August 14th, 2008 Amanda Stem Posted in Uncategorized |
The summer is wearing on into the month of August now and you may still be trying to come up with family activities to keep everyone entertained. Your summer plans may include a visit to a local amusement park or carnival this summer, if you haven’t visited one already. If you have concerns about amusement park safety, the state of New Jersey shares these concerns.
Amusement park accidents are actually pretty rare.
According to statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were six non-occupational amusement ride-related fatalities in New Jersey between 1987 through 1999.5 This included a 19-year-old girl who was killed after falling from the Lightnin’ Loops shuttle loop roller coaster ride at Six Flags Great Adventure in 1987, and a mother and daughter who were killed in Ocean City when they were apparently thrown from a roller coaster called Wild Wonder at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in 1999.
They can seem more frequent because of the high amount of media attention they get.
Obviously any accident is one accident too many, so a high focus on safety has to be maintained at all times. Chris Donnelly, spokesman for the Community Affairs Department, said in an e-mail: "The DCA has among, if not, the strongest ride safety regulations in the country. We perform annual inspections on all rides and no ride in the state may operate without permits from the DCA. We also perform operational (spot check) inspections, which including checking on the operators running the ride. Any violations found during inspections must be abated before a ride can open." In addition to state regulations most parks have internal regulations and safety practices when it comes to ride maintenance and operator training.
The following are the minimum requirements for operator training according to the State Department of Community.
TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION OF RIDE OPERATORS
• The amusement park owner must ensure that at least one operator for each ride is trained by the ride manufacturer and receives certification.
• No ride operator may run more than one ride at a time.
• Operators must give full attention to the ride they are running.
• The owner must make sure each ride operator has signed a ride-specific certification stating that he/she read and understood manufacturer’s recommendations for the ride, know the safety-based limitations including height, weight, etc., is well-versed on what might go wrong and how to recognize problems, knows how to verify that daily maintenance checklist has been done prior to operating the ride, and has knowledge of all emergency operating controls.
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