Thrill-ride accidents spark new demands for regulation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- In some parts of the U.S., the thrill rides that hurl children upside down, whirl them around or send them shooting down slides are checked out by state inspectors before customers climb on. But in other places, they are not required to get the once-over.

The grisly death of a 10-year-old boy on a Kansas water slide and a Ferris wheel accident that injured three little girls at a county fair in Tennessee this summer have focused attention on what safety experts say is an alarming truth about amusement rides: How closely they are regulated varies greatly from state to state.

"Fifty states in the United States of America and no two inspect rides the same way. That's wrong," said Ken Martin, an amusement-park safety consultant who has been one of the loudest critics of the nation's patchwork of state laws. "We're not close to being in the same book, state to state. We're not even on the same page of the hymnal. We certainly aren't singing in key."

Twenty-nine deaths on amusement rides or water slides have been reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission since 2010, spokeswoman Patty Davis said.

The amusement-park industry has lobbied successfully against federal oversight for decades, and the CPSC doesn't regulate rides at permanent parks such as the one in Kansas.

It oversees only traveling carnival rides, such as the Ferris wheel that broke in Tennessee.

Even then, federal investigators don't conduct routine inspections; they respond only after accidents.

So whether a ride has to be inspected before thrill-seekers hop on depends on what state it's in.

Six states -- Mississippi, Alabama, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah -- have no laws at all that require inspections, according to Saferparks, a not-for-profit group that pushes to improve safety.

In most cases, the ride operators' insurance companies require only annual inspections, Martin said, and the insurers set the criteria.

Kansas and Tennessee are among the many states that have light regulation.

Kansas mandates annual inspections but allows a park to perform its own, using private, licensed inspectors. The state does random audits of the paperwork.

Tennessee follows a similar self-inspection protocol.

The state relies on private inspectors hired by operators or accepts inspections conducted on traveling rides in other states.

On the other end, New Jersey is considered one of the toughest for its cadre of state-trained inspectors and engineers who routinely inspect rides.

Pennsylvania, likewise, has a rigorous system that includes more than 1,000 state-trained inspectors.

Martin and others said the federal government should operate something equivalent to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which protects workers on the job.

He said the government has a duty to set uniform standards for rides, such as mandatory inspections and training protocols for inspectors.

But David Mandt, a spokesman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, a trade group, said injuries are rare, and a federal program of inspectors would cost taxpayers millions.

"We believe strong local and state regulation is the most effective government oversight for the industry," he said in an email. "The states need the flexibility to create and enforce laws relevant to the attractions in their state, and that's what they have done."

In the Kansas accident, Caleb Schwab was decapitated on the world's tallest water slide Aug. 7.

Authorities have yet to say what went wrong, but at least one rider has reported the nylon harness straps came loose on previous trips down the slide.

In Tennessee, a Ferris wheel gondola overturned, spilling three girls more than 30 feet to the ground.

One, a 6-year-old, suffered a traumatic brain injury. Authorities blamed worn-out rivet fasteners on the underside of the carriage.

How much difference tougher regulations make is difficult to say. No agency collects uniform statistics on accidents or injuries from state to state. The figures available are estimates extrapolated from a sampling of accidents.

The CPSC estimates 37,300 people of all ages went to emergency rooms in 2015 after being injured on amusement rides, a category that includes bounce houses, mechanical bulls and other attractions.

That number is based on reports from some hospitals.

Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, analyzed the data from between 1990 and 2010 and estimated an average of more than 4,400 children per year are injured on rides at amusement parks and water parks.

Smith said researchers need better numbers on the scope of the problem and its causes if they hope to come up with solutions.

"This is a public-health problem, and we need to treat it like a public-health problem," he said. "That starts with a national approach to collecting data."

The CPSC regulated traveling and permanent amusement rides until 1981, when Congress limited the agency's authority to traveling carnivals.

Lobbying records dating to 1999 show the trade association has spent about $11.3 million lobbying Congress.