Safety at Amusement Parks

The Washington Post's Elizabeth Williamson wrote a wonderful article this week about the measures (or lack thereof) taken by amusement parks to ensure your safety while at their park.  It seems that the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which governs everything from children's toys to car seats to bikes, has absolutely no jurisdiction to fix rides at parks like Disney World or Six Flags. 

Back in 1981 an omnibus agricultural bill (that's right, agricultural) declared that the oversight of theme parks should be left to state programs, instead of federal oversight.  As a result of underfunding and sparse staff, these state programs have been unable to adequately find and correct safety problems that occur in rides.

This patchwork oversight has led to tragic cases like 9 year old Fatima Cervantes, who slipped under the lap bar on a ride in 2005 and had her head crushed by a metal arm.  This fact pattern is made worse by the fact that the same ride has been responsible for at least four more deaths and dozens of injuries in the U.S. since 1997, including a 6 year old boy in Kentucky this summer.

So why hasn't anything been done to remedy this situation?  Maybe because the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions spends millions of dollars a year lobbying Congress to keep things the way they are. 

A little federal oversight and communication would go a long way toward keeping us safe at the amusement parks - but it might also cut into the park's bottom line in the way of repairs - so the parks are unwilling to allow the feds to regulate them.  Robert Johnson, president of the Outdoor Amusement Business Association, put the parks' position succintly when he said, "You have to look at the risk-reward of these programs . . . There may be people out there who want more regulation, but there has to be a return on that investment."

How about our safety, Mr. Johnson?