A roller coaster ride brings screams of joy, adrenaline rushes, and sometimes a stiff neck or injured shoulders.

Rare those injuries are, they do happen. Even rarer, but more horrific is when someone dies from an amusement ride mishap that generates national headlines and lengthy lawsuits and investigations.

Alabama lawmakers want to ensure that some of the worst incidents do not happen, and that the Ferris wheel, roller coasters and massive water slides at theme parks are safe and inspected.

Legislation, pitched in the Alabama House and Senate, would remove Alabama from the list of only three states remaining without any kind of regulations for fixed amusement rides.

But the proposals lack teeth. They do not penalize amusement ride operators for not shutting down a dangerous ride. The bills do, however, allow amusement park operators to eject patrons who misbehave while on the rides.

“This bill has not been generated because there are safety issues (at Alabama parks),” said State Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, sponsor of HB352, which was approved by the Alabama House on Tuesday.

“That’s where many of these legislations (in other states) surface, with an incident,” Baker said. “But that wasn’t the impetus behind this bill. It was more of having our state pursuing the safety of the public, and we felt this was a good step in the right direction to codify best existing safety practices.”

Regulating parks

The proposals, as pitched, impose new safety regulations on fixed amusement rides at the handful of theme parks that are permanent attractions in Alabama.

The only theme parks in Alabama with a roller coaster, and which would be subject to the new regulations, include OWA in Foley, Alabama Adventure in Bessemer, Track Family Fun Park in Gulf Shores, 4D Farm in Cullman, Spring Park in Tuscumbia, and the Kiddie Carnival in Athens.

OWA, which is owned and operated by Creek Indian Enterprises, features a host of thrill rides including the Rollin’ Thunder roller coaster.

A spokesperson with the theme park that opened in 2017, said that OWA has been helping to facilitate talks between industry leaders and state officials toward creating a “regulatory framework for the amusement park industry in Alabama.”

Kristin Hellmich, spokesperson with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and for OWA, said that the park has self-regulated itself based on industry guidelines.

“From the opening our theme park, and now with the addition of our waterpark, safety has always been a top priority which is why our management team has proactively adopted daily safety processes based on our manufacturers guidelines and best-practices from the international theme park industry,” she said.

OWA has also independently participated in annual operational audits.

The proposed regulations are nothing new and are utilized by many states already. They follow a standardized safety guideline from ASTM International (formerly American Society for Testing and Materials), an organization that develops voluntary consensus standards on a variety of products and systems including amusement rides.

At least one Alabama lawmaker is hopeful that more restrictions can eventually be required on weight restrictions and strapping requirements on rides.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said the legislation does not specifically address “weight, size and strapping” of someone to a ride. She cited the tragedy in Orlando last year, when a 14-year-old teenage boy who weighed over 300 pounds and was over 6-foot, 5-inches tall, was killed on a ride that he was allegedly too big to be on.

OWA has self-regulated its height and weight restrictions for rides. The park’s initial attempts stirred controversy. Shortly after first opening, OWA posted signs stating that people who exceed 6 feet, 2 inches in height and weighed over 225 pounds and had a 40-inch waistline or a 52-inch chest, faced ride restrictions.

Further adding to the controversy, OWA said that women who weighed over 200 pounds or those who wear a size 18 or larger, were subject to ride restrictions.

“This should be about saving the life of someone and putting those standards in place,” Givan said, adding that the legislation “is a good first step.”

What’s in the legislation

Alabama’s proposal does not address rides that are part of a traveling or mobile carnival or fair, which are federally regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Regulating fixed rides at theme parks is left up to state lawmakers, and Alabama has relied for years on operators to police themselves. Aside from Alabama, only Wyoming and Montana do not have any legislation overseeing amusement parks, according to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the trade association the represents amusement parks.

IAAPA is supportive of the Alabama proposals.

“Most operators within Alabama already follow ASTM standards, which are consensus-driven safety standards written by engineers, operators, and leading experts in the global attractions industry,” said Caitlin Dineen, director of global communications with IAAPA. “This legislation codifies those standards into state law. ATSM standards are considered the gold standard for oversight and safety regulations within our industry.”

Highlights within Alabama’s legislation include:

• Amusement rides and water slides are to be inspected by a qualified inspector at least once a year.
• After a satisfactory inspection, the inspector is to issue a certificate to the ride’s owner certifying that the ride or slide complies with all that is statutorily required through ASTM standards and is “reasonably safe for public use.”
• No patron can be admitted to an amusement ride or water slide if it has undergone a major modification until it receives a new inspection certificate.
• If a ride is deemed unsafe, an inspector is not to issue an inspection certificate until the unsafe conditions have been rectified.
• Owners have to keep records of all inspections of a ride for at least 3 years.
• Owners have to maintain liability insurance of $500,000 bodily injury or death of one individual in each occurrence and, not less than $1 million for bodily injury or death of two or more individuals in each occurrence.

Misbehavior and exclusions

The legislation also requires patrons to behave, or otherwise be subject to immediate removal from a theme park without the refund of an admission charge.

Among the behaviors prohibited within the legislation:

• Behave in a manner that can cause injury.
• Interfere with the operation of the amusement ride or water slide.
• Fail to engage any provided safety device.
• Disconnect or disable a safety device, except at the instruction of an operator.
• Extend arms or legs beyond the carrier or seating area, except at the express instruction of an operator.
• Throw, drop, or expel any object from or toward an amusement ride or water slide.
• Enter or exit and amusement ride or water slide except at the designated time and area at the direction of an operator or in an emergency.
• Unreasonably control the speed or direction of himself or herself if the amusement ride or water slide requires the patron to control or direct himself or herself.
• Riding while under the influence of alcohol or any other intoxicating substance.

Baker said the legislation includes some exclusions, particularly what is not considered an “amusement ride.” Among the rides excluded: Aerial trekking courses, canopy tours, challenge courses, fun karts, race karts, ropes courses, trampoline courts, or zip lines.

Also not considered amusement rides are coin-operated rides that are found in public locations like kiddie rides sometimes found at department stores.

Non-mechanized playground equipment – swing sets, teeter-totters, stationary spring-mounted animal features often found at public parks – are also not included.

Some water rides are also excluded, including lazy rivers and log flume rides.

RV parks and summer camps were also added to the list of excluded rides during Tuesday’s House floor debate. Whitewater rafting courses were also excluded, which means the $65 million, 120-acre water park opening this summer in Montgomery would not fall under the legislation’s oversight.

Regulations and safety

Martin Lewison, associate professor of business management at Farmingdale State College in New York – and a member of the IAAPA – said that states oversee the regulations differently. Approximately 20 states have a more robust and comprehensive government oversight system requiring regular inspections and a government agency empowered to investigate accidents, according to a report in The Regulatory Review citing information from Safety Park USA, an insurance and risk management company for the amusement industry.

Alabama’s system would be overseen by the Alabama Department of Revenue. He said that several states depend on their Agriculture departments to oversee regulations because “historically, amusements were closely connected to agricultural fairs.”

The CPSC once regulated theme park rides, but the amusement park industry was able to successfully challenge it and have the industry regulated by the states. The change occurred in 1981, after Congress removed CPSC oversight in a move dubbed the “roller coaster loophole.”

U.S. Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., has long attempted to reinstitute federal oversight to the industry, which has repeatedly been opposed by the IAAPA. Among the reasons, Lewison said, is that additional regulations could increase costs at a time when operating theme parks is already expensive.

Lewison also said that statistically, amusement ride accidents are “relatively rare.”

The IAAPA’s annual safety survey, conducted by the National Safety Council, shows the chances of being seriously injured on an amusement ride at 1 in 15.5 million rides taken. The survey is voluntary, and only 179 of 484 U.S. and Canadian fixed-site amusement facilities participated in the 2021 version.

Of the 1,224 total injuries in 2021, only 130 or 11% were considered “serious” in that they required hospitalization for at least 24 hours.

“The vast majority of incidents involve slips, falls, bumps and bruises and, of course, sickness and biospills,” said Lewison, who admits to riding on 2,226 different roller coasters at nearly 900 different sites in 40 countries and experiencing a few bruises every “now and again.” He said he has never needed medical attention.

Lewison said that recreational activities like riding a bicycle, skateboard and roller skates are “far more dangerous.”

“I think you’re more likely to die falling out of a chair than you are likely to be seriously injured on an amusement park ride,” he said. “I think you’re more likely to be seriously injured on the car ride to the amusement park than you are to be seriously injured on an amusement park ride.”

Serious concerns

Still, serious tragedies occur which often lead to state action. That was the case in Kansas in 2016, after the 10-year-old son of a state lawmaker was decapitated on a large water slide. A year later, Kansas adopted the “Kansas Amusement Ride Act” that tightened inspection requirements and mandated parks report injuries to the state.

Lewison said that media coverage of amusement park tragedies fuels perceptions.

“If every serious skateboard (accident) were on the news, no one would ever go near one, but every amusement injury gets major news coverage, which can blow the public perception of amusement danger way out of proportion,” he said. “When a roller coaster stops operating due to safety warnings, the riders are evacuated, this usually becomes a major local news even though the ride safety system operated exactly as designed and no one was injured.”

That is what happened last year during an incident at the Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile, an event that features a traveling carnival which is regulated by the CPSC.

A 9-year-old girl’s seatbelt was unbuckled as she boarded onto the Mega Drop ride. The girl began screaming as the ride started, but it eventually stopped as the ride approached a so-called “safety zone,” according to an account to a local TV news station.

“The industry is extremely safety conscious, and this includes the manufacturers and operators,” Lewison said. “Not surprisingly, the industry is well-aware that injuries are bad for business, so they go to great lengths to ensure that injuries don’t happen.”