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Mitch Albom's bestseller The Five People You Meet in Heaven opens with the accidental death of Eddie, a ride mechanic at Ruby Pier amusement park. Eddie dies trying to pull a little girl to safety when a cable snaps on Ruby Pier's freefall ride. The remainder of the book chronicles Eddie's progression through heaven, where he meets the five people referenced in the title. Eddie's question to each was "did I save the little girl?" You'll have to read the book yourself to find out the answer. Make sure to keep a box of Kleenex handy.
I read Five People on the way to an ASTM F-24 industry standards meeting, a twice-yearly event where you'll find whole rooms (including the bar) filled with people dedicated to amusement ride safety. Like Eddie, those individuals quietly improve the world every day through the simple, mundane things they do, the accidents they prevent, the rides they keep safe, the lives they anonymously affect.
One of the people you'll meet at ASTM is Rachel Hutter, Director of Attractions Engineering Services and Quality Assurance for Disney World Resorts. The best way to describe Rachel is "infectiously bubbly". Her enthusiasm stands out, even among employees of the most enthusiastic place on earth. At the last ASTM meeting, Rachel invited me to Disney World for a behind-the-scenes tour of the computerized maintenance tracking system that her group is developing for their high energy rides. The system is slick, but more about the technology at a later date. We're talking about heaven here.
While navigating her cherry red PT Cruiser down the Florida Interstate, Rachel happened to mention The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Her comments about the book inspired this editorial. They also illustrate what exactly it is that a Director of Quality Assurance does. After reading about Eddie's tragic death, Rachel's first concern was continuity of the maintenance function. Sure, Eddie's close personal knowledge of the equipment was admirable, but Rachel wanted to know where the written procedures were. Had Eddie taken the time to document the maintenance and inspection process for each ride so that Ruby Pier amusement park could continue the high level of safety after his death? Quality Assurance, Rachel explained, is the tedious job of breaking down safety-critical tasks to a minute level of detail, documenting them clearly, and developing reliable, efficient ways to ensure they're properly executed day in and day out by people with varying levels of experience. It's not sexy, but the work pays high dividends in accidents prevented, lives anonymously affected.
Kevin Russell is another person you'll meet at ASTM. As a ride engineer for Paramount Parks and a key member of the F-24 task group on control system design, Kevin treats safety as an evolving discipline. Studying failures as well as successes is the key to maintaining the highest level of safety for Paramount's customers.
At the last ASTM meeting, Kevin told me that Paramount Parks had instituted a kiddie restraint and containment review to ensure that the smallest riders would be safe on all of their rides. Minimum height limits were raised on a few rides, including a Kings Dominion kiddie coaster beloved by two-year-old Sarah Helms of Stafford, Virginia. Sarah's father told the Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star that she rode the coaster last year when, by my math, she was eighteen months old. This year, the toddler will only be allowed to ride 16 different amusement rides when she visits Kings Dominion, a childish disappointment somehow elevated to news. In the words of Sarah's dad, Paramount's new safety policy "makes me cry for her".
If disappointment over a roller coaster ride is the measure of tragedy in the Helms family, I'd say that Mr. Helms is a very, very lucky dad. His life has been anonymously affected by good people who know a thing or two about child safety on thrill rides and care enough about 2-year-old Sarah that they're willing to risk disappointment in order to keep her safe. Safety is a thankless task, the outcome measured by what doesn't happen, in accidents prevented, in little girls protected. The customers of Paramount Parks may not know it or appreciate it, but they are blessed to have Kevin Russell watching out for their children.
Budget deficits at all levels of government have made it more difficult for regulatory officials to participate in safety forums such as ASTM, but you can count on meeting Mike Triplett, Dave Durkee, and Gord Kanani at the F-24 meetings. Mike, Dave, and Gord regulate the safety of amusement rides on behalf of the general public in New Jersey, Clark County Nevada, and Ontario Canada, respectively. Mike paid his own way to the last ASTM meeting. That's how dedicated he is to safety and to the industry standards process. Dave Durkee has turned down promotions in order to stay in his current job because he feels personally responsible for keeping the thrill rides of Las Vegas as safe as they can be. Gord has missed only one ASTM meeting that I know of, last month when his son was being married in India. The three regular regulators, as I call them, broaden the perspective within a group that is heavily weighted toward industry, and enrich the quality of standards produced by F-24. In their daily lives, regulatory officials like Mike, Dave, and Gord anonymously affect lives through accidents prevented, and those investigated; through rides approved as safe, and those shut down when necessary.
Carnival owner Ron Burback is one of the wisest people you'll meet at ASTM. Ron spent the first quarter century of his working life in the amusement park business, and the last quarter century as owner/operator of Funtastic Shows, "just possibly the world's finest carnival". In his spare time, Ron represents the Outdoor Amusement Business Association and chairs the Operations subcommittee of F-24. Ron is the staunchest industry advocate of mandatory accident reporting I know. He fought his own lawyers to institute an incident tracking system when he took over Funtastic, and his insistence paid off. The data collected helped Ron's carnival to significantly reduce the number of operations-related accidents. Ron leverages his positive affect on the lives of amusement ride patrons by underwriting a safety seminar hosted at his winter headquarters every year during the off-season. His latest challenge involves shepherding several hundred F-24 members with diverse interests, and sometimes opposing opinions, through the long-awaited revision of the industry standard for operations. Godspeed, Ron.
Patty Sullivan, President and CEO of Eli Bridge Company, chairs the Design and Manufacturer subcommittee. She's the person you'll meet at ASTM doling out hugs to the industry her family founded. 105 years ago, Patty's great-grandfather built the first portable Ferris wheel. Some of those Eli wheels are still in operation a century later, leading to the most understated company motto of modern times: "Builders of Dependable Products". Patty runs her own business in a highly competitive, rapidly evolving industry, and dedicates more time to ASTM F-24 than she probably should. Imagine the number of lives anonymously affected by Patty and the generations of Sullivans preceding her who have quietly improved the world through the delight they've brought to so many people, the rides they've kept safe, and the accidents they've prevented.
Those readers who can count will note that my editorial, entitled The Five People You Meet at ASTM , has already run over its title by two people, and I've not even touched the tip of the iceberg. Just recognizing the contributions and kindnesses of the Disney delegation would take up more time than any of us has (why does Disney always travel in such a large pack?). The ASTM F-24 committee has over 400 members representing scores of different organizations, from small businesses and overstretched government agencies to multinational corporations. Saferparks salutes them all. The people you meet at ASTM combine to achieve a level of brilliance that boggles the normal mind, a level of cooperation that produces continual improvement in patron safety, and a level of integrity that reassures the heart of this consumer advocate.
Five years ago, Jim Seay, President of Premier Rides and current vice-chair of the F-24 committee, stopped me outside the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington D.C. to ask that I join the F-24 committee. Quite a gracious and gutsy offer, some might say, considering I'd just finished testifying to Congress on the need for federal safety regulation of his industry. And, of course, politics might have played just the smallest part in his invitation, given that Congress was, as usual, looking for a way to please everybody without doing anything at all. But only an industry confident in the excellence of its product and process would have welcomed a pain in the neck mommy like me with an opinionated website and a propensity to talk openly about thrill ride accidents. And welcome me they did.
I sometimes wonder whether Jim has ever regretted the invitation. I know I've never regretted accepting it. I'll leave you with one last story about the people you'll meet at ASTM. Last month I had an opportunity to speak briefly with Hal Stratton, Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. (For those of you who missed the congressional hearing, which probably wasn't covered by hard-hitting news organizations like the Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star , the CPSC is the federal safety agency authorized to investigate accidents on Ron Burback's thrill rides, but forbidden from investigating accidents on thrill rides set up at permanent amusement parks.) Here's what Chairman Stratton had to say about the people you'll meet at ASTM F-24: "Most industry representatives complain to me when CPSC staff members get involved in standards efforts, but the amusement ride industry actually requested that the agency send a staff member to the F-24 meetings."
The staff member Chairman Stratton was referring to is Tim Smith, a human factors expert from the CPSC who, early last year at the request of the industry, joined the eclectic group of people you'll meet at ASTM quietly improving the world through the simple, mundane things they do, the accidents they prevent, the rides they keep safe, the lives they anonymously affect.
"[T]he secret of heaven: that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one." The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Membership in the ASTM F-24 industry standards committee for amusement rides and devices is open to anyone. You don't have to wait for a congressional hearing or a personal invitation to join. For more information, visit the ASTM website.
