The Importance of Following Safety Rules in Amusement Parks
Many amusement parks pride themselves in being safe enough that guests are more likely to die outside the amusement parks than they are inside it. But as a catastrophe in India takes the lives of two people, we now need to reevaluate our idea of safety in these places.
Two dead, six charged in tragic India amusement park accident
With the number of simulated danger rides in amusement parks, it’s no surprise that people who run them are often obligated to keep on testing their rides and pushing them to the limit for them to successfully conclude on the safety aspect of the ride. That is something amusement parks can account for, at least, but in the event of an accident, there is only so much the owners and the riders of the amusement park can do.
Usually, when rides cause grave harm to fall on its riders, they are shut down. That’s probably the best course of action, especially since stories of one’s death on an otherwise excitingly gut-churning ride are enough to deter and then dwindle interested riders.
In this case, the accident happened at the Superstar Amusement at the Kankaria Amusement Park in India.
According to a report by the news website the New York Post, the ride was a pendulum-style attraction that would fling strapped on riders from one side to another. When the ride was mid-swing, it suddenly snapped in half at 33 feet high. Its original height can reach up to 66 feet. At that height, two people fell to their death. They were 24-year-old Manali Rajwadi and 22-year-old Mohammad Javed.
The accident also sent 27 other riders to the hospital, while 14 are still being monitored as they could very well be in critical condition.
Furthermore, the report states that India has charged six members of the park as part of the investigation and that if the park does not comply with the investigation, more people could still be charged. Currently, the managing director, Ghanshyam Patel, and son Bhavesh Patel, manager Rajesh Chowski, ride operators Yash Patel and Kishan Mohanti, and assistant Manish Vaghela are all charged with “culpable homicide not amounting to murder.”
When asked about the incident, though, Patel only said they were certain that they had made sure that it was safe and that they were not really sure why the accident happened.
“The ride broke by we cannot say how. There are two very strong 20-ton, load-bearing ropes inside and we don’t know how they snapped. Maybe there was load on the pipe and it broke.”
In a separate report by Global News Canada, a Canada-based website delivering breaking news and current affairs, Pradipsinh Jadeja said they had also taken precautions before the ride. Jadeja says they had put only 31 people when the ride could easily lift 32.
According to the local deputy commissioner of police Bipin Ahire, they would be looking into the operation and maintenance of the said ride as well as open an investigation into the incident.
The Untold Story
As much as amusement park operators would have people believe in the safety of parks, there are actually a lot of dangerous outlier incidents that should probably open the eyes of some riders.
The truth is that riding these rides won’t always guarantee you either joy or safety, and in the business of simulated danger, many would say that’s pretty par for the course. However, as NBC News reports, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission actually counted at least 30,900 injuries in amusement parks in 2016, according to data from the hospital emergency departments.
The problem with estimating the number of accidents and injuries in amusement parks is that amusement parks usually don’t release that kind of information, saying that it is corporate data. But in a report by CNN, the International Association for Amusement Parks found that, of the 335 million people who visit amusement parks in the United States, 16 million of them sustain injuries serious enough to keep them overnight in hospitals.
The records get messy, too, because the International Association for Amusement Parks has only recorded data on fixed-site amusement parks. In that regard, the number of accidents and injuries in 2015 was at 1,508, an increase of 32% since 2014.
Cautionary measures
If you still want to go on and ride gravity-defying coasters, though, CNN advises to at least follow what the park rules are. Chances are, these people know what’s best for their riders’ experiences, and that it involves having fun while also being safe.
Tracy Mehan, a translational research manager at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, also advises that, although parks are pressured to create and maintain their safe rides, one can never be too careful.
'Many parents either assume that the rides at amusement parks are safe and that they're being inspected, or they don't even stop to think about how safe they might be,' said Mehan. 'So we want parents to learn in their state how rides are being inspected, by whom, and how often, so they can make the decision for themselves whether or not they want to take that risk before they go on the ride.'
