Where were all the ‘Safety Nets’ at Amusement Park?

August 4th, 2010. By LucyC

 

Never a fan of amusement park rides—including the Ferris Wheel—I read about this story with a stomach churning sense of foreboding. On July 31, 12-year old Teagan Marti fell more than 100 feet in Extreme World Amusement Park’s Terminal Velocity ‘ride’ and landed on concrete because the safety net was not in place.

Remarkably, she survived. She is in the hospital in Wisconsin, the state where the amusement park is located, in critical but stable condition. She has 10 fractures in her back and one in her skull. Her father, who is a radiologist, performed CPR on her at the scene to bring her back to life.

Dr. Alex Marti, was the first to see his daughter after her fall. During an appearance on CBS’ The Early Show on August 2, he said  “She was dead….She was basically unconscious, not moving and laying flat on her back with blood coming out of her ears and nose. Just a horrible, horrible scene. At the moment she fell and I heard that loud thud, I just assumed she was dead.”

This is everyone’s worst amusement park nightmare—the unimaginable. Why? Because you place your trust in the amusement park staff, experts, ride designers, maintenance people and God—whichever god you like—that everything has been done properly, and your safety is not at issue. Because to actually imagine what happened to Teagan is hard to do. At some point your brain kicks in and says “no—this is ridiculous—it will never happen.” As Teagan’s father put it, after having watched several people do the ‘ride’ before his daughter, “To me, it’s just impossible to imagine that something like that could happen.”

But it did. So now the debate begins—who’s at fault? At a minimum this constitutes negligence resulting in personal injury—it could have been wrongful death. Do waivers hold in these types of circumstances? An interesting point in this situation is that Teagan is 12, yet the legal age to take this ‘ride’ is 14. According to a report on CBS News, Teagan’s parents signed a consent so she could do the Terminal Velocity ride, which incidentally is intended to send you hurtling through space at 52 miles per hour— having been dropped from a barrel 100 feet above the ground–see the video above.

The fellow who let Teagan go—the man at the top of the ride—is not at work at the moment “for mental health reasons.” I would think so. But the park has also been closed as an investigation takes place.

The attorney representing Teagan apparently believes it is this man’s fault because he didn’t check to see if the safety net was in place before he let the young girl go. But I can’t help wondering why there wasn’t a back-up safety net? What would that cost to install? Next to nothing, compared with the alternatives, I’m willing to bet.  And what about procedures? Were there any in place that this man had to follow before letting Teagan go? If there weren’t, how can he be solely responsible? Teagan’s attorney told CBS that there was no failsafe method, no back-up. And he makes the point that the fact that a rider could be released prematurely demonstrates a design defect. If this had been a defective product like a car that had caused an accident, people would not hesitate in placing the blame on the manufacturers and designers, and rightfully so. Therefore, while the man who let Teagan go may have played a decisive role in this horrible accident, I don’t see how he can be held entirely to blame.

I’m also left wondering who oversees amusement park safety? CBS news reports the “US Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that more than 270 million people visit American amusement parks each year. About 7,000 are treated in emergency rooms for injuries from ride accidents. An average of four people die.”

Consequently the experts advise you not to assume all rides are safe. Ride safety expert Ken Martin told CBS News, “Watch the ride, ask questions, make sure the ride operator is paying attention. Make sure other rides are behaving themselves.” That’s exactly what Teagan’s father did.

So, if you can’t assume all rides are safe—in what instance is it safe to go on one?

Tags: Amusement Ride, Extreme World, Teagan Marti, Terminal Velocity, Wisconsin

This was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 8:20 am and is filed under Accidents, Emerging Issues, Personal Injury . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.