6/7/2001

Mr. Markey:

I’ve been reading your vocal comments about amusement ride safety for the past few years, and I’ve just about had as much of your nonsense as I can take.

The recent death of a woman at Six Flags Magic Mountain on Goliath, caused by an aneurysm, was indeed tragic, and our hearts certainly go out to the family. However, when something like this happens, there you are grabbing headlines, pursuing your cause to protect us from "danger." Your Web site is filled with links to a number of incoherent and often unrelated articles that allegedly prove your point.

Today is your lucky day. I’m going to show you why you’re wrong.

It’s hard to decide where to start, so let me begin with your proposed legislation to grant the US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) jurisdiction over ride safety. You begin by saying, "To me, it is inexcusable that when someone dies or is seriously injured on these rides, there is no system in place to ensure that the ride is investigated, the causes determined, and the flaws fixed, not just on that ride, but on every similar ride in every other state." Can you name even one fatality where this did not happen? When has there ever been a fatality that the ride wasn’t closed, investigated, a cause determined then fixed?

You go on to quote a report issued by the CPSC regarding the number of injuries resulting from amusement rides. For some reason, you fail to mention that the CPSC admitted to the LA Times last August that the report’s statistics could be off by as much as 50%, a margin of error that would effectively erase any increase in ride-related injuries.

Your favorite thing to quote is the report last year from several Japanese doctors that concluded without any study or significant research that roller coasters could cause subdural hematomas. You fail to mention that the article also attributes these injuries to sneezing, coughing, strain from heavy lifting, hypertension, alcoholism, etc.

In fact, there is no basis to ever quote that article because it contains no statistically valid sample of patients, no control group or correlating data that takes into consideration the type, intensity or duration of forces on the body.

On March 10, 2000, you wrote a letter to the director of the National Institutes of Health, asking for "assistance in understanding" how rides can be harmful to the public, but on the same page spent more time trying to convince the director you had a case.

The core issue you make is the limitation of G forces. Again, your sources don’t quote any scientific research regarding what the body can take, nor does it consider the duration of such forces. Your argument is further convoluted by earlier mention of speed, which has nothing to do with G forces.

Case in point: Millennium Force at Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio, is 310 feet. It was built last year. According to middle school students conducting experiments on the ride, the 50-foot Wildcat, built 30 years before at the same park, pulls more G’s at 40 mph than Millennium Force does at 93 mph. Clearly height and speed have nothing to do with the forces imposed on the rider. If you’re going to push this useless legislation, at least get a basic grasp of physics.

The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) have perhaps the most dramatic example of safety I’ve seen. On their statement about safety, they say:
 

"Assuming each guest takes ten rides (for a total estimate of 3.1 billion rides in the U.S. yearly), the likelihood of being injured seriously enough to require hospitalization is therefore about 1 in 22 million, and the chance of being fatally injured is 1 in one and a half billion. In short, based on government data, over 99.99% of those guests who board rides at parks and attractions enjoy their experience without any incident whatsoever."

The fact of the matter is, amusement parks are doing a good job regulating themselves. The tone of your statements makes it sound like without your legislation, there is no accountability and no reason to stress safety. What you fail to realize is that the parks have every reason to stress safety, the most obvious of which is that they can’t afford to have deaths and injuries. They would put them out of business.

Perhaps it’s time for you to find another cause. The only reason for this one is to get your name in the press. My favorite statement made in opposition to your silly legislation was from Rep. Cliff Stearns in May of last year:

"It's a solution in search of a problem. There are more people injured while bowling."

See you on the midways,
Jeff Putz
CoasterBuzz.com