Saferparks Proposal:
National Amusement Ride Safety Plan

The lack of a comprehensive public safety policy for amusement rides operated in the United States handicaps efforts to:  1) identify hazards in the marketplace, 2) require prompt and consistent mitigation of those hazards, and 3) provide consumers with reliable access to safety information on all U.S. amusement rides and devices.

• No regulatory body has authority to set and enforce national safety standards for U.S. amusement rides, identify emerging hazards on the wide array of thrill ride machinery, and require consistent mitigation of safety issues affecting consumers across the country.
• There is no comprehensive centralized clearinghouse for safety-critical information on amusement rides operated in the United States.
• No independent agency or board of technical and medical experts monitors the health and safety effects of thrill rides across the broad range of children and adults exposed to extremes of physical, sensory, and emotional stresses induced by these powerful machines.
• Twenty-seven years after Congress exempted amusement park rides from federal safety oversight, major gaps still exist in regulatory oversight provided at the state level.  For example, as of 2008:
  • 21 U.S. states still do not require government-led investigations of serious amusement ride accidents.
  • 39 states still do not require public reporting of major mechanical failures on amusement rides.
  • 15 states still do not require public reporting of fatalities and severe injuries on amusement rides.

Effective safety regulation requires a multi-layered approach, a partnership between federal and state/local agencies.

• Federal safety officials watch the big picture, investigating trends or accident patterns that might indicate a hazard related to design or use of a particular ride or component, working with manufacturers on mitigation plans, disseminating safety-critical information nationwide, and ensuring that effective safety standards are in place.
• State and local safety officials regulate the operation of the rides in their jurisdiction, which may include inspecting machinery, spot-checking operators, periodic audits of the ride owner's safety records, verification of liability insurance, investigation of accidents, and issuing orders to correct hazards identified on a ride.
• Without an umbrella agency to oversee the big picture, emerging hazards take longer to identify, mitigation plans differ across jurisdictions creating variants of machinery, and consumers have little access to reliable safety information. Without state or local government oversight, there's no independent verification that rides are being maintained and operated safely, and no tracking of accident/incident patterns on each ride.

• Establish National Standards for Rider Safety
  • Empower the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish national safety standards for all amusement rides operated in the United States.
  • Use industry standards developed by the ASTM F-24 committee as a baseline. Federal rules would only be necessary where industry consensus fails to establish sufficiently protective safety standards.
• Implement Go-Team Accident Investigations for Major Accidents
  • Use the NTSB go-team model to investigate and document serious amusement ride accidents. Empower the CPSC to administrate the new regulations and act as lead investigator. The go-team model, currently used to investigate airplane and railway accidents, efficiently focuses key expertise to determine causation of rare, but potentially catastrophic accidents on complex machinery designed for mass use by the general public.
  • Require owner/operators of all amusement rides - fixed-site and portable, large and small, waterslides and dry rides - to report immediately to the CPSC any ride-related fatality or major accident (e.g., containment failure, coaster collision, structural collapse, etc.) and preserve the accident scene until the go-team completes its inspection of the ride.
  • This ensures that all ride-related fatalities and major accidents will be investigated by a government-led team with the range of technical qualifications appropriate to the particular incident, even in states that do not regulate the day-to-day safety of amusement rides.
• Create a National Ride Registry and Patron Injury Database
  • Require owner/operators of all amusement rides to register their rides with the CPSC and affix a license plate that uniquely identifies the ride. The registry process should include collection of safety-related parameters for the ride (e.g., restraint system, speed, acceleration profile, etc.).
  • Require owner/operators of all amusement rides to file monthly reports of patron injuries providing the same information required in the FAA pet injury reporting regulations.
• Establish a National Amusement Ride Safety Board
  • Establish a qualified, independent board to help physicians, consumers, industry, and ride inspectors understand health/safety issues related to amusement rides.
• Codify Responsible Use Rules
  • Require everyone who manufacturers, operates, maintains, inspects, or boards U.S. amusement rides to abide by the responsible use rules outlined for patrons in the ASTM F770, the industry standard for operation amusement rides. Suggested "Responsible Use" language
  • If implemented in federal statute, this would standardize expectations and legal responsibilities for everyone involved with thrill rides, whether for fun or profit, in the United States.

• Establish a Baseline Level of Government Regulation in All States
  • Unregulated states may be more inclined to pass amusement ride safety regulations if the basic ride registration, accident tracking, and major accident investigation components are developed at the federal level. Requiring each state to create the whole regulatory framework from scratch is wasteful and leads to non-uniform safety policies.
• Harmonize State Ride Regulations
  • This is particularly important to the traveling ride industry. Rides are sometimes subject to conflicting requirements in bordering states.
• Encourage All States to Participate in CARES
  • The Council of Amusement and Recreational Equipment Safety (CARES) is an organization of lead safety officials from U.S. states and Canadian provinces. CARES works to foster cooperation among regulatory officials and amusement equipment industries to promote public safety. The organization promotes information sharing, expansion of ride regulation into all states, and hamonization of state regulations.

• Limitations of current U.S. ride safety oversight
• Survey of existing regulatory models that could be adapted for use
• Sample federal bill