Overview
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) is a national probability sample of hospitals in the U.S. and its territories. Approximately 100 NEISS-participating hospitals collect patient information for every emergency visit involving an injury associated with consumer products. From this sample, the total number of product-related injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms nationwide can be estimated. The sampling algorithm was designed for common consumer products and may not be as accurate for products with non-random distribution, such as amusement rides. The CPSC provides easy on-line access to raw NEISS records. Saferparks has incorporated pertinent NEISS information into the Saferparks Database as an additional resource for analyzing injury trends and developing targeted prevention strategies. Historically, NEISS data on amusement ride-related injuries has been categorized and analyzed according to business modes (i.e., amusement parks vs. traveling carnivals vs. local entertainment centers). Saferparks developed a coding model that focuses, instead, on injury patterns. Saferparks wishes to thank the Consumer Product Safety Commission for providing easy access to a rich source of public information on human health and safety. |
Saferparks Coding System
| Equipment Category | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ride | Mechanical amusement rides (see list below). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inflatable | Inflatable amusement devices such as bounce houses, slides, etc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Waterslide | Amusement rides installed at water parks (see list below). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Go-kart | Go-karts. Note: The NEISS go-kart category includes home karts, off-road use, racing karts, as well as concession karts at amusement venues. Saferparks deleted those records that obviously involved non-amusement locations, but the remaining records are likely to include a great number of go-kart injuries that are unrelatd to amusement venues. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other equip | Other amusement venue devices and attractions (see list below). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown type | Record narrative did not provide enough information to determine what type of equipment was involved in the injury. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unrelated | Record narrative indicated that either the equipment, the location, or the involvement in the injury was unrelated to typical consumer use of amusement rides, devices, and attractions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ride Type |
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| Accident Category | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Patron's body hit something (normal motion) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ejection/fall from ride | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Body pain (normal motion) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fall (climb or play area) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Go-kart crashed (no further description) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Go-kart flipped | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Patrons collided (slides, etc.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ride vehicles collided (patron controlled) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Load/unload/queue | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Go-kart or bumper car hit stationary object | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Entrapment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Person hit by ride | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Illness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equipment failure | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Injured by foreign object | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friction burn or other burn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Arms, feet outside car | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hyperextension or dislocation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abrupt stop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Restraint injury | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Water slide tube flipped | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Derailment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ride vehicles collided (operator controlled) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lost consciousness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Employee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Injured during evacuation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electrical shock | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deliberate patron misconduct | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ride Siting | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fixed site | Record narrative indicates that the injury relates to a ride, device, or attraction at a permanent facility. This includes theme parks, water parks, and local entertainment centers or arcades. Saferparks chose to code this attribute on the same criteria as the federal exemption (i.e., rides at any permanent facility are exempt from federal safety oversight, portables are not). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Portable | Record narrative indicates that the injury relates to a ride, device, or attraction at a fair, carnival, or other temporary setup. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown site | Record narrative does not provide enough information to determine whether the incident happened at a permanent facility or portable setup. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other | Record narrative suggests that the injury occurred at a non-amusement venue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Note: A subjective review of the NEISS records, based on coding thousands in the course of this project, indicates that use of the words "carnival" and "amusement park" to indicate ride siting may be unreliable. The terms appear to be used imprecisely, at least in some instances. Therefore, it is likely that some NEISS records in this database coded as "fixed site" are really related to portable rides, and vice versa. Saferparks left the Ride Site codes in for the first set of imported records, but it is likely that this code will be eliminated in the future as it provides little value and low reliability as an attribute. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||