Investment firm wants Disney to put accident disclosure to a vote

As if Disney hasn't lost as much money already this year.  I hope that they still heavily theme all of their rides!

Disney is the most unsafe park, though.  They have the most injuries and fatalities.

With an annual attendance of over 50 million per year, Disney parks have had only 2 ride related fatalities in the last 10 years.  This gives them an record of about 1 fatality per 250,000,000 attendance.  This is a little better than the industry average.

This is a "sexy", "splashy" story that the press won't give up on.  It is too good for ratings to just drop it.  If they say you can't beat City Hall, you really can't beat the sensationalism of the press. 

The best bet for the amusement park industry is to play nice and throw them some bones so they move on to other things.  There is always another Condit or Clinton story on the horizon.

Does Disney report there accident's to IAAPA since they don't report to the state.
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Army rangers lead the way

 They also have the stupidest people that go there. Once again, a rough 85% of accidents are rider imposed!
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Coaster-fanatic

Jim Fisher...... they only have 2 ride-related fatalities because that is all that they have reported to having. Disney has not been truthful in telling their accident records. I bet there have probably been at least 5 times the amount of deaths than reported. Disney does not have to give up their safety records because of a clause in legal system that states that any park that is owned by a company with more than 1,000 employees does not have to report their safety record. So, Busch Gradens, Seaworld, IOA, and Disney Parks do not have to give up their safety records. That is why Disney has only reported 2 deaths, but I guarentee that the actual results are a lot higher than that. Those stats remind me of the stats that were taken that said that 10,000 people were sent to the hospital for ride related accidents and the results could have a margin of error by more than 50%. Dinsey is not a truthful company and they don't want to have a bad image. Disney most likely has one of the worst safety records and one of those reasons could be because of the number of guests that visit the parks each year.
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Dave

ACE...I couldn't agree with you more.  I take it you have read Mouse Tales by David Koenig.  If you only read the chapter regarding accidents and injuries at the park, you would fully understand.  I also have to agree that Disney visitors are amongst the dumbest I have ever read of or seen.  But if you have the $43.00, everybody's entitled to a good time.

Whoa... hold on a second. Injuries are one thing, but deaths? Come on, you don't think you'd hear about those? With the media and lawyers chasing ambulances do you honestly think that a few deaths are going to "slip by?" Not a chance. It's really hard, no, impossible, to cover up a death like that.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

I will let you know when get to vote... have about 100 Disney shares...

And Jeff you spelled "that" wrong..."tjat"

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Andrew Hyde
http://www.experiencethepoint.com
Author-Experience The Point: The Unofficial Guidebook To Cedar Point

*** This post was edited by Andrew on 8/31/2001. ***

I would just like to see it passed to ensure the safety of future visitors.

They could start by doing something with the seat belts on Matterhorn.  I went to Disneyland in May.  These two kids behind me stated "unlock your seatbelt, the ride is so much better that way."  I have no idea if they did or not, but that ride does have some pretty crazy dips and turns, even at 30 mph.

1) As Jeff stated, hiding an amusement ride death today is virtually impossible.  The press just likes them too much.

2) While there is no good data on the causes on injuries, there is good data on the causes of amusement ride deaths going back about 15 years.  Only about 1/4 of the deaths in the last 15 years were caused by rider misbehaviour.  Mechanical failures were the leading cause, followed by rider misbehaviour, then operator error.

:smiling:

oh, BTW Supermandl: no they don't..they get to keep their records private...

I wonder how much the recent settlement on the "Indiana Jones" ride cost them? And how many inuries escaped being tabulated from that deal..?

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http://members.aol.com/rides911/accidents.htm
http://www.saferparks.org

I would've rather won Powerball (8/15/01)then be your 1 out of 23,000,000!!

Even disney couldnt hide reports of deaths that occurred on their property. As to having the dumbest patrons does anybody belive six flag parks are the meeting place for the mensa society??? From my experience any park can have dumb guests but i have seen alot more acts of stupidity at six flag parks than at disney parks. And they wont release figures of settlements as part of a legal action decided on by a judge they are made private and publishing the results would only encourage more lawsuits.

All that should be said is that the people have the right to know what has happened in the past at any Disney park. whether it be a mechanical malfunction, a fatality, etc.

What kind of investors would want to do this? I certainly hope the shareholders are smart enough to vote no. Let's be realistic here... the firm says they want to know how much money they've spent on settlements as a concerned investor. With a company as huge as Disney, would these settlements even make the slightest dent in the overall financial performance of the company? I don't think so. Forcing them to reveal the numbers is like saying, "Hey, stub your toe at the park? We'll give you money for it!"

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

I think they also want to be sure the company they invested in is not an accident waiting to happen to children.
What I don't get is if Disney and other CA and FL park's don't report there injury's to NO one, how does IAAPA come up with there stat's, it seem's they use the attendance figures for the park's but can't include accident's because they dont know what they are. It looks to me the IAAPA #'s are false about accident's at park's then, if I'm wrong please send me a link from IAAPA or some other place where they show a CA or FL park injury stat's. I know as of this year CA has to report accident's.
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Army rangers lead the way
*** This post was edited by supermandl on 8/31/2001. ***

I don't think that anybody has accurate nationwide data on the total number of injuries occurring at amusement parks.  Nor do they have accurate data on the number of heart attacks and cases of heat stroke occurring at anusement parks, or for that matter at major league ball games.  These are the kinds of numbers that business doesn't like to release because they get blown out of proportion. 

The mislogic goes like this.  17 people died at baseball games last year due to heart attacks. (All of these numbers are made up.  I have no idea of the real numbers.) 14 of these occurred on hot days where heat stress may have been a factor.  Therefore we should require all baseball parks to be domed and air conditioned.  The cost would of course be in the billions to maybe delay one or two deaths per year.  The simple fact is there is risk in everything,  We need to keep it reasonably low, but nothing is zero risk.

That's why they are asking for a national accident base so we know what accident's happen at the park's. I would love to show the people who believe that park's are not safe with a national data base, they could break down accident's and we could show the non believer's that most accident's are minor scrape's and bruise's from running and so, not ride related.
I worry that your reason behind not releasing stat's is that people will take them out of proportion, how will they if we can prove its minor and not major injury's. With a data base collecting all accident's from ALL park's accross the USA we should be able to show them its safe.
Or are the park's hiding something when they don't want to release accident data.
Would you not want to know the car you buy has had problem's with tire's or should they not release those #'s because people will take them out of proportion.

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Army rangers lead the way

*** This post was edited by supermandl on 8/31/2001. ***