You may be surprised to learn that there's no longer any federal regulations guaranteeing the safety of amusement park rides. None.
Maddeningly, the regulations were abolished in 1981 under a new deregulatory regimen. (Somehow I doubt most folks thought they were voting for dangerous park rides, but making the wrong choice at the polls can have dire consequences.) Because the states failed to effectively shore up this loss, precarious amusement rides have little oversight.
Now a new proposal in Congress would direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to restore some oversight that was lost. If the bill becomes law, the CPSC would be able to investigate ride accidents, make manufacturers fix flaws, and relay information about malfunctioning rides to the states.
The CPSC says that just last year there were almost 19,000 injuries on amusement park rides nationwide. This includes a 13-year-old girl whose feet were severed on a ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.
Parks don't even seem to police themselves as effectively as they should. If you've tried going to a major amusement park lately, there's a good chance you'll be treated like a criminal just entering the place. But that doesn't make the rides any safer.
(Source: http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080515/NEWS0103/805150362)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Ride regulation ended in '81
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So you like some regulations (inspect the rides-Republicans like this idea) but not others (no school uniforms-Democrats love this idea)
ReplyDeleteUummmm...
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are AGAINST inspecting the rides..I think that's one of the main points here.
And the Dems are usually against uniforms (the biggest exception being those named Clinton).
States are responsible for amusement park ride safety inspections. In Ohio, it falls under the Department of Agriculture's Division of Amusement Ride Safety. If you have a complaint about ride safety in Kentucky, take it up with Frankfort not Washington.
ReplyDeleteIf we had all the federal regulations and controls you want, the federal government would be so big there would be nothing else.
So scheffbd, you're saying that the federal government shouldn't regulate rides, because it doesn't already regulate them.
ReplyDeleteGee now there's some circular "reasoning" for you.
Has anybody heard of Ollie Dixon? He is a staunch uniform opponent and a Democrat.
ReplyDelete