Boy Killed on Kansas Water Slide

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this event has seriously opened my eyes to the presumption of safety we have in amusement parks vis a bus rides. If I go to Hersheypark and the coaster is running, I assume that means it was tested for safety, approved by a governing board, and frequently inspected and maintained to be up to safety regulations. To realize that depending on the state that is not at all a given is quite sobering.

It has been. Pennsylvania has strong regulation of rides.

Yes but does Virginia? Maryland? Any other state I might visit? I have no idea and I didn't realize until this event that that might vary from state to state. I know now that it's not guaranteed depending on the state. I would have just assumed, this is a major park, this ride has obviously been tested and regulated and inspected, so if it's running, it's fine.

Yes, the rides (Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, Six Flags, Water Country) are tested/inspected daily before any customer sets foot on it. The odds of something happening are very very very slim. Sometimes, rides will shutdown mid day because a safety function did it's job.

[Anonymous]

Amusement parks are scary remnants of a darker time in America. They should all be shut down immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amusement parks are scary remnants of a darker time in America. They should all be shut down immediately.

what??!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this event has seriously opened my eyes to the presumption of safety we have in amusement parks vis a bus rides. If I go to Hersheypark and the coaster is running, I assume that means it was tested for safety, approved by a governing board, and frequently inspected and maintained to be up to safety regulations. To realize that depending on the state that is not at all a given is quite sobering.

+1

+2

Seeing a commercial for Lego Friends Amusement Park just makes me thinks of this kid.

A PP mentioned that the bars were bent and there was blood on the netting, but when I keep thinking how this could happen, I think his strap failed, he was flung forward, and the raft went over him. Splashing blood, bending the bars and causing additional injuries if his neck wasn't already snapped.

I want to feel like it would be okay for my kid to ride a water slide again. I know mostly it is, but I can't imagine the guilt his parents are feeling. Their kid's death wasn't their fault, but I'm sure they blame themselves irrational as it is.

[Anonymous]

When my DC was very young she went on kings dominion roller coaster. One of the 2 that can race each other. DC was in last seat in last car. New end when she came over a bump she almost went flying out. I pulled her down. She was small and it was late at night and she should have been secured tighter My fault too but in an instant it could have been much worse. Oh cannot rely on the staff for small teenagers.

[Anonymous]

My kids are all adults now....but sometimes they make light fun of how neurotic I was about amusement park rides, especially the transient kind in county fairs or set ups. Well, I was. At least on my watch they weren't allowed on ferris wheels or roller coasters. I was cautious about the huge ones in established parks. I always felt the speed was detrimental to neurological health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are all adults now....but sometimes they make light fun of how neurotic I was about amusement park rides, especially the transient kind in county fairs or set ups. Well, I was. At least on my watch they weren't allowed on ferris wheels or roller coasters. I was cautious about the huge ones in established parks. I always felt the speed was detrimental to neurological health.

Same poster...haven't finished. I've learned, over the last 20 years, that my concern was validated. My kids now would not go on these things or let their kids on, either. On their own opinion....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my DC was very young she went on Kings Dominion roller coaster. One of the 2 that can race each other. DC was in last seat in last car. New end when she came over a bump she almost went flying out. I pulled her down. She was small and it was late at night and she should have been secured tighter. My fault too but in an instant it could have been much worse. Oh cannot rely on the staff for small teenagers.

The only ride that was close to this at one time is Rebel Yell, and that ride is one of the few original ones still left. That ride hasn't been in that format in a very long time.

I have gone to enough amusement parks and every single time, the staff pushes down on the lap bar more than I already had it, even though I am an adult.

I wouldn't be surprised if your child was too short to ride the ride in question at the time and you simply "got away" with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this event has seriously opened my eyes to the presumption of safety we have in amusement parks vis a bus rides. If I go to Hersheypark and the coaster is running, I assume that means it was tested for safety, approved by a governing board, and frequently inspected and maintained to be up to safety regulations. To realize that depending on the state that is not at all a given is quite sobering.

It has been. Pennsylvania has strong regulation of rides.

Yes but does Virginia? Maryland? Any other state I might visit? I have no idea and I didn't realize until this event that that might vary from state to state. I know now that it's not guaranteed depending on the state. I would have just assumed, this is a major park, this ride has obviously been tested and regulated and inspected, so if it's running, it's fine.

Yes, the rides (Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, Six Flags, Water Country) are tested/inspected daily before any customer sets foot on it. The odds of something happening are very very very slim. Sometimes, rides will shutdown mid day because a safety function did it's job.

We were at Kings Dominion the day of the earthquake in 2012. My daughter, niece and I were on the Ferris Wheel and my husband and my nephew were, ironically enough, on the Shockwave roller coaster. Following the earthquake they shut everything down and said that nothing could be reopened until every ride had been tested one by one. And that is what they do every morning as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this event has seriously opened my eyes to the presumption of safety we have in amusement parks vis a bus rides. If I go to Hersheypark and the coaster is running, I assume that means it was tested for safety, approved by a governing board, and frequently inspected and maintained to be up to safety regulations. To realize that depending on the state that is not at all a given is quite sobering.

It has been. Pennsylvania has strong regulation of rides.

Yes but does Virginia? Maryland? Any other state I might visit? I have no idea and I didn't realize until this event that that might vary from state to state. I know now that it's not guaranteed depending on the state. I would have just assumed, this is a major park, this ride has obviously been tested and regulated and inspected, so if it's running, it's fine.

Yes, the rides (Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, Six Flags, Water Country) are tested/inspected daily before any customer sets foot on it. The odds of something happening are very very very slim. Sometimes, rides will shutdown mid day because a safety function did it's job.

We were at Kings Dominion the day of the earthquake in 2012. My daughter, niece and I were on the Ferris Wheel and my husband and my nephew were, ironically enough, on the Shockwave roller coaster. Following the earthquake they shut everything down and said that nothing could be reopened until every ride had been tested one by one. And that is what they do every morning as well.

I might have missed this earlier, my apologies in advance. How is the testing/inspection done in this area different than what is done in Kansas? Do we have state agencies doing the inspections and they do not? Or are there no requirements for daily inspections by park staff, etc?

I saw a news show in the last year or two at Six Flags that said park staff walk the tracks, run the rides w/o people, and then w/ park workers every morning before they open. Just trying to follow how this is different than what is done (or not done in Kansas).

[Anonymous]

I 100% agree it is appalling that Kansas has no state inspection process for rides.

That said, we are all assuming the inspection would have found something. I'd bet it wouldn't have. That ride was running hundreds of times a day without incident. Yes, there are some reports now of the straps loosening, but would that have been caught during an inspection? I am not confident it would have. It doesn't sound like it happened every time.

You could argue that the ride might not have been built the way it was if there were inspections, but ultimately it sounds like there was a malfunction of the ride, and I'm not sure it's in a way that would have been caught. A lot of this gnashing of teeth about inspections and Kansas and anti-regulators comes off a lot as "Whew, glad that couldn't happen HERE!"

Don't kid yourself. Thrill rides have significant danger even when they are perfectly maintained and inspected. The issue isn't how often something goes wrong (even a crappy, non inspected ride is rarely going to have something go wrong), but that when something does go wrong, because of the physics involved, it has a good chance of being catastrophic.

Every year there are 2 or 3 deaths on roller coasters/amusement rides. They are in all different states. They don't often get the same level of national attention because they aren't children or aren't as gruesome. But they happen.

Amusement rides are low risk, but when tragedies like this happen, it is human nature to look for something to "blame" that makes us feel like it couldn't happen to us. No matter what state you ride in or what the inspections are like, you should know it is a real, if rare, risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I 100% agree it is appalling that Kansas has no state inspection process for rides.

That said, we are all assuming the inspection would have found something. I'd bet it wouldn't have. That ride was running hundreds of times a day without incident. Yes, there are some reports now of the straps loosening, but would that have been caught during an inspection? I am not confident it would have. It doesn't sound like it happened every time.

You could argue that the ride might not have been built the way it was if there were inspections, but ultimately it sounds like there was a malfunction of the ride, and I'm not sure it's in a way that would have been caught. A lot of this gnashing of teeth about inspections and Kansas and anti-regulators comes off a lot as "Whew, glad that couldn't happen HERE!"

Don't kid yourself. Thrill rides have significant danger even when they are perfectly maintained and inspected. The issue isn't how often something goes wrong (even a crappy, non inspected ride is rarely going to have something go wrong), but that when something does go wrong, because of the physics involved, it has a good chance of being catastrophic.

Every year there are 2 or 3 deaths on roller coasters/amusement rides. They are in all different states. They don't often get the same level of national attention because they aren't children or aren't as gruesome. But they happen.

Amusement rides are low risk, but when tragedies like this happen, it is human nature to look for something to "blame" that makes us feel like it couldn't happen to us. No matter what state you ride in or what the inspections are like, you should know it is a real, if rare, risk.

There have been several reports of the Velcro straps being worn down, coming loose or being almost detached from the boat. An inspection would have caught this.

[Anonymous]

response to 23:20: not if it was user error

[Anonymous]

Here's a link to the agencies that inspect rides and investigate accidents, broken down by state:

http://www.saferparks.org/regulation/agencies

A few states have none, but Kansas isn't one of those. It seems like it's every man for himself, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are all adults now....but sometimes they make light fun of how neurotic I was about amusement park rides, especially the transient kind in county fairs or set ups. Well, I was. At least on my watch they weren't allowed on ferris wheels or roller coasters. I was cautious about the huge ones in established parks. I always felt the speed was detrimental to neurological health.

+1 Our parents never allowed my sisters and me to ride any traveling carnival roller coaster or ferris wheel because our mom had seen someone fall out of a ride at Va Beach. My husband and I did the same for our kids.