Reply to Boy Killed on Kansas Water Slide

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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.

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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. [/quote]

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