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House Kills Thrill Ride Safety Measure

Amusement parks successfully resist federal safety standards

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 13, 2007
Consumer advocates lost the battle to make amusement park rides safer after members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted to withdraw an amendment that would have given the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) the authority to regulate rides found at parks like Disneyland and Six Flags.

At the markup hearing on the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act of 2007, members voted 25-10 not to include the provision which Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has tried for seven years to turn into law.

Amusement park rides are subject to almost no regulation and lobbyists have spent millions of dollars to keep it that way, as the Washington Post documented in a report last week.

In 1981, lobbyists, including Washington attorney Kenneth Starr, convinced Congress to take fixed thrill rides out of CPSC's jurisdiction. The CPSC still has jurisdiction over mobile carnival rides, the kind that are hauled around from one carnival to another by independent operators.

The Post revealed that many states don't have the means, authority or expertise to ensure that these rides are safe.

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In Florida, for example, safety inspectors can only come into an amusement park when invited. The consortium of parks in Florida invite the inspectors to an "educational seminar" once a year, but don't let them inspect anything.

On average, four people die and thousands more are injured every year, according to federal estimates. At the hearing today, Markey argued that thrill rides kill and injure more people than lead-tainted toys.

He sparred with representatives from Florida and California, whose states are home to the largest number of amusement parks in the U.S.

Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) argued that most people injured on the rides did so because of their own error or pre-existing conditions.

Due to a long list of amendments and today's busy action on the House floor, the vote on the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act of 2007 has been postponed for the second time, probably until Tuesday morning. It was originally set to be voted on a week ago but was postponed due to the Energy Bill votes.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who is the main sponsor of the bill, said during his opening remarks that he hoped the bill would reach the House floor before the Holiday recess. That seems unlikely now.

The Sizzler

At the center of The Post's investigation was the Sizzler, a spinning carnival ride manufactured by Wisdom Industries. Since 1997, the approximately 200 Sizzlers believed to be in operation have killed at least four and injured dozens more.

The CPSC, which operates with a stretched budget and shrinking staff, has 90 field investigators responsible for ensuring the safety of carnival rides and 15,000 other products within the U.S. Rather than taking proactive investigations into dangerous rides, they often arrive at the scene of an accident after the ride has been dismantled.

CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson told ConsumerAffairs.com that the agency does everything it can to prioritize an investigation after the agency learns of a serious injury or death at a traveling carnival.

The most recent action taken for carnival rides was in 1999 when the agency prepared a repair program for the spinning Himalaya ride which killed two and injured three.

The CPSC responded last year to the Sizzler deaths and injuries by saying ride operators need to pay "greater attention to safety."

Traveling carnivals often sell a dangerous ride after it has killed or seriously injured a customer rather than fix it or put it out of service. State inspectors told The Post there's no way to track those rides.

Carnival rides are a small portion of the thrill ride industry. Stationary ride companies, such as Disney and Six Flags, funnel millions of thrill-seekers into their parks every summer but have no federal oversight and a minimal state-by-state patchwork.

Severed feet

Four individuals died on rides this summer. But the gruesome story that grabbed headlines was that of 13-year-old Kaitlyn Lasitter whose feet were severed by a loose cable on the Tower of Power at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. Surgeons could only reattach her right foot.

Lasitter's father told The Post he was shocked to discover there is no federal inspection program for the ride that left his daughter traumatized and suffering from frequent nightmares.

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