8/22/2016

It’s still summertime so that means we are still enjoying the outdoor weather. Typically that means taking your family or going out with your friends to county fairs and amusements parks. And whether it’s Disneyland, Magic Mountain or a traveling carnival, it seems that every year we hear about an unfortunate event associated with a ride at one of these venues.  This year is no exception. A few weeks ago, a 10-year old boy died on a water slide and only a few days after that, three girls fell from a Ferris wheel at a county fair in Tennessee. One of the girls suffered a traumatic brain injury. Inspectors identified a mechanical failure that was responsible for the incident. While investigations for both cases are in progress, officials, so far have not provided any specific reasons for these events.  This includes not being specific regarding the mechanical failure that caused the three girls to plummet to the ground as the car they were in appeared to get caught, causing the car to flip over. Then again, only days after this incident, another child was hurt on a roller coaster in Pennsylvania. Officials for this incident also claimed mechanical failure; however, no specific cause has been identified even though amusement park spokesman said – similar to the other accidents – the roller coaster passed its safety inspection only days before.      

Amusement park standards are set by the ASTM International, F-24 Committee on Amusement Rides and Devices.  This standard is comprised of consumer advocates, government officials, amusement park operators, ride manufacturers, and industry suppliers. The committee establishes standards on design and manufacture, testing, operation, maintenance, inspection, quality assurance, and more. These standards undergo frequent review as well as revisions to keep up with new technologies which have been adopted by many governmental jurisdictions.

Amusement parks are subject to state and local governmental codes, specifying safety inspection requirements, which, in many instances, are initiated by insurance companies. Amusement park staff follow detailed manufacturer guidelines for inspection and safety, and many parks use outside specialty companies to periodically re-inspect rides. These inspections take place on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. ASTM International standards require fixed-site amusement operators and manufacturers to report incidents and ride-related defects, including notification of facilities when a ride is identified to have a manufacturer-related safety issue. However, the inspection process and safety requirements are not as stringent for traveling carnivals and therefore, many unsafe conditions can be left unidentified.

So how are these rides inspected to ensure our safety?  It seems that even though amusement officials insist inspection are rigorous, these assurances are based on visual inspections.

A roller coaster’s track is typically inspected every day before the park opens, or at the request of management during the day, or in the event of an accident or near accident. Maintenance personnel will visually inspect high stress areas, such as the bottom of a big drop or the underside of the rails of airtime filled hills.  Before a roller coaster can be operated the track must be free of obstructions, such as tree limbs or litter which might have fallen on the rails during the night or after a strong storm. All the welds on handrails, stairs, and, catwalks are examined (visually) for cracks.

Items to be checked include chain dampeners, anti-rollback devices, the gearbox, sprocket and intermediate chain, chain trough, chain and chain tension. Buttons and lights on the operator’s panel are inspected while the transfer tracks should be locked in place. Brake shoes are checked for excessive wear and proper alignment.

But as diligent as inspectors may be, stress and strain tests for the actual strength of the track still needs to be performed. The fact is, structural parts, such as rail tracks can fatigue, meaning there is an actual failure in the part, resulting in internal fractures and even breaking. Such structural concerns cannot be detected by mere visual inspection, and therefore, require the use of non-destructive testing (NDT) methods, whereby x-rays and magna flux techniques (using UV-sensitive paints that can magnify structural anomalies) are used to observe surface and subsurface discontinuities.

True, visual inspections can be beneficial. If conducted with diligence, many hazardous situations can be identified and corrected. For instance, in vehicle safety, noticing a missing or broken mirror (side or rear-view) or a tire that is deflated or having worn treads, by taking the time to correct such conditions, we can remove a significant risk factor.  However, there are a number of things that we cannot identify through visual inspections. Having a break line partially severed (as we see in so many murder mysteries) or the lattice boom of a crane being fatigued to the point of failure (just like what can occur on the structural elements for amusement park rides) are things we cannot detect by merely performing a visual inspection. Our responsibility lies in following the manufacturer’s instruction (manual) that specifies inspection and maintenance schedules where critical factors can be examined either through performance criteria, rigorous mechanical testing, or replacement of parts (as tests have verified specific parts used over a certain time will develop an unacceptable risk due to material failure).

It is evident that amusement park rides, while thrilling, need to upgrade the effectiveness of their maintenance programs. This is especially evident for traveling carnivals which do not have the same requirements for safety inspections as fixed amusement parks.

As more and more tragedies happen at amusements parks, eventually we may see more vigilant controls in the way of maintenance schedules and parts replacement through Federal and/or state requirements.  I suppose one could ask – if and when such controls become requirements as we have finally understood the potential risks associated with these rides (as evident by the accidents we read about each and every year) – why did these safety measures finally get instituted only after such a high cost of innocent lives?       

Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

James Harvey Robinson – American Historian