BEYOND THE HEDGES: Roller coaster standards lax in U.S., AP study said

Your next trip on a roller coaster could be hazardous to your health, according to a new study. The Associated Press report found lax or nonexistent government oversight of amusement parks and inaccurate or incomplete injury reports of amusement park accidents. Several injuries and deaths have also been reported at the nation's theme parks.

"The standards in our country are probably the most lax standards compared to the British, French or German standards," Jeffery Abendshien, a private ride safety engineer in Las Vegas, said.

Roller coaster mishaps have been reported at the Houston area theme park Six Flags Astroworld. Headrests were recently added to the Texas Cyclone after a lawsuit was filed by Cesar Gonzalez, who was left half-paralyzed after an accident on the roller coaster. In 1990, 48 people were injured on the Timber Wolf roller coaster in Kansas City after a computer malfunction caused one coaster train to run into the back of another.

While such serious accidents are not expected, minor injuries have become part of the amusement park business.

"It's cheaper to pay some nominal settlement than re-engineer a ride," said Howard Nations, a Houston lawyer who won a 1989 jury verdict of $2.5 million on behalf of a child half-paralyzed by a roller coaster.

In fact, many times the first people to ride the coasters are the customers themselves. After these first rides any needed adjustments are made.

"It's hard sometimes on paper to anticipate those [gravitational] forces," executive director of the Outdoor Amusement Business Association Robert Johnson said. "People aren't built the same. Some people withstand forces differently than others."

Adjustments were made to the Rattler roller coaster at Fiesta Texas in San Antonio at least three times since its opening four years ago when several people were injured on the ride.

Despite the results of the report, amusement park officials cite the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's survey of emergency room injuries, which typically estimates only 7,000 to 8,000 ride injuries annually.

Source: Beaumont Enterprise, Sept. 1.

This item appeared in the News section of the September 20, 1996 issue.

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