Text-only version
I have the perfect solution to industry's dispute over the CPSC figures that show yet another annual increase in ride-related injuries at amusement parks. Why don't we, the people, mandate that amusement parks have to report ride-related injuries to a central database managed by a regulatory agency, just like airlines and railroad companies and bus companies do. Just like automobile drivers do, in fact. Every driver in America has to fill out a DMV report if he or she is involved in an accident that results in injury or more than $500 worth of property damage. It seems to me that if the amusement park industry can design looping roller coasters launched by catapults, they ought to be able to train somebody to fill out a DMV-type report and slap a stamp on it.
Then we, the people, let the injury data collect in a public place. If industry wants to look at it for PR reasons, great. If they want to look at it for failure analysis, even better. If consumers want to look at it for their own reasons, that's great too.
Let's say we set the reporting criteria at a hospital ER visit. According to the CPSC, that's 7000 reports a year. But industry believes that the alleged increase since 1996 is part of the general conspiracy to over-regulate them, so let's humor them. Assume there are only 4000 reports a year. If you divide 4000 into $9 billion, you get $2.25 million. That means consumers will have paid industry $2.25 million to fill out each incident report. For that kind of money, I'm expecting a 2-page report. Single-spaced.
