Fuzzy Risk Communication

The amusement ride industry's marketing strategies directly conflict with accident prevention strategies. 

• Amusement park advertisements and public relations materials are designed to eliminate the public's fear of amusement ride machinery. 
• Through repeated exposure, parents learn to believe that amusement rides are the safest form of family entertainment, so they don't pay enough attention to ride safety.
• Toddlers and preschoolers watch TV commercials showing their favorite fantasy characters riding thrill rides with their hands straight in the air.  By the time children are old enough to read amusement ride warning signs, they've already learned from theme park advertisements how to break the most basic safety rules. 

When it comes to patron warnings about safety hazards, ride manufacturers and owner/operators are caught between conflicting priorities.  Sales is job one in this business and competition is fierce. Pointing out safety hazards to a prospect is likely to kill a sale -- whether its a manufacturer selling a new ride to a park, a ride owner selling his used ride to another company, or an owner/operator selling tickets to the general public.

In order to be effective, safety warnings have to create a "stop and think" response.  In factories, for example, pinch points and other machinery hazards are painted bold colors and labeled clearly as "hazards".  In amusement parks, such labeling might scare customers, so machinery hazards are not painted or labeled.  Euphemisms are employed to soft-sell the safety message. For example:  

• At a rulemaking hearing in California, a theme park lobbyist described standardized language the industry was developing to warn overweight patrons away from thrill rides that don't safely restrain fat people during negative-g portions of the ride.  The signs would be phrased as follows:  "In order to enjoy this ride, you must meet the following criteria..." [emphasis added].  Substituting the happy word "enjoy" for the more realistic word "survive" helps to sell tickets.  Unfortunately, it does not help patrons to understand the importance of the safety restrictions, or the consequences of ignoring them.
• In 2001, two men suffered broken necks from the normal forces of an extreme coaster at an Ohio theme park within the space of 3 weeks.  Both men had the same type of arthritic condition. State safety officials found that the ride was operating as designed, and therefore allowed it to re-open without adjustment to the dynamic force parameters.  According to the state report, "It was decided that a verbal warning, of the aggressive nature of this ride, would be broadcast to the patrons waiting in line."  Notice how the intriguing euphemism "aggressive ride" was used instead of a direct warning that the roller coaster is capable of breaking an arthritic human neck.