Equipment Failure

Ride manufacturers provide guidance to ride owners regarding maintenance and inspection requirements. It's up to the ride owner to develop and follow a program to insure that safety-critical parts are checked for wear and fatigue in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations.

Sometimes ride manufacturers or regulatory authorities discover that additional maintenance actions are required. The manufacturer and/or the regulatory agency will issue a supplemental bulletin and distribute it to known owners of the ride. The ride owners should then modify their maintenance and inspection procedures to incorporate the new requirements.

Insurance carriers often conduct an annual inspection of each ride they insure, checking for cracks and failed or worn parts. Insurance inspections tend to focus on the equipment, auditing the machinery without auditing the human processes that are equally important to safety. Key factors, such as the way in which the ride is operated and the care with which traveling rides are assembled/disassembled between fairs, may go unchecked.

Some parks and carnival hire third-party inspectors to review their rides and their in-house safety programs. In some cases this is a voluntary choice. In some cases state or local law mandates that the rides be checked by a qualified inspector who is not directly employeed by the park or carnival.

Some states add an additional layer of safety protection by conducting independent audit inspections of the machinery and, sometimes, the internal safety records and operators' performance. Most states have some kind of inspection requirement on the books, but only about half the U.S. states employ and train government inspectors to audit industry's performance. Laws vary widely, as does the focus of required inspections. For example:

• Idaho officials are only required to inspect the electrical wiring of amusement rides. Ohio officials perform a broader inspection of the ride machinery, but are not trained or authorized to inspect the electrical hookups.
• Officials in states like New Jersey and North Carolina inspect traveling rides each time they're set up at a fair or carnival. Most other states limit inspections to once a year, or even less frequently if program funding is difficult to obtain.
• Florida officials inspect fixed-site rides at small permanent parks every 6 months; portable rides at every setup. Thrill rides at amusement parks with over 1000 employees are exempt from public safety inspections.
• California officials conduct a 3-part inspection of every amusement park ride every year. The inspection includes an audit of the safety records and ride documentation, a non-invasive inspection of the ride, and an unannounced operational inspection to determine whether required signage is properly posted and whether the ride operator is following/enforcing safety rules.

• Never board an amusement ride that looks poorly maintained. If you see or hear something that causes you to worry about the mechanical safety of an amusement ride, report it immediately to the ride operator or to customer service.
• Look for a state inspection sticker on the ride. This may not be easily accomplished, and certainly doesn't guarantee safety, but it does show you that the ride has been inspected.
• Never throw or drop anything off an amusement ride, deliberately swing the cars, or change seats mid-ride -- even on a very tame ride. Dropped articles can become lodged in the machinery. Swinging or rocking a Ferris wheel car can press the rider's weight too strongly on the lap bar, and cause it to open. Patrons have been seriously hurt this way. Moving around in a moving car causes weight shifts that can unbalance the car.
• If you have children, teach them the danger of tinkering with amusement rides. Teenagers have been known to take connectors and pins out of the cars in which they're riding. What might seem like minor vandalism to a 14-year-old boy can turn deadly if the pin happens to be holding part of the ride together.