Great editorial Jeff!

Love the new editorial

However, weren't there more than two deaths this year? Knott's PP, Knott's Shuttle, Goliath, portable carny coaster, and the one at SFMW. Am I right, or just plain lost?
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*** This post was edited by bigkirby on 10/14/2001. ***

Im guessing he was meaning a death the ride itself caused.

Great job Jeff!!I hope you e-mail a copy to Rep. markey. I think the answer to your question is the government wanting ti have their fingers in every aspect of our lives. Why else would they report on something they have no jurisdiction over??? Its away to acquire power by putting another large industry under their regulatory control. The result will be more rules/regs. and less fun as the make the parks tone down safe rides, they will use the typical mantra"If it saves just one life" it will be worth it no mater what the cost too the vast majority of park visitors.

I guess you didn't read it too closely. Jeff didn't write it. Jim Fisher did. It was a great editorial, I agree. It should be sent to the tax people, we should spend our taxes on better things. It should also be sent to Markey. Great job, Jim!

Yeah, I didn't write it.

One thing Jim didn't mention was that, while the deaths hold no real trends (a few every year isn't a trend), total rides given has increased dramatically over the last few decades. There's something to be said for that.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

That's correct.  There have only been 2 deaths this year due to amusement ride accidents.  There have been 3 other deaths due to preexisting conditions which happened to occur on rides but could have occurred almost anywhere.  The official coroner’s reports have reflected this. 

There was also one death on a ride which was a deliberate suicide, and one death to a park employee.  All of these deaths were unfortunate and regrettable.

Safety must always be a very high priority, but it simply isn't possible to make anything risk free.  Safety analysis is one aspect of my job.  I can find a statistic on the probability of almost any type of accident imaginable.  About once every 10 years someone in the US has their house struck by a meteorite, but that doesn't mean that we should put meteorite shield on all houses.  What we have to do is realistically look at the risks and determine if they are excessive. 

One of the worst mistakes that we can make in safety is to concentrate our efforts in the wrong areas.  I personally support state inspection of amusement rides.  I would also like to see greater use of a systems approach to ride safety design.  These would imporve an already fine safety record.  Burying an industry in piles of government required paperwork will distract efforts from real safety improvement and direct them to just meeting the regulatory requirements.