Another Attempt For Government Regulation of Parks

[Ed]

If it's your fault you die/get injured at a themepark then it's natures way of telling you're an idiot and need to either shape up your act or get wiped from the gene pool. I follow the Darwin Awards approach to life.

 

Plus Health & Safety means bugger all. You can't protect people from their own stupidity.

[Purplepills]

I do feel for people injured or killed on amusement rides when it is not fault of the victim. I have little sympathy for those who cross fences, or otherwise break park rules, or seem to have no common sense.

 

As long as I can remember, if there is an accident at a theme park here in the UK, it's all over the news. The worst thing about these reports is that usually they have little or no information on the cause of the accident, so people do assume it is the fault of the ride. Whereas this is the case occasionally, it does just seem to get distorted and spread by word of mouth. I'm sure a lot of you have heard these stories over the years, knowing full well they aren't true.

 

There are countless times a Journalist gets bored and decides to do a report on accidents at theme parks, or a report about 'Are rollercoasters safe?' when bigger and faster coasters are built. Naturally these do focus on the more negative aspects, stating several people who have been killed or injured, not necessarily giving the reasons for said injuries. I disagree with grouping travelling fairs together with fixed site rides, and the small fair operators together with the likes of Disney and Six Flags.

 

Its in the park industry's interest to keep rides safe, lets face it if your local park had 10 deaths in seperate incidents in one season, all at the fault of the ride, you probably wouldn't go there, or would at least think twice. As for extra safety rules governing the rides, I really don't think they are necessary for fixed site parks given the available statistics. There may be a case for the traveling fairs, to ensure the maintenance is done correctly and the rides are operated safely.

[raptorcrew2002]

I love the “safer in a shopping cart” line. Hey Intamin has gotten better with restraints, when was the last time a fat person got ejected on SUP..

 

Also love the broad range, because you know drowning in a wave pool causes concerns for a roller coaster? Huh. I don’t know about you but that tells me someone can’t swim and should never have been there to begin with.

 

Carnival “portable ride” accidents, ok sure I get that. Yes they need oversight, I 100% agree for portable rides. Anything that is assembled and dismantled that many times will eventually have an issue without proper maintenance.

 

Not to mention stoned, and drunk carnies.

 

I’m tired of all these it’s not safe people running around. Same for those with the space program saying it’s not worth it people could die “no sh!t, and they choose to do it not you”

 

Just annoying.

These so called political leaders, etc need too get a tattoo of a ball on each thigh and move on.

[steel]

Actually, I'd like to see the study they did comparing shopping carts to roller coasters.

 

This is one of my hugest pet peeves. I HATE that it's basically impossible to get this word out. Of course, the only people they listen to are park PR Reps. What I really want is for Robert Coker to be interviewed. He's not an idiot, he can put a nice-sounding sentence together, and he's written a book.

[airforcekid]

^ And books are smart! I actually me Robert he's a very nice guy!

What sucks about this is most of the ride accidents are caused by bad traveling carnival rides with stoned carnies! Don't blame it on the real theme park. Sure now and then there would be a accident or two

but you know every now and then a drunk driver rams in to a car!

Blah... I hate that person that wrote that. We should write a long intelligent letter to them!

[willski]

Notice how something like 84 deaths a year in the USA are Suicide and only 4 are because of Theme Park accidents, do these people not realise they are more of a danger to themselves than any themepark ride?!

 

 

Ummm...it's way more than 84 a year due to suicide. Try 30,000 per year. It's one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States.

[airforcekid]

^ thats deppresing. now its 30,001

[lil jimmy norton]

^^That's because it was the only one this year in the States that was not caused by a pre-existing medical condition or by guest behavior.

I was at SFKK the day that happened, and the whole time we were there, something just felt wrong. It was stifling out and the staff was being completely uncooperative. I can't really explain what it felt like. It was really strange. Needless to say, we were very sad when we heard the news that night at Holiday World, albeit somewhat unsurprised.

 

The girl who died on the Air Glory ride didn't die because it was her fault. I would assume they would focus on something like that since it did happen at some kind of traveling carnival, if I'm not mistaken.

[MattyD]

Ummm...it's way more than 84 a year due to suicide. Try 30,000 per year. It's one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States.

 

I'm very sorry, the site I was looking at gave the figures as 4 and 84, I apologise! Despite my research being horribly innaccurate what I was saying still made sense; you are more likely to kill yourself than die on a themepark ride and most people would think the chances of them deliberately killing themselves are very slim so why are they worried about themeparks?!

[Purplepills]

^The thing is, I don't think people ARE worried about going to theme parks. Okay maybe some, but they must be an extremely small minority. Park attendance figures aren't dwindling because of all the negative press the industy gets worldwide. I am positive that some people are put off going to Amusement parks because of accidents, infact I think I read somewhere there was a noticable effect after the girl's feet were cut off on Tower of Power at SFKK. This was either in terms of the park numbers or the value of shares or something like that.

 

But, the people who are afraid to go to amusement parks are just a tiny percentage of the people who would consider going, and I don' think that will change anytime soon.