A patchwork of state and private industry oversight leaves room for federal intervention.
Who makes sure the amusement park rides are safe?
In what might come as a surprise to riders, most amusement park rides are not federally regulated. Although the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) supervises Mobile rides and carnival rides that travel from state to state, regulation of fixed-site rides, such as theme park rides, is left to the states.
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), trade association representing amusement parks, reports that 44 states regulate rides. The six states that lack state oversight entirely (Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah)hold in or very few or no amusement parks.
But among these 44 states, travel regulations can vary widely. Seconds Safety Park USAan insurance and risk management company for the entertainment industry, only 20 states demonstrate “Comprehensive Government Oversight.” These states they require periodic inspections by a government agency and empower the state government to investigate accidents.
Pennsylvania, for example, is one of the states identified with a comprehensive control program. The Pennsylvania Amusement Safety Advisory Board meets quarterly in review all rides and new rides that apply to operate in the state, and rides are inspected monthly by state-certified third-party inspectors at the expense of the ride owner.
At the other end of the spectrum, a lack of state oversight can lead to tragedy. In Kansas, there was a 10-year-old boy decapitated on a 168-foot-tall water slide in 2016. In the two years the ride was open before his death, 13 people had been seriously injured on the ride, but the state never inspected this
Kansas did it they require annual examinations by private inspectors, but these reports were not to be shared with state officials. The state too was missing Height restrictions in water parks. The park owner and ride designer were charged with second-degree murder, but the charges were dismissed due in part to a ruling that the grand jury had received inadequate evidence.
The Kansas tragedy illustrates how vehicle owners, operators and designers can do just that face civil claims or criminal charges when your trips cause serious injury. But it often takes tragic accidents that spark a public outcry for states to strengthen their regulatory oversight. After the Kansas tragedy, the state legislature overwhelmingly past the Kansas Amusements Act in 2017, which tightened inspection requirements and required parks to report injuries to the state.
To standardize rides and inspection design and safety features in amusement parks, the industry typically relies on the guidance of ASTM Internationalan organization that develops voluntary consensus standards for a wide variety of products and systems.
ASTM International committee in attractions meets twice a year for update a set of voluntary performance specifications, maintenance guides and other driving safety standards that are published in Annual Book of ASTM Standards. These industry standards are widely followed by the amusement parks of the United States; in fact, even state laws will sometimes incorporate them into regulatory requirements. Approximately 35 states reference ASTM standards in their regulations for driving safety.
Many of the state agencies that regulate rides are accommodated within state departments of agriculture. Historically, amusement parks were traveling businesses that set up at state fairs where farmers brought their prized produce and showmen brought rides to entertain the crowds. These fairs and events were often overseen by departments of agriculture, giving rise to the modern regulatory framework of state oversight.
This regulatory framework added a federal layer when the US Congress established the CPSC in 1972. The agency initially regulated both mobile and stationary rides, but the CPSC’s authority to inspect stationary amusement park rides was routine challenged in the courts The amusement park industry lawyer changes to eliminate CPSC oversight of fixed-site travel and the 1981 Congress past these changes—since considered the “roller coaster gap”.
The proposals to close the roller coaster loophole are simple. A legislative solution would be modify two sentences from Consumer product safety lawremoving the exception for “a device that is permanently fixed in place”.
US Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has repeated introduced legislation to restore CPSC oversight of fixed-site travel. Proposed legislation in 2001, he argued that “the reason there is no national clearinghouse to prevent injuries in cars is clear: since 1981, the industry has escaped routine product safety regulation through a loophole in the law “.
Senator Markey it began his crusade for federal oversight in 1999, and the industry has opposed it ever since. IAAPA spend roughly $600,000 a year lobbying against federal oversight, and the association continues to do so lobby to maintain the status quo of state and industry oversight. “It’s like the fox watching over the hen house,” said Mark Bayerof Senator Markey ancient head of staff
A big problem in the regulatory patchwork is also the lack of transparent data referent travel accidents No agency or organization at all captures uniform accident or injury statistics at hundreds of US amusement parks.
IAAPA ducts an annual safety survey that reports a strong safety record. The chance of being seriously injured on a fixed ride at an amusement park in the United States is 1 in 15.5 million rides. But the survey is optional. Only 177 of the 436 invited parks presented Travel safety data for the 2019 survey, the latest report to include ridership levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CPSC beloved in 2015, approximately 37,000 people visited an emergency room that year after being injured on rides. This data was collected through the National electronic injury surveillance systemalthough these estimates to include bounce houses and mechanical bulls in the same category code as an attraction.
In 2013 to study published in Clinical Pediatrics revealed that nearly 100,000 children were treated for ride-related injuries in the United States between 1990 and 2010, with 33% of it happened in fixed place trips. The study he concluded that “an improved national system is needed to monitor injuries involving rides.”
IAAPA noteshowever, that a 2003 panel led by the Brian Injury Association of America Found that the risk of brain injuries and fatalities related to roller coasters is “on the rider, not the ride.” concluding that it is unlikely that a federal agency could match the effectiveness of the current regulatory system.
