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Last Thursday the House Committee on Energy and Commerce engaged in a brief, but passionate, debate over safety regulation for U.S. amusement park rides. The committee members were in rare form. Rep. Markey recited a consumer safety version of Clement C. Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas”. Rep. Stearns vigorously defended his industry friends by reading from IAAPA promotional material on the dangers of table tennis. Rep. Barton, who represents Six Flags Over Texas, regaled the committee with tall tales of government-regulated theme park rides in Florida and Texas. Tempers flared, apologies were offered, and bi-partisanship carried the day. The webcast hit all the emotional plot points of a made-for-TV movie, but don’t let the broader moments distract from the substance of the debate. Serious minds were at work in that room.
The Commerce Committee has been working for months on bipartisan legislation to overhaul federal product safety law, fund the budget-starved Consumer Product Safety Commission, and add stronger protections for children. Rep. Markey (D-Mass) wanted the CPSC reauthorization bill amended to extend child safety protection to amusement park rides, which were exempted from compliance with federal safety laws in 1981 at the behest of the theme park lobby.
The theme park industry, led by Disney, Universal/NBC, and Anheuser-Busch, aggressively opposed the Markey amendment. Those three companies have been remarkably successful in fending off accountability measures at every level of government. 75% of Disney parks, 75% of Universal parks, and 56% of Busch parks are allowed to operate without any government inspection of their rides, without any government audit of their operational safety records, and without any government investigation into serious accidents. More than half of the customers at the nation’s top 20 theme parks – 67 million people – are riding on unregulated rides. No wonder Big Theme puts so much money and time into lobbying Congress for continued protection.
A recent article in the Washington Post raised the profile of Markey’s amendment and shifted the theme park lobbying machine from high gear into overdrive. Members of the Commerce Committee were inundated with calls and marketing material. The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions sent out a flyer claiming “states that have a significant park presence regulate their parks.” What utter hogwash.
- Florida, the nation’s biggest theme park state, “regulates” its theme parks by exempting them from compliance with state safety regulations. No government agency has authority to investigate an accident at Disney World, Universal Studios Orlando, or Busch Gardens Tampa. Not even when a customer dies, as happened this week on Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park .
- Texas, another big amusement park state, has nothing but an insurance requirement and an unenforceable reporting law on the books. The state doesn’t employ a single inspector, nobody to verify the reports, investigate accidents, audit safety records, or inspect rides.
IAAPA’s “significant park presence” line found fertile ground within the committee, however, and was repeated by a number of members at the hearing. The Commerce Committee voted not to include Markey’s amendment – or any other product-specific amendment -- in the CPSC reauthorization bill.
The Chairman of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee did agree that Congress should take a serious look at the amusement park exemption as a stand-alone issue and promised hearings in the near future. Chairman Rush feels the National Amusement Park Rides Safety Act, as it reads today, is too open-ended. The bill should provide specific direction to CPSC on how to regulate fixed-site amusement rides, and ensure that adequate resources are allocated.
Congressman Whitfield, a Republican from Kentucky, was named Ranking Member of the Consumer Protection subcommittee literally moments before Markey’s amendment was brought up. Rep. Whitfield spoke with gravity and concern about 13-year-old Kaitlyn Lassiter, who had both feet torn off on a ride at a Six Flags park in his home state last summer. Surgeons were able to reattach one of Kaitlyn’s feet, but her long-term outcome is still uncertain. According to news reports, she recently took her first post-accident steps with the help of a prosthetic leg. Meanwhile, massive medical bills are piling up for this family and the civil suit will likely take years to settle. State authorities still haven’t released any information on the cause of the accident and federal safety officials are prohibited from investigating. Congressman Whitfield echoed Chairman Rush’s call for hearings on the amusement park loophole and talked for several minutes about what Congress doesn’t know about theme park safety regulation, but should.
Last Thursday marks the first time in seven years that I’ve heard the Republican leader of the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection express concern about the human cost of amusement park accidents. That alone feels like a victory.
Saferparks wishes to thank Chairman Dingell and all the members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for showing America that child safety and consumer protection are not partisan issues. I am especially grateful to Chairman Rush and Ranking Member Whitfield for their willingness to openly examine the ramifications of the 1981 exemption.
