Currently, there is no reliable consensus on just how safe these rides are. The amusement ride industry maintains that amusement parks are the safest form of family recreation available. Yet the amusement ride injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC recognize that hundreds of serious injuries occur at amusement parks each year. And recent years have seen fatalities each year from amusement rides.
What causes Amusement Ride Accidents?
The ride industry maintains that most of these rides are caused by rider horseplay, like standing up in a ride in motion. Closer examination of the accidents sometimes reveals that it was ride operator inattention or a lap bar that released during a ride that caused the serious or fatal injury.
Is Additional Regulation of Amusement Rides the Answer?
Some safety advocates want federal regulation of amusement rides and safety. Currently, the states regulate theme parks, carnivals, and their rides. Our amusement ride injury attorneys note that safety standards and injury reporting requirements vary widely. Some industry officials point out that some federal regulation over traveling carnivals and their rides already exists, and yet the accident and injury rate has gone up rather than down.
Our amusement ride injury attorneys point out that the problem may not lie in who regulates the rides and their owners, or how much they regulate them. All who offer thrill rides for sale are, after all, strongly motivated to ensure their safety. If a carnival or amusement park ride causes injuries or deaths, you won’t want to go ride there or to brig your family and friends. And ride manufacturers whose rides consistently produce accidents and injuries will soon find themselves out of business for lack of buyers.
On the Pro’s and Con’s of Modern, Computer-Aided Design
The problem may lie in the rapid advancements offered by computer technology. Modern technology allows ride designers to calculate g-forces (gravitational forces exerted on the human body), their duration, their likely outcome, and the overall progression of forces exerted throughout a ride. But our amusement ride injury attorneys remark that computer simulation doesn’t always exactly mimic real-life ride operation. There’s no actual way to test what a ride does to the human body and to different types of human bodies until the ride is built and people begin to ride it n quantity.
Continue to Part 2 to learn more about the role and limitations of computer-aided deign in modern life.