Amusement Park Ride Accidents and Injuries
Amusement Park Ride Pitfalls
The National Consumer Product Safety Commission (NCPSA) approximates that over 270,000,000 people visit amusement parks each year in the United States. An average of 7,000 of these individuals are treated in emergency rooms for personal injuries they sustained in an amusement ride accidents. Whenever you hear of a serious or fatal accident associated with an amusement park ride, it is natural to ask, "How many people are hurt on amusement park rides each year?" Unfortunately, the answer is, "Well, we aren't very sure, but we don't think it is a lot."
Here are a few factors that contribute to amusement park accidents:
- Mechanical failures/lack of maintenance
- Operator behaviors/under training/lack of supervision
- Consumer behavior
- Design defects
The difficulty is that there is no comprehensive source for amusement ride accident data. No federal law or national agency requires all amusement ride operators in every state to file accident reports. Nationally, most regulated parks are required to report accidents to their regulating state agency and/or their insurance company. However, the reporting requirements are not uniform and the information is generally not available to the public. Nonetheless, some information is available.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) does have jurisdiction over mobile rides, as well as a general interest in overall ride safety. Also, most catastrophic amusement park ride accidents receive media coverage. Thus, there is generally enough information to provide a broad sense of amusement ride safety and a more specific sense of catastrophic risk. They maintain the most comprehensive data on amusement ride accidents. The CPSC document amusement ride fatalities and estimate amusement ride injuries. Data on non-fatal injuries from amusement rides are difficult to obtain and often do not exist. The CPSC estimates injuries based on surveys of hospital emergency rooms. Data on deaths associated with amusement rides are more precise and easier to obtain than are data on injuries. The CPSC documents actual deaths. Their fatality data are not estimates.
A serious amusement park ride injury can be detrimental to your health and your lifestyle. It can also affect relationships with loved ones. If you have suffered from a serious amusement park ride injury resulting from the negligence of another, you may be entitled to compensation.
