Are they dangerous? How much so?
My son loves em, though he hasn’t gone to any yet. I will be taking him next spring, when it gets warmer out.
I have heard of some accidents and deaths.
What are the odds that a ride will malfunction?
Are they unsafe?
All amusement parks have to undergo strict testing. Even the week-here, week-there carnies have inspectors checking machinery.
Even if the government was not looking out for us, places where their patrons were dying would not last long, looking at it purely from a PR standpoint.
You rarely hear about accidents at major amusement parks these days, relatively speaking. And the few that do happen are almost always due to human error on the part of the people who help you into the rides - there have been cases of them not securely locking people in - and also on the part of those riding - there are cases where riders took off security harnesses on their own.
Oh, and I’m just talking about the big rides here. There are almost never problems on the kiddie rides, which is where your young’un would be headed to.
Yer pal,
Satan - Commissioner, The Teeming Minions
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Just to expound on Satan’s comments, I did a report in college about the safety of amusement park rides. It covered accidents that occured between January of '92 though December of '96. I’m sure I wasn’t able to find every accident in that time span, but I did find a lot. And every one of them had the same thing in common. Somebody, usually the rider, screwed up. I found a very few cases where the attendant messed up. But it was something the rider should have noticed. Every other one was caused by the rider being stupid. There were a few where the rider purposely made it where the attendant would bring the harness down, but not secure the rider even though it looked like it. The reasons varied from, “She doesn’t like to be constrained,” to some idiot wanting to stand up in a roller coaster. Bad move. Anyway, I’m making this post too long. Just make sure your son follows the rules(they are always in plain sight) and he’ll be fine.
As for malfunctions, I’ve had a couple, but none were dangerous. At least at out local parks, they check the rides several times a day.
Disneyland just had a couple of bad injuries on the Roger Rabbit ride, and it is getting a lot of press. From what I can tell, the first one was a 12 year old who dropped a doll out of her car, so she jumped out to get it and got smashed between another car and the wall. She will recover.
The second was a small child (I think 6 or less) who dropped a to onto the floor of the car, and then ducked down below the loose safety bar to get it and fell out of the car, again getting smashed. Massive injuries to liver, spleen, etc. He will probably never fully recover.
The safety bars only drop to the height of the largest person in the seat’s lap, or stomach, or chest, or whatever they rotate into. A small child next to a large adult isn’t in too tight. It is still safe if the adult watches the child,puts an arm around them, and generally protects them. If you had multiple kids for one adult to watch, this could be tough.
I think if you are aware of the dangers, and take precautions, it is very safe. First, talk to the kids about not getting off the rides, and how it is fun if they stay in the car, but can be very dangerous if they get off. Second, don’t ride if it is unsafe. If it is just you and the kid, keep an arm around them. If there are multiple kids of similar size, put them in the front seat, and lower the bar so they are secure. Then sit behind them, and keep your mommy and/or daddy radar up, just in case. Since the most recent injuries involved the child going after a dropped toy, I’d say having the child carry toys is a very bad idea.
I go do D-land with my kids about once a month (annual pass, less than 2x cost of one day pass if you except lots of blackout days), and using the above rules I feel pretty safe. I don’t let them ride on the portable fair rides though. I watched those being assembled by a bunch of trained monkeys once, and while the designs are OK, all it takes is one asshole to save himself a step and not bolting something, and very bad things could happen. I don’t know the injury statistics on the portable rides, but I just don’t think they are safe.
As a former ‘carny’ on a travelling circuit (not circus) working both regular (adult rides) and Kiddie Land, I can tell you that:
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yes, we do go through thorough ride inspections, not only when the ride is set up, but also every morning before before the opening to the general public. (The ride managers (oversaw about 5 rides each) would also do spot-checks in addition to that morning inspection. There have been cases of vandals, drunks and idiots who think it is funny to remove restraining pins (mostly R-keys - ‘great souvenirs’ :rolleyes: ), cut seatbelts and other nonsense during the night when the show is closed. In addition, several ride operators (as well as myself) would periodically shut down the ride during the day to double check safety restraints and moving parts (belts can fray and rub), as well as preventative maintenance. It meant several minutes of downtime, but the parents sure as heck appreciated it, knowing that we were on the job.
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yes, the biggest danger to the patron is often the patron him/herself (or in some cases, the parent). I have had experiences where someone (adult) will inhale so the restraining belt is tight when attached, but when they exhale, the belt is too loose, because they don’t like being restrained. Parents will attempt to belt their child into the ride and get mad because I will undo their work to do it the right way.
Worse is when the parents will climb over the safety fence before the ride is stopped (that is the biggest idiot-move of all!), putting their kid and every other kid on the ride in danger. [I now have a screwed-up kneecap from having to physically leap onto the ride to stop it before the parent got dragged under. Momentum keeps the ride going after I hit the kill switch!]
If the kid doesn’t want to ride, don’t make him/her just because little Bubba-sibling wants to or Gramma wants a picture of him/her on the ride. Apart from the screaming, through sheer terror they can twist themselves out of the restraints. I’ve seen kids get out of seatbelts and strollers: add to that a moving platform and the possibility of injury increases.
To that, do not distract the ride operator with idle chitchat: your and your kid’s safety is their job. Unless it’s an emergency: chances are, they’ve seen it also.
Drunk patrons, patrons with neck/back injuries, patrons with heart problems, patrons with motion sickness will still get on the ride, then complain of injuries - the sign is there for your safety. If you see the ride turns you upside-down and six directions from Sunday and you can’t handle being in a ‘human washing-machine’ don’t ride it.
If your kid is under or over the height/weight limit, don’t scream at the operator. The specifications are there from the manufacturer, and are what the ride can take (uneven weight on the ride can cause it to malfunction, like when your washing machine goes off-balance). By insisting they go on, you are putting your child and others in danger. Your child may be caught in ‘no-man’s land’: too physically large for the kiddie rides, but not large enough for (or emotionally able to handle) the larger adult rides. Wish I had a solution to that except for “Wait 'til next year”.
Not all of the travelling circuits employ trained-monkeys and crack-heads. Most of us do/did our jobs well; several of us even have college-degrees. (Travelling the US on the circuit was the equivalent of travelling Europe for those of us who couldn’t afford it.) The incompetents and losers are weeded out pretty quickly. Like any business, any reputable show wants to keep that good reputation. I’ve seen and known of incompetent and unconcerned operators at the major theme parks. Like with any business, complain to management.
This is not meant to scare you from riding, but as everyone has mentioned before, common sense is a key factor and teach your kids to follow the rules.
My family and I are season pass holders to Busch Gardens in Tampa. Not one time have I ever even witnessed a bruise.
The park owners have so much at stake. A death in the park (with so much nearby competition) means the death of the park itself. Rides are taken offline routinely for maintenance/repairs.
It’s not that I trust them implicitly, but since I’ve gone, and with so many thousands at the parks every day, the parks are safer than the drive to get to the park.
I was at a local amusement park recently, and I noticed that almost all of their rides had safety gear that adjusted to the individual rider (such as a lap bar split in the middle so that it could be tightened to the lap of each person). The ones with a lap bar that went all the way across, like you describe, had also been retrofitted (sometime within the past four years) with seat belts so that you were doubly tied in the car.
Screech owl - no offence meant to all the carnies out there. Carnies are the backbone of America, following the Carny Code as per Spud and his dad (Jim Varney’s voice) on the Simpsons. I doubt they have many accidents because as you pointed out they wouldn’t be in business long if they did.
My own experience was while I was estimating added energy costs of rides at a local fairground. The people I saw putting the rides together didn’t seem to know anything about the rides or equipment they were working with, but didn’t let it stop them from putting it together. Maybe they were temps or daylaborers brought in to assist. I bet after I left someone who did know checked it out and made needed adjustments, because they didn’t collapse, and I didn’t hear about any injuries while the fair was in town.
I shouldn’t scare people like that. My bad. Sorry.
Tamex - it is good to hear that they are using the split bars more. They are clearly much safer than the single bars. Disneyland’s older rides just don’t have them, though, and I know the Roger Rabbit ride, which is fairly new (5 years?) doesn’t. It is something a concerned person should look for in a ride. I bet D-Land will strat retro-fitting with the safer bars soon.
According to the federal goevernment, the numbers of injuries at amusement parks has increased. Not surprisingly, park operators don’t agree.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/08/04/amusement.park.injuries.ap/
Cecil has discussed roller coaster safety (a little) in this column.
No offense taken 'tall. I did fail to mention that there are temps hired on for set-up and tear-down: that did not seem to be a factor in the discussion. But I can see your point of concern, as yes, we did run into some whose intelligence was slightly above that of a half-loaf of unbaked rye bread. And yes, everything was re-inspected and reworked (if necessary, but rarely) after they left.
[topic diversion]
[It’s not only setting up the rides, it’s the unloading and re-loading the rides onto the trucks that’s a killer. Some of those carousel horses and chariots can weigh nearly a couple of hundred pounds each, and one of the two motorized cars (the car that does all the pushing for the ride) for the Mini-Himalaya ride weighs about 650 lbs. The other 20 cars are only about 300 lbs each. Redesigns over the years may have made them more efficient, but trust me, I invested in lots of deodorant when I worked there.]
[/topic diversion]
Whoa, must have missed that Simpson episode! Why doesn’t anyone tell me these things!
There was recently a dateline or 20/20 on certain rides in traveling carnivals having trouble repeatedly. Not certain typoes of rides, but certain instances of a type of ride tha thad problems repeatedly but the carnivals were able to move around enough to avoid enforcement that would close that ride permanently.
Static Amusement parks don’t have that out and should be somewhat safer.
Would you be more specific as to which program and which type of ride? Was it a design flaw in the ride itself? Was it bad welds and manufacturer error? Was it a knock-off ride made by another company [like Pokemon and imitations thereof]? I would be quite interested in this program. I haven’t had a working TV for some time (#*^@% lightning strikes), so I likely have missed the program in question.
It was not a design flaw as i recall, but more like those exact rides were lemons and kept having problems that were related to each other and repairs were not quite sufficient to halt the problem. Like the ride had a problem with the same arm or car that cause multiple injuries. It was one of the prime time news magazines. As i don’t normally make a habit of watching them, i could not say which one it was,
Okay, bumping this back to somewhat active.
Does anyone know of the particular program lee referred to? I would be most appreciative of this information. I still have acquaintances in the biz, but they are out on the circuit and cannot I contact them until about December.
vanilla, I hope we haven’t scared you or your kid off the the rides. For the most part, they are fun (my roller coaster days are over though, thanks to a hit-n-run driver). Just use some common sense and follow the rules: they are made for your safety. If you don’t think your’re belted or barred securely enough, tell the operator BEFORE you the ride starts. Teach the kid common sense: don’t get up before the ride stops and wait for the operator to give the okay to leave.
Just a side note: it seems that every few years Great America in Gurnee, Illinois will set up some ride under the premise of “Take person to a great height and then drop them straight down”. Every time they set one of these things up, it runs for a while and then someone gets seriously injured or dies on the ride. Then they close it down and two years later set up another ride under the exact same premise. Mind you, I don’t see waiting in line for two hours just to get dropped for 2 seconds all that enjoyable of a ride (I still head for the Eagle first, myself) but something tells me that maybe this is a ride to avoid.
I was on one of these this summer (called the “Power Tower”). It’s brand new, and supposedly the latest, greatest amusement park ride trend (I don’t recall one at Great America, but I’ve only been there once). The one unforseen problem we had was when the ride was over. The seats came down, the restraints were released, and we hopped off the ride. Big mistake! Apparently, the blood hadn’t had a chance to completely make it back to our feet or something, because both my husband and I had quite a bit of pain in our feet, as if we were walking on them while they were asleep, only worse! My sister didn’t have as much of a problem. I wish they would have warned us about that problem, or held us in the seats for a few extra seconds. We sat down on a bench for a few minutes and were pretty much fine, but those few seconds before we could do that were excrutiating :eek:.
I liked the ride…it’s basically all of the vertical motion of a roller coaster. “Freefall” is awesome.
I have to at least partially refute the idea that negative publicity ensures parks keep their rides safe.
Last summer, there was a fatality on a roller coaster at a local amusment park, Six Flags Darien Lake. As others have posted, the victim was primarily responsible for his death. He apparently was overweight and the attendant failed to completely secure his restraint bar. Rather than point this out or get off the ride, he used this as an opportunity to release the bar entirely and stand up during the ride. During an extreme turn, he was thrown out of the car and killed.
The ride was closed down and the restraint equipment was upgraded. A co-worker of mine was visiting the park the day the ride reopened. Ghoulishly, we all asked him if he had ridden the lethal roller coaster. He said he was unable to because, having killed a passenger, the ride had a six hour waiting line to get on.
Well, I think that’s definitely a short-term thing, like hearing about an accident on the news or a polics scanner and driving by to check it out.
I know of coasters in the halcyon days of American coasters (the '30s to the '50s) which were simply TOO dangerous and/or scary, and they all eventually had to be either closed or redesigned because of it.
Yer pal,
Satan - Commissioner, The Teeming Minions
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
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Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 30 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!) **
Again, it’s a common sense thing - make sure the restraint fits. Some ride restraints cannot accomodate all body types, though many manufacturers are developing new harnesses for larger people.
Case in point - I am, um, ‘endowed’. Roommate and I went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure and got on Incredible Hulk rollercoaster (before my car accident). The regular over-the-shoulder harness would not buckle over me. I got off the ride, a wee bit peeved, since I had heard how much fun it was. While the train was gone (with Roommate still onboard), the attendant told me each train had two seats with harnesses specially designed for larger people (large body size or endowed women), about halfway back. Solution - I still got to ride the ride, and was safe and comfortable to boot. (And they let Roommate ride again so we could ride together.)
(BTW, when Roommate came back from the first jaunt, his face was ashen and his hair was blown straight back like he was caught in a windtunnel. All he could say was, “I’m not saying a word.” Kick-ass ride.)