Database / Sources of Public Data

Saferparks Data Sources

The graphs, charts, and figures provided by Saferparks are drawn from two primary sources of ride-related accident/injury data:

• State Regulatory Agencies have provided public records of accidents reported by parks and carnivals under their jurisdictions according to state ride safety laws. Not all states have public reporting laws, and not all states that collect safety data on amusement rides respond to Saferparks requests. As of 2008, the Saferparks Database had incorporated approximately 12,000 amusement ride accident reports from 26 states. Years covered, equipment types included, and level of detail provided vary by jurisdiction. In aggregate, the regulatory records are of sufficient volume to provide insight into the ways in which patrons are hurt using amusement rides and attractions.
• CPSC NEISS Hospital ER Records are collected by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). Approximately 2% of hospital emergency rooms in the United States participate in the NEISS system. Standardized data is collected on injuries associated with a wide array of consumer products, including amusement rides, go-karts, inflatables, and public water slides. NEISS data is a probabilistic sampling generally used to estimate national injury rates, however there has been legitimate controversy over this use for products with non-uniform distribution, such as amusement rides. The raw data is useful, however, in analyzing common patterns of ride-related injury. The NEISS records have an advantage in that they cover almost all states (albeit only tiny portions of each), and the records format is standardized. The Saferparks Database has incorporated NEISS data from 2002-2006 (approx. 4000 records).

Both sources are useful, but they are quite different due to the scope and method used to gather the information. For example:

• State safety agency records are more likely to identify the ride or type of ride, while hospital records are more likely to describe the human (age, gender, diagnosis).
• Hospital records contain a much higher volume of go-kart and inflatable incidents, and include non-commerical use accidents, but tend not to capture most theme park accidents due to the small number of hospitals sampled.

Saferparks Additional Coding Attributes

Saferparks adds additional coding to the state accident records and CPSC NEISS injury records. This coding takes place as time allows, in a background mode, or as preparation for a particular analysis project. Not all records provided by state agencies and NEISS-participating hospitals provide enough information to determine values for all Saferparks attributes.

• Equipment Type separates the records into amusement rides, such as roller coasters and carousels; waterpark attractions, such as waterslides and wave pools; inflatable devices, such as bouncers and inflatable slides; go-karts; and other amusement devices, such as fun houses, rope climbs, rock walls, etc.
• Ride Type describes the particular ride or device within the larger category.
• Accident Category is drawn from the narrative portion of the report, where enough detail is provided to indicate what happened to cause the injury or accident. Some of the categories are quite broad (e.g., patron's body hit something (normal motion)). Others are quite narrow (e.g., electrical shock). In many cases, the accident narrative could fit into multiple categories, yet one is chosen. For a description of the categories used, visit the Query by Category page.

Data Source Pros and Cons

The differences between the information gathered by the CPSC and the information gathered by state ride safety offices are summarized below.

	Federal Government (CPSC)		State Safety Agencies
Data Source	National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) - Sampling of medical records from 100 hospital emergency rooms across the country. [more]	Data gleaned from death certificates, news reports, other regulatory agencies, and reports made by consumers. [more]	Accident reports submitted by ride owners to state safety officials and/or accident investigation reports compiled by state safety officials. [more]
Types of Equipment Covered	NEISS category "Amusement Attractions" includes amusement rides (e.g. coasters, Ferris wheels, etc.) and other amusement devices, such as coin-op rides and mechanical bulls. Injuries related to go-karts, water slides, and inflatables are now tracked under separate NEISS product codes.	Amusement rides operated by traveling carnivals, inflatable devices, and go-karts.	Varies from state to state.
Information Provided	Patient's age, gender, body part affected, preliminary diagnosis, etc.	Varies depending on source.	Varies from state to state.
Information Not Provided	Name or type of ride, name of park/carnival, description of accident	Varies depending on source.	Varies from state to state.
Benefits of Data	Provides insight into age and gender, diagnosis, commonly-affected body parts, etc. Allows long-term tracking of injury trends, within the limitations of the sampling and categorization system.	In-depth investigation reports have a high level of technical detail and analysis. CPSC investigations can analyze safety issues that occur on rides in many states, and on different rides that use the same parts or similar design features.	Provides insight into the common causes of ride-related injuries. Some benefits vary from state to state. For example, the New York and northern California offices sent accident investigation reports, which offer detailed insight into causes of some serious accidents. New Jersey and Texas send accident report logs inclusive enough to identify the "injury profile" of certain rides (i.e., some rides have a tendency to produce specific types of injuries).
Limitations of Data	NEISS sampling system cannot reliably estimate injury frequency for events with non-uniform distribution.	Due to the haphazard nature by which the CPSC learns of these accidents, safety issues may go unaddressed for a long time until the CPSC is notified of a problem. The CPSC is prohibited by law from investigating deaths and injuries on amusement park rides and commercial water slides.	The lack of uniformity in types of devices regulated, accident reporting criteria, public access to safety records, and format of those records creates a hodge-podge of data that is impossible to analyze statistically. The records are best used as a collective source of information about ride-related injuries.