Text-only version
The first section of California's amusement park safety regulations was adopted by the state on Halloween. Despite the last-minute dilution of the accident reporting requirement, the Administrative Regulations represent a big win for consumers. For the first time in half a century, California's theme parks are accountable to the public. Some accidents will be investigated by impartial safety officials. Some of that information will be available to the public, despite the best efforts of the industry lobbyists and lawyers. We're still light years away from full disclosure. But, piece by piece, we're chiseling away the institutionalized secrecy that shrouded my son's accident in 1998.
So where do we go from here? How do we use the hard-won consumer protections afforded by the California regulations to prevent amusement ride injuries? First you should note the operative word here is "we", not "they". Accident prevention is still primarily our responsibility, not the government's or the industry's. The California government has given us an assist, that's all. Amusement parks in this state are legally required to share some of their secrets. It's our job to make good use of that information, to learn how to protect ourselves and our children around amusement rides.
This law isn't a magic bullet. It's a compromise that reflects the political realities in this state. The California regulations aren't going to eliminate the common causes of ride-related injuries. The state has no authority over ride designers or patrons. Under the new law, there still aren't any age limits or employment qualifications for ride operators. Kiddie rides will continue to be built without doors or child restraints, and occasionally kids will fall out. Rough rides will continue to shake human brains and spinal columns, occasionally past the endurance point. The state will investigate some of those accidents, and may occasionally negotiate a change to one particular ride in response to one particular incident. But it's our job, yours and mine, to learn how to navigate around the limitations of industry-standard ride designs.
For the last two years, I've been hoping to create a uniform, coherent system of logging, analyzing, and disseminating information on amusement ride injuries in the United States. I come from the scientific world, where organized data collection is the first step toward solving any problem. The past two years have taught me how very different the world of business and politics is from mine. The amusement ride industry doesn't want injury data collected, even if it would help solve their safety problems. So, there you have it. If a $9 billion industry doesn't want something, it isn't going to happen.
Yet the public debate over theme park secrecy has, in and of itself, released a thin but steady trickle of information on ride-related injuries. It's not enough for scientific analysis, but it is enough for detective work. Two years ago, I learned that young children are at highest risk for ride-related injury, and that lap bars leave the smallest riders unprotected. Last year I learned that the rise in injury rates for children started almost 20 years ago, immediately after Congress exempted theme parks from compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Act. In all that time, the amusement ride industry hasn't bothered to draft child safety standards. This year I learned that there are rides that can break a human neck during normal operation. In September, I learned that lap bars leave the biggest riders unprotected, too. Lori Mason-Larez, a 40-year-old mother of five, paid for that lesson with her life.
As the reports trickle in, common factors arise. Ignorance is one. An awful lot of ride-related injuries could be prevented if patrons knew how to choose rides that fit their bodies and personalities, and if they knew what to watch out for on each ride. That's a tall order, I know, but even a little guidance would be big improvement. Over the winter, I plan to shift Saferpark's focus toward that aim.
- I'm working with a cartoonist to develop web-based activities that teach children and parents about ride safety.
- I'm adding a section to the website that explains the various forces acting on the body, and the benefits/risks of different restraint designs. I've asked the American Academy of Pediatrics for guidance concerning the type of safety equipment parents should look for when judging whether a ride is safe for their child.
- I'm adding a form that will allow Saferparks visitors to report ride-related injuries. If the parks won't give us the data, and if the government can't make them, then patrons will just have to report their own injuries. Those reports will be compiled in an on-line database and forwarded to the appropriate authorities. If the injury occurred at a self-regulated park, the report will be forwarded to Congressman Stearns, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection.
- A second database will merge whatever accident data I can obtain from state agencies. Because the state data varies so widely, this presents a challenge in terms of formatting and data entry. It's also an inherently unfair way of presenting failure data, since it benefits parks that have the political clout to hide their failures. I'll try to find a creative way of evening the score. Maybe I could run an animated banner around the query page that reads: "New Jersey Ride Owners Don't Have Anything to Hide!" or "Hey Disney World: Why Won't You Show Us Your Safety Record?".
So that's where we go from here. I have always thought the primary safety problem in this industry is the wide gap between the patrons' perception of the rides and the industry's perception of its patrons. I've not had much luck shifting the industry's perception. Perhaps it's easier to teach millions of children to think like ride designers than it is to teach one theme park executive how to think like a 4-year-old child. I know it's got to be a whole lot more fun.
Best Wishes for a Safe and Peaceful Holiday Season
from Saferparks
