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struggle4progress

(118,320 posts) Tue Jul 23, 2013, 01:27 AM Jul 2013

Loose rules leave Six Flags to investigate itself for park death

By Matt Pearce
July 22, 2013, 6:38 p.m.

... across the country, amusement parks -- such as Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington -- are bound to a patchwork set of safety regulations that vary from state to state, and that lack universal reporting guidelines for notifying the government about accidents, experts said Monday.

“The amusement-ride industry, for the most part, is self-regulated; we write our own rules," said Ken Martin, an amusement-ride safety analyst for KRM Consulting in Richmond, Va. What happened in Texas, he added, was “the exact opposite of what would have happened in California had this happened at Disneyland or Universal" ...

“Texas law doesn’t require that any kind of investigation be reported to us,” said Jerry Hagins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance, which regulates Texas' amusement parks ...

Under Texas law, amusement rides have an insurance-based regulatory system in which each ride must carry $1 million in liability insurance. Each ride also must be inspected once a year by a qualified engineer appointed by the insurance company, according to Texas Department of Insurance spokesman Hagins ...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-six-flags-regulations-20130722,0,2470842.story

9 replies

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Loose rules leave Six Flags to investigate itself for park death (Original Post) struggle4progress Jul 2013 OP

Does Texas actually have any laws pertaining to industry safety? rightsideout Jul 2013 #1

Six Flags Over Texas has an excellent safety record. GreenStormCloud Jul 2013 #2

Six Flags probably does a better job than most though davidpdx Jul 2013 #5

little different from most things these days. HiPointDem Jul 2013 #3

My thoughts too, example Wall Street. . B Calm Jul 2013 #7

food producers & sellers (HAACP etc)... HiPointDem Jul 2013 #8

I think you still can't bring a machine gun on a roller coaster in most states olddots Jul 2013 #4

Fatal accidents hurt profits. GreenStormCloud Jul 2013 #6

Oh, Texas. Ruby the Liberal Jul 2013 #9

rightsideout

(978 posts)

1. Does Texas actually have any laws pertaining to industry safety?

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Tue Jul 23, 2013, 01:32 AM

Jul 2013

Sounds like it's "do whatever you want" when it comes to public safety.

GreenStormCloud

(12,072 posts)

2. Six Flags Over Texas has an excellent safety record.

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Tue Jul 23, 2013, 04:20 AM

Jul 2013

Since they opened, 52 years ago, this is only the second customer fatality. During that time there have been BILLIONS of customer-rides. (I am counting each customer on each ride as one event. So one customer who takes five rides is five events.) Two deaths out of billions is a remarkably low rate.

Perfect 100% safety is impossible. The airline industry is heavily regulated and they still have plane crashes.

Do you honestly think that the park doesn't care? An accident like that is going to cost them a LOT of money. In addition to the lawsuit loss, there will be the lost revenue from customers who will be scared away.

The insurance companies don't want to pay huge claims, so their inspectors are going to be doing a more thorough job than a gov't inspector would.

davidpdx

(22,000 posts)

5. Six Flags probably does a better job than most though

Reply to GreenStormCloud (Reply #2)

Tue Jul 23, 2013, 04:41 AM

Jul 2013

Especially given it's the second death in so many years. I do have to wonder how many deaths or accidents are actually reported in the industry though.