except portable rides go from town to town.
To further complicate the issue, amusement park industry has started voluntary collections of incident numbers from their member park members that chose to participate. No information is collected fixed parks that do not participate in this particular trade association for fixed parks. The association for portable amusement rides does not collect incident statistics from its members. Neither association records or collects near miss information.
So we have no government agency that records or collects incident information on a nationwide basis. The fixed site amusement ride industry at best tracks only the tip of the iceberg. There is no formal or informal information sharing of incidents, statistics or data. Ride Manufacturers may and most of the time will share mechanical information that pertains to ride operation. On occasion the CPSC will get involved and issue safety information on portable rides, remember they have no oversight of fixed park rides, even though they are the same type of amusement rides.
What does happen when someone is killed or seriously injured or a near miss occurs? The amusement ride industry will start by saying how many billion of rides are given each year. So millions of people ride amusement rides. That is nothing new. They will also talk about bogus percentage released by the CPSC. The CPSC said they never released any percentage statistics. Their previous reports have been all best guesses. I have always wondered where this 80-20-5 percent thing came from. Injuries are 80 percent patron, 20 percent and 5 percent mechanical in nature. Of course this is what happens when the fault appears to lean toward the industry.
Patron related causes are another interesting issue. The industry is quick to point out the patron did something wrong. I think they forget that sometimes a rider may not fit the ride, or the attendant did not check the restraint, failed to properly instruct the rider or the ride was having some problems that were not properly checked out.
The incidents so far this year appear to be pointing out some of the weaknesses in an already less than adequate system. Perhaps one day our legislatures will repair these problems.
Ken Martin, Amusement Ride Safety Consultant
KRM Consulting
Richmond, Virginia USA
