Rides governance in other countries

Who is in charge of governing rides outside of the US? Just curious, as obviously we have the ASTM (American Standard for Testing Materials) here in the states, which lay out what is and is not acceptable for rides and structures (among other codes).

My question was sparked by this rather odd fence placement for Corkscrew at Sea World Australia:

http://www.coasterbuzz.com/rollercoasterphoto.htm?i=1584

You'd think they would want a tall fence by the track, but instead, they have it placed around some bushes across from the coaster. It doesn't seem like it would be too terribly hard to reach up (not that you would have a good reason too, but it didn't stop Cedar Point from installing a screen underneath the Corkscrew track). *** Edited 10/3/2004 6:56:58 AM UTC by Zero-G***

Things are no different here, just look at the Thunderbolt at Kennywood, the track is more reachable then that corkscrew coaster.

http://zerognetwork.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=17&pos=39

I'm not sure how close things really are in these photos, though I do recall Thunderbolt being pretty close to the fence. Trying to mentally scale the picture from Australia, the bottom of the track looks to be about 8-10 feet off the ground, pretty low either way.

The ASTM does not "govern" any rides. It is a concensus organization that creates standards. Like other concnesus organizations, it is not a governmental entity and has no authority to enforce standards. Standards have to be incorporated into law by a governmental authority to be a legal requirement. This would be OSHA or its state equivalents for the safety of employees, and whatever agency is designated by state or local government for the safety of customers. I'm not sure what states if any have actually incorporated ASTM standards as such. New Jersey's law doesn't refer to the latest ASTM standards, instead it essentially copies them word for word. Ride Man can probably tell us which states have actually adopted ASTM standards.

The equivalent to the ASTM standards in Austrailia is Austrailian Standard AS3533. For employees, the equivalent to OSHA in each Austrailian state has authority as near as I can tell. I don't know who has authority as far as customers are concerned.

In England the "Health And Safety Executive" seems to have authority for both employees and custormers. *** Edited 10/4/2004 3:45:14 AM UTC by Jim Fisher***