Text-only version
Amusement park safety depends upon safe operation -- two words that encompass a broad range of functions, everything from purchasing decisions to operator supervision to machine lubrication to sign maintenance. Safety culture is created from the top down, yet safe operation requires commitment, attention, and follow-through from every single employee whose job touches on patron safety. With thousands of lives on the line every day, park operators have their work cut out for them.
The Saferparks website doesn't say much about park safety programs. That's not an intentional snub. Saferparks is an ouside change agent working to prevent accidents through research, information sharing, and advocacy. Since park safety information is confidential, my research and information sharing has to rely on insight provided through public safety records.
I don't say much about park safety programs because I'm not privy to that information, and because I know the industry already has some excellent resources focused in that area. Through my work on the ASTM F-24 industry standards committee, I've gotten to know some of the people who develop and implement park safety programs. They are an impressive bunch.
Saferparks works in the areas that aren't being covered by anybody else: centralized collection of government accident and injury data, analysis of public safety policy across the nation, and consumer information to help parents and other vulnerable groups understand the residual risks associated with amusement rides. Alert readers will note that Saferparks deals primarily with the small-but-important negative piece of the amusement park and carnival business. Negative Nelly, that's me. The perpetual buzz-kill. After ten years, I'm starting to feel the psychic weight.
So I've come up with a positive idea, sparked by a conversation with some of the industry folks at a reception celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ASTM F-24 industry standards committee. I mentioned that I'd recently sent out a more detailed regulatory survey to the states and a few counties, in order to expand my knowledge of how rides are regulated around the country. Jim Seay, the current Chairman of the F-24 committee, noted that consumers might confuse my assessment of a state's regulatory requirements with the level of patron safety provided by a specific park operating in that state. He raised the point that safe operation can be achieved in any setting, regulated or not. In theory at least, Jim's right.
That got me to wondering: how does each park create safe thrills for their customers? I know what the minimum standards require, but that barely scratches the surface. How are park safety programs similar and how do they differ? Who's got an innovative solution for a particular problem that might help prevent accidents in other parks? What a rich batch of questions for anyone who's interested in preventing amusement ride accidents. I can't get that information from state regulatory agencies, and I can't march my consumer advocate persona into the companies and demand it. But I could ask the parks nicely if any of them would be willing to share a little bit about their safety culture. I could give them bragging rights on my website -- quite literally -- and an easy way to do it.
I've added a new feature to the Saferparks website that allows amusement park companies to register basic information about their safety programs and upload a logo or park photograph if they like. The information will be formatted into a park safety page with content wholly controlled by the park, and a "public viewing" flag that can be turned on and off at will by the park. This allows parks to experiment with format and content before launching pages, and allows pages to be taken down while updates are in progress.
Content is left to each park's discretion. This is your opportunity to share information about your park's safety with the public. Saferparks will not edit the information you provide, but a page may be barred from public display if Saferparks suspects the content is fraudulent or believes the content is inapproriate for the intended purpose.
There's no critique or scoring involved. I'm not the policeman or the judge on this project -- isn't that a relief for all of us. I'm offering amusement parks a chance to toot their own safety horn. If consumers are curious about the safety checks applied by their favorite parks, then they can read up. If parks are curious about what other companies are doing, then they can read up too. Information sharing doesn't have to be a negative experience.
The demo system is up and running. Anybody can try it. You can add, edit, duplicate, and delete pages. The pages you create won't be viewable by anybody but you and I during the test period. When a relatively stable set of park safety records has been established, Saferparks will enable open viewing and link the Park Safety Information page into the rest of the website. Please email Saferparks your questions or feedback, and report any bugs or problems you find while using the forms.
- Sample Park Safety Pages
- Instructions for using the Saferparks Park Safety Information Program
- Registration Page
