14 -Year-Old Girl Dies on Ride at Disnelyand Paris
Wondering How Safe Amusement Park Rides Are?
An autopsy was to be performed on Tuesday to find the actual cause of death. Park officials said that the ride was shut down immediately after the incident and began an initial inspection in which there were no malfunctions found.
The AP also wrote that Disneyland spokesman Pieter Boterman said while there were no malfunctions the ride would remain closed until the outcome of the autopsy was evident. This is the second major incident on a amusement park ride within the last week after a 13-year-old girl had her feet severed from the Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Ken.
So the question remains, are amusement park rides safe? According to The National Consumer Product Safety Commission there are over 270 million visitors to amusement parks within the course of a year with only 7,000 injuries. It is taken into consideration that there are many of these visitors that ride different rides numerous times which is estimated at 1.8 billion rides during that time. The death toll over the 25 years that amusement parks have been around is estimated at around 3,500. While this seems like a large number most injuries occur due to riders not pertaining to the rules of the ride per the law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg.
If you feel uncomfortable about allowing your children or going yourself to an amusement park there are steps you can take to ease your worries. The Weitz & Luxenberg website presents steps such as calling the state park's inspections division where you could receive an injury report for the amusement park you are visiting. They also suggest that when you first enter the park be aware of the way it is maintained feeling as though that if it is not that might reflect on how they take care of the rides as well.
If you would like further information on safety steps you can take go to www.google.com and search "amusement park ride accident statistics" where you will find over a million searches and websites such as the Weitz & Luxenberg as well as others like RideAccidents.com. If you are a parent of a child that can go to the park themselves it may be a good idea to go over this with them and let them know that this can be a seriously problem if precautions aren't taken.
The Associated Press
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/14-year-old-dies-at-disneyland-paris/20070626123109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Weitz & Luxenberg
http://www.weitzlux.com/themeamusementparklawsuit/amusementparkridesafety_4652.html
RideAccidents.com
http://www.rideaccidents.com/safety.html
Published by Michael Grisso
"It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous."~Robert Benchley View profile
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16 Comments
Post a CommentThe traveling carnys are dangerous. The operators travel from site to site and hurridly re-erect the rides. Even though they are deigned to be collapsable and transportable, there are pins with safety clips to be installed. I have witnessed rides with pins bent, safety clips not engaged or missing and even pins or bolts or parts worn-out or missing altogether. There must be no standard state-to-state inspection regimen to ensure safety, or it is simply not enforced.
Don't even mention the under-age or indifference of the operators. They are obsessed only with finding new girlfriends.
I worked maintenance at an amusement park for 6 years while there I installed proximity switches which would stop the ride if the opporater would move away from the ride. I believe this is standard in most large parks.
oops! *once
I noticed while we were at the Stampede, that the ride attendants do not pay attention to the rides one they start them up. Some were walking away to other nearby concessions to talk to co-workers, or to buy a drink. The attendant running the Scorpion just stood there letting the ride go on while security guards were yelling their heads off at him to shut down the ride (according to our local paper, The Calgary Herald). Plus, I don't think they receive adequate training to run these things. And some of them were so young and so small they were smaller than the rider height limit on the safety signs! All carnivals care about is raking in the money!
Two days ago,(the 16th) at our Calgary Stampede, an arm broke off a ride called the Scorpion. The arm had 5 or 6 seats attached to the bottom of it, I forget just how many, where the riders sat. Each cluster of seats was a different color, red, blue, or green. The green seats broke loose when the arm hit the pavement a few yards away from the ride. 10 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 19 were injured, most of them minor, but two of them are still in hospital, a girl, 13, and a boy, 14. My son and I were at the Stampede grounds during the incident, but we were inside one of the exhibit buildings to escape the rain, so we did not see it happen. But my son had ridden that same Scorpion ride not long before the accident! Thank God no one was killed!
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When my son was two the "kiddie swing" flipped over and he was hanging upside down. People were screaming and the dufus running the ride was looking and scratching his head. When I pulled my son off the ride he was giggling.
ya no kidding, that is wicked......
When I was about 8, there was a small street carnival in our town. I was on the Octopus, and someone started pointing at me and yelling 'Its gonna fall!' - I though they were joking around. The minute I stepped out of the seat and onto the ground, that arm did indeed collapse. Scared me off rides for all of ooooh 6 months. The danger is part of the thrill.
Carol wow glad your daughter was okay. I think we may be on to something here with a lot of articles branching out from these.