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On May 1, 2004, 55-year-old Stanley Mordarsky of Bloomfield, Connecticut, was hurled to his death from an open car on Superman Ride of Steel, an 80 mph roller coaster designed by Intamin for Six Flags New England. Two days later, the Massachusetts commissioner of public safety ordered the shutdown of all amusement park rides that use t-bar lap restraints until state officials can determine what caused the fatal ejection.
This marks the fifth time in five years that stories of serious patron containment failures on Intamin thrill rides have made the news, including a remarkably similar 1999 accident on another Superman ride in another Six Flags park in another state. Four of those five patrons died. All but one of those failures involved a combination lap bar and lap belt restraint system.
Although Intamin rides with t-bar lap restraints can be found in theme parks across the United States, the shutdown is limited to thrill rides in Massachusetts. There is no federal agency with authority to investigate this trend on behalf of U.S. consumers. In 1981, Congress exempted amusement park rides from all federal safety oversight. Ironically, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is currently investigating restraint systems on traveling carnival rides to determine whether voluntary industry safety standards are adequate. Yet because of the 1981 loophole, the federal government is prohibited by law from considering containment failures on amusement park rides -- those rides that generate the most extreme forces. America's primary consumer protection agency is allowed to investigate restraint failures on carnival rides, but is forbidden from investigating any of the fatal ejections on theme park rides -- a ridiculous policy decision by any objective measure.
Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has carried legislation every year since 1999 that would repeal the loophole, granting the Consumer Product Safety Commission the same jurisdiction over amusement park rides that it currently has over carnival rides. Markey's bill remains stalled in subcommittee, protected by Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns and the powerful theme park industry. Consumers remain unprotected, year after year after year.
Some states have instituted ride safety programs, but very few state agencies have authority to require that mitigation be extended to rides with the same safety equipment or even those of the identical make/model. In 2001, a 40-year-old mother fell to her death from an extreme Intamin ride called the Perilous Plunge at Knott's Berry Farm in California. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health determined that the restraint design -- the same lap bar and lap belt combination used on Intamin coasters like Superman -- was inadequate to protect overweight patrons. The state required the park to revise the restraint system before re-opening the ride. Knott's Berry Farm added an over-the-shoulder harness to ensure that none of its customers would ever again be dislodged by the accelerations produced by the ride. Yet the state agency did not have authority or budget to extend its investigation to other California thrill rides with the same restraint system.
Meanwhile, Intamin continues to manufacture and sell extreme coasters with a restraint system deemed inadequate by California public safety officials, and Congress continues to shield ride manufacturers and theme park corporations from public safety oversight.
Thanks to the 1981 loophole, each tragedy must be dealt with locally as an isolated incident -- if it's dealt with at all. States like California, Massachusetts, and New York now have public safety agencies with authority to investigate thrill ride fatalities and shut down rides that may present a danger to the public. Yet thrill ride accidents are unregulated in many states. A 51-year-old woman fell to her death from a thrill ride in Tennessee six weeks ago. Two weeks ago, a 13-year-old girl fell 25 feet from a Ferris wheel in Kansas. Neither of those states have ride safety laws; there is no public safety agency authorized to investigate those accidents.
If failures of this magnitude were occurring on commercial airliners or passenger trains, the National Transportation Safety Board would be investigating each and every one, determining the causes, looking for commonalities, and figuring out ways to prevent similar tragedies in the future. At least three of the four patrons ejected from Intamin rides with lap restraints were obese, and their obesity was noted as a primary contributing factor in two of the reports. If certain restraint systems don't work for obese people, then it's important that a cohesive national solution be employed across all rides at all venues. As things stand now, each park is allowed to set its own policy -- including ignoring the problem entirely -- and nobody is required to tell the overweight segment of the public that a 2-minute spin on a thrill ride may cost them their life.
The inadequacy of lap restraints for obese riders is only one example of the systemic safety issues that go unaddressed in this country and cause needless deaths and injuries every year at U.S. parks. Oversize riders are at risk, but so are the smallest riders. Toddlers and preschoolers continue to jump off, fall off, and be thrown off of amusement rides every year for lack of a simple child restraint. The current CPSC investigation may prod the industry into finally developing effective child safety standards for amusement rides. I certainly hope so. But even if that happens, the guidelines would be voluntary and would only apply to new ride designs, not existing rides.
There are no mandatory federal safety standards for thrill rides. No federal regulatory agency is empowered to protect the public. No system has been put in place to collect accurate technical data on accidents and ensure that problems are identified and corrected on all rides in all states and all venues. Ride manufacturers can legally sell anything they want to most any park in the United States, and let the buyer beware. Or more accurately, let the buyer's customers beware. That's you and me and the millions of diverse human beings who spend billions of our hard-earned dollars at theme parks every year. And up until May Day, that was 55-year-old Stanley Mordarsky of Bloomfield, Connecticut.
Epilogue: Based on the outcome of the public safety investigation collectively conducted by park staff, Six Flags safety engineers and safety experts, independent safety engineers, the ride manufacturer as well as the Department of Public Safety and the Agawam Police Department, Six Flags decided to modify the restraint system on the three Superman Ride of Steel coasters operated at their parks in Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland.
"We believe that the current restraint configuration was the primary factor in Saturday's tragic accident. We are making several modifications to address those concerns including: the length of the ride-manufacturer-supplied seatbelts in the first row of each coach will be shortened to conform with all other seatbelts in the coaster. By shortening these seatbelts, those guests who may be too large to be safely accommodated by the restraint system will not be able to ride."
Saferparks applauds Six Flags for cooperating fully with public safety officials, keeping the public informed, and treating Mr. Mordarsky's family with such care and compassion. Our thoughts and prayers extend to everyone involved in this tragedy.
Despite the findings in the Agawam Superman investigation, the California Perilous Plunge investigation, and the Darien Lake Superman investigation, Intamin is under no obligation to change its restraint design. The May 7 decision to modify the manufacturer-supplied restraint system does not extend to theme parks outside of the Six Flags chain. The shutdown of t-bar lap restraints issued by the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Safety does not extend past state borders. Ride manufacturers may continue to legally sell anything they want to most any park in the United States, and let the buyer beware.
On June 1, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which regulates the safety of amusement park rides in that state, asked Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain to each shut down one Intamin roller coaster equipped with a t-bar lap restraints. Both parks said they would comply with the request. State officials said it is the first time they have requested safety improvements based on accidents outside California . Even after Massachusetts and California suspended rides with similar restraints, other attractions across the country continue to operate. There is no federal agency to track deaths and trends or order a nationwide shutdown. And there is no national ride registry to determine how many T-shaped lap bars are in operation. [source: The Los Angeles Times]
