Do you feel safe on Carnival Rides?

Do Carnival Rides and County/State fairs use the same area ride companies?

The only company I trust that transports the portable versions of these rides is Bates Brother/Bates Amusements, which operate the rides as a combined unit at the IX Indoor Amusement Park, and at the Canfield Fair in the Youngstown/Mahoning Valley.

What I didn't like was the difference in quality rides at the IX event vs. the Canfield Fair. The Canfield Fair is the largest county fair east of the Mississippi, yet Bates Bros/Bates Amusements had a few rides that should have failed inspection. A few rides the operator had to push himself into motion to start it. None of these rides were at the IX event in April, and it was cheaper at the IX event also.

355,000 attended the Canfield Fair in its 6 days the week up to Labor Day, which was considered a down year, taking in 10% less than 2004.

You think with that crowd, Bates/Bates would want to show off their best...or maybe they were just too tired for the season to care enough???

*** Edited 9/11/2005 7:28:01 PM UTC by midwave***

Maybe I'm being prejudiced, but too many times I can't help but feel with carnival rides that the ride may be in PA, but there may be a few bolts lying in a field in OH.

I don't generally like any ride where an operator can actually help the braking process of a ride by holding on to it and pulling on a car.

I also am concerned about the "cleanliness" of the food stands. How inspected are they. Better yet, how clean are the hands of the toothless drunk selling it to you.

If a traveling ride is permanently mounted (Like at Knobles) I feel it would get better care. Rides rolling down the highway are a pretty sight, but it's just not for me.

I think a good read for all of you scared carnival visitors is this story right here
http://www.syracuse.com/statefair/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1125650587160470.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

copy and paste that link
*** Edited 9/12/2005 9:26:56 PM UTC by TopSpinJay***

Our non scientific surveys are like those on Amusement Safety.org. (LOL!) I'm sorry, but I could not resist. *** Edited 9/12/2005 9:33:33 PM UTC by GIGAFORCE01***

So now on top of worrying that you might be flung from a ride or that a ride will just fall apart mid-cycle, you have to worry about running into Bill Clinton, TopSpin?

You need to read the story under:

Friday, September 02, 2005

• Ride Inspector-Protectors
John White was not too popular with Strates Shows when he shut down the Zipper, one of the most popular rides at the New York State Fair, during the first day.

read that and then tell me if bill clinton was involved with it

I don't see much reason why I shouldn't be unless I see something that looks wrong with the ride. The main problem I see with Carnival rides is the daring carnival workers.

One incident I watched was where a Ride operator on a Gravitron ride would leave his center station and stand at a weird angle just a few feet outside of it. I find that this is a violation of both rider and operator safety issues as the operator left his panel away from the E-Stop button and if he had tripped or something like that it would be impossible to get back to the panel as the force of the ride would push him to the outside.

Another case is where I saw workers taking apart a 80 Foot Chance Ferris Wheel. They were climbing on the side of the structure about 30-40 feet off the ground without safety harnesses and one wrong move could have killed them or injured them real bad. They were unhooking the support bar from the roof of the cars after the seat was removed at the platform. The ride moves by one car each time they do this so they climb down to the next car when this occurs.

I'm either too lazy or not interested enough-- well, actually both-- to register for the site, Top Spin.

I feel perfectly safe until I step onto a ride.

Are there any facts that show carnival rides to be any more or less dangerous than amusement parks? There are a lot of carnivals out there and it seems to me that they wouldn't last long if they killed a couple people a night.

That's exactly my point in my first post, millrace. We all see the reports, the news stories and stuff like that.

In my non-scientific opinion, I've seen just as many (if not more) reports of inujury and death at permanently installed rides as traveling ones.

I dont like carnival rides, I went on one of the rides and felt the whole thing shifting and shaking, not good not good at all. Never went on one sense

well im not going to defeate the copyright laws other then posting that little hint of what to read but realy i don't know why some of you are complaining there just asking for a zip code and a birthday which you can fake up.
theres realy no registering involved.

regardless of the fact yes theres some death defying people who work on the equipment without harnesses and believe me it don't go un-noticed by OSHA. its a 1,500 dollar fine for an infraction of being off the ground over 6 feet without a harness.
heres the issue sometimes with that- some workers believe the harnesses will hurt them more then falling because they restrict your movement to get outta the way or if the peice your strapped too gives your goin too like it or not so thats why alot of people out there dont like them.

inregards to ANY amusement divice being safe? my opinion is go to a park or carnival at night- the rule of thub is if you can see that almost every lightbulb burns...theres maintenace being done. if not well i wouldent subject myself to it

but the rides going up coming apart and being inspected every time they move by goverment officals like for instance the state and a public fair saftey ispector backs the fact that carnivals are safer to a degree were as parks tend to sometime slack on inspections and only are seen mabie once a year at best if that by goverment officials. they take a ride all the way down to rehab it mabie at best every 5-10 years
vs every week *** Edited 9/15/2005 6:18:25 AM UTC by TopSpinJay***

You're never going to be out of danger, but statistics show that there's less of a chance of injury or death WITH the restraint/harness than without. It's just like seatbelts in cars. Yes, there have been documented cases where a seatbelt has directly contributed to the fatality (the belt cutting a person's throat, or trapping them in a burning vehicle because they could not get it undone), however there are far more cases where it's saved lives.