How do you feel about amusement park safety?

Do you guys feel that their should be a federal regulatory agency for the safety of theme park rides? I did a paper on it for my Senior Project (I'll post it if you would like) and I feel that theme parks are safe for numerous reasons. I just thought with the death of this girl on Raging Bull, that this would be a good forum thread to talk about our opinions on theme park safety.

I feel that theme parks are very safe. Even without a federal regulatory agency, I feel the specifications provided by the CPSC and the ride guidelines followed in the ASTM F-24 1305(I believe it is 1305) provide ample and sufficient guidelines/standards for theme parks to provide maximum safety with maximum protection.

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I am one.
I am Turbo.

I believe parks are very safe as well. I am a staunch believer in Constitutional government, meaning the Federal Government should only be involved in what the Constitution says it should be involved in. Everything else is up to the individual states.

Regulatory agencies can be better run by the states, local control for these things tends to be more efficant, economical, and common sensical (is that a word?). No amont of regulations could have saved that girl. It was not a ride safty issue, but rather rider's own failure to follow common sense that caused her unfortunate death. It is a hard lesson to learn, and the girl is at total fault for it.

Unfortunatly, I am sure there will be lawsuits filed, saying that the medics did not do all they could, or they didn't get there in time, or that there was no warning sign about sucking on candy on the ride, or that the ride operator should have seen her, and the list goes on and on. I actually feel bad for Six Flags and the people that were there, they are going to get slammed by this non-sense. Massive regulation would only make it worse, costing more money, and giving people more of a chance at litigation. And remember, in the end, it is us, the park going public, that pays for it all, not some legislator that sits in Washington with a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

I am in general in favor of the parks and the rides being as safe as possible. In cases where the park patrons do not obey the rules, then the blame does not rest on the park's shoulders. Not that that will prevent lawsuits.

In the rare case of something going wrong with the ride, then the park and its owners owe it to the ridegoing public to figure out why the ride broke and hurt someone, then fix the fraggin' thing so no one else gets hurt.

What happened in Chicago is sad, but from what I have heard, clearly NOT the park's fault, with the slim possible exception of not training park employees in only slightly advanced first aid.

I am not certain that getting the federal government involved is the best possible solution. The state governments worry me a bit as well; I worry about one state deciding how intense the rides in another can be.

My own rule for ride safety is to limit my riding to rides in parks run by serious companies, avoiding temporary carnivals and fairs.

I am the TickTock Man

Amusement park safety = a good thing

TTD proves that rides can still be thrilling, pushing the envelope and safe....

I think rides at all parks are held under close scrutiny - no other bureaus are necessary.

Keeping the government out of as many things as possible = another good thing.....

I think the government should stay out of it. They should focus on more important issues in today's society than amusement park safety, such as the whole Iraq/Korea ordeal.
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Im cold......

First of all, there are no proposals at this time for a Federal regulatory agency to oversee amusement rides. If there were such a proposal, it might be worth investigating, but at this time there is no such proposal. The only proposal at the Federal level is to authorize an existing agency to investigate ride accidents. I'd rather have a State inspection division do that, particularly a State agency which inspects the rides and gets to know the rides before an accident happens.

The marketplace makes rides safe, because accidents are bad for business.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I would agree with Black 7's thoughts/ideas!!! There should be no federal regulation but should be handled by each state. Each state should decide how they want to regulate the parks in there communities.

And for Rideman, rep. markey is again going to re-introduce his bill to impose federal oversight over theme parks, and once its up and running it will be like the typical federal government progam in that it will start small, only investigating accidents and then will find reasons to be expanded to encompass much more than that and will result in theme park owners having to pay off politicians to keep the regulators off their backs.

What are you talking about? The parks are safe. There are regulation boards and inspection boards for rides.Each ride is inspected atleast once a year. Then the theme parks have their maintenence personel check the rides everyday before they open. I dont think that the parks could have any more safety checks then they already have.

Why fix something that aint broke? Washington would most definatly find a way to screw it up so how about we keep them out of it.

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Summer 03-CP, HP, Canobie, SFNE, SFWOA, and SFGAm.

The problem is that politicians have a nasty habit of sticking their collective noses where they are not wanted or needed. Unfortunately, Rep. Markey has a gift on a silver platter with the death of the girl on Raging Bull. As cruel and unjust as it is to the family, he will probably drag this fairly well-publicized case all over the political world as proof of why theme parks should be regulated. It is emotionalistic, but it may gain him some support in the House. I agree with Black 7 about the need of constitutional government, and I feel that the feds are already involved in way too much already. But the sad fact remains that Amusement parks, via the tourism draw, have a heavy effect on interstate commerce, and as such fall within the bounds of Congressional power as outlined by the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution. Personally, if this is going to be regulated at all I think it should fall under the auspices of the FTC rather than starting a whole new bureau.

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And Trogdor smote the Kerrek, and all was laid to Burnination.
-Strong Bad

Ah, but anyone with half a brain (well, I guess that rules out politicians, unfortunately) can see that this unfortunate accident had nothing to do with the ride itself, and that any "regulations" would have had ZERO effect on it.

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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"I can't believe I just left a nuclear weapon in an elevator." -- Farscape

Surprisingly, it seems that Congress feels much the same about Markey as we do. 'A solution looking for a problem,' if I remember correctly.

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-Vater
Have you ridden a Toboggan?

Nearly ALL of the deaths or injuries on coasters are due to human error, not the amusement parks.

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Love,
The Mole

Actually, most accidental deaths on coasters are due to mechanical malfunctions, bad design, or operator error. Only about 25% are due to rider misbehavior. There is a common misconception about ride misbehavior causing all fatalaties. Rider misbehavior causes a high percentage of less serious amusement ride accidents, but is less common in fatal accidents.

Still actual fatal accidents on roller coaster in the US average only about 1 per year, a remarkably low number.

We don't need a new Federal agency to oversee amusement rides, and we don't need the CPSC investigating accidents. CPSC regualtion has had no impact on accidents on the mobile rides that they currently regulate. Note that the CPSC doesn't set standards for amusement rides or inspect them before accidents. They only investigate after accidents occur.

What we could use is for states to watch a small number of parks more closely. There are a very few, mostly small, parks that seem to be lacking in safety. The two that come to mind right off are both in states with state regualtion that already exceeds having the CPSC involved.

Which parks would those be Jim Fisher? Just curious.

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GregLeg said:
Ah, but anyone with half a brain (well, I guess that rules out politicians, unfortunately) can see that this unfortunate accident had nothing to do with the ride itself, and that any "regulations" would have had ZERO effect on it.

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People just want to blame someone else for their own stupidity in failing to adhere to the safety guidelines set forth by amusement parks.

I think that most parks are too safe. At Knotts, for example, the perilous plunge (which was a mistake to begin with) launches only one boat every five minutes because they spend so much time checking those stupid straps that aren't necessary anyway. Also, what Magic Mountain has done to the Revolution is unexcusable. What has the theme park world come to?

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Purple cows eat silver moon pies, among fiesty, glowing fireflies.

And bashing politicians is just blaming someone else for their own stupidity in electing potential morons.

lata, jeremy

--who wonders how many voters are sufferring "Buyer's Remorse"

I am a firm believer that there should be no federal regulation for amusement safety. I feel that amusement parks have a pretty good track record. Sure, there have been deaths that have been caused by negligence on behalf of the park, but these type of things happen when millions of people visit parks each year. Take skyiving for example, there is no federal regulation even though the percentage of deaths and injuries is much much higher than that of the amusment industry. Solution: Do nothing, amusment parks have been doing a tremendous job making their parks safe.

Well said CoasterKevin!