TX has no agency overseeing amusement park safety.

[Atman]

I'm sure that's comforting to the family of the woman who fell off the Texas Giant roller coaster that their state has no pesky regulations for giant Texas corporations. WTF?

[House of Roberts]

1. Texas haz safety?

[reformist2]

2. How long before Repugs start blaming the victim... she should have buckled herself in!

[GreenStormCloud]

5. An attendant buckled her in.

Witnesses say that she expressed concern that she was securely buckled and was reassured by the attendant.

[Atman]

6. Scary, but "almost" happened to me once.

It was The Big E, a massive two-week 6-state fair held in Masschusetts. A friend's kid talked me into going a ride with her. It was a huge round thing with seats around the perimeter of the circle, facing out. It lifts about 20 feet off the ground, turns upside down, then starts spinning and twisting on its axis. We boarded this contraption and pulled the restraint bars over our shoulders. However, on my seat, the bar wouldn't latch. The carny came around checking that we were all buckled in, and I told him my seat didn't latch. I asked for a different seat, but he said the ride was full, and started jumping up and down on the harness. He had to try it from a couple angles before we heard a loud click. I repeated that I wasn't likin' this, and said the exact same words the poor woman in Texas heard before plummeting to her death..."As long as you heard it click you're okay," and walked off.

Obviously I lived, but it was not a fun ride!

[edhopper]

3. But they have very strong regulations

for a woman's uterus.

[Ilsa]

10. Rec your post. We need to flood comments sections

of newspapers to reflect the hypocrisy of Texas Lege and Gov. On regulation.

[City Lights]

30. Indeed! nt

[GreenStormCloud]

4. 100% safety is impossible, even with regulatory oversight.

Airlines are highly regulated, and there are still air crashes.

Amusement park rides rarely have fatal accidents. The companies that operate them know that if there is an injury then they are liable and will be successfully sued for lots and lots of money. They want to keep their money so it is cheaper to have safe rides. Bad publicity from an accident reduces revenue so there is another financial incentive for safe rides.

Six Flags over Texas has been in operation for 52 years and has had only one previous fatal accident that I could find by googling. While both accidents are tragic, only two fatalities in 52 years is an excellent safety record.

[tammywammy]

9. One previous guest fatality in March 1999.

There was a maintenance worker that died back in 60s while working on the Hat Ride.

[byeya]

7. More workers are killed on the job in Texas than any other state - approx 400. I know TX has a large

population but TX has no meaningful workplace inspection program and very few regulations.

[tammywammy]

8. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this

The Texas Department of Insurance inspects every ride, plus the park in question does daily inspections. Six Flags also adhears to the IAAPA and ASTM.

This is only the second guest fatality since the park opened in 1961.

[Atman]

12. I don't think it is very tough to follow...Six Flags ADMITS there are no regulations...

[font size=+2]With no safety oversight, Six Flags will investigate coaster death itself[/font]

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

The investigation of the death of a woman on a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Texas will be led by Six Flags itself, because there's no state or federal agency responsible for enforcing the safety of amusement parks.

Rosy Esparza of Dallas died Friday night when she fell from the Texas Giant, which is billed as the world's steepest wooden roller coaster.

Six Flags initially said in a statement that it was "working with authorities" to figure out what happened. But it later had to admit that it was running the investigation itself because there are no authorities to work with.

No federal agency has legal authority to enforce safety standards. And Texas is one of at least 17 states that have no agency responsible for inspecting amusement park rides, according to NBC News' survey of state codes in all 50 states.

<snip>

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/21/19601083-with-no-safety-oversight-six-flags-will-investigate-coaster-death-itself#comments

[tammywammy]

13. Maybe there's no agency, but they definitely have regular safety inspections.

They inspect all rides before park opening and throughout the day. Also there's major inspections during the shut-down period between Holiday in the Park & when it reopens in March.

Did you know that at the crack of dawn there are maintenance inspectors on the Texas Giant checking each piece of wood?

Also, after the only other guest fatality in 1999, Six Flags brought in an outside group for the investigation. Even now, the maker of the coaster & trains are on their way to Arlington (if not here already) to being investigating if there was a mechanical failure.

[LanternWaste]

27. Without blaming the lack the regulatory oversight, we'd have no political party to point our fingers

Without blaming the lack the state regulatory oversight, we'd have no political party to point our fingers at, and we'd be forced to treat this as an individual tragedy lacking any real soap-boxes to stand on and editorialize from... and that's no fun. It's accurate, but hardly fun.

[Atman]

29. Good point.

[Dreamer Tatum]

19. Two fatalities in something like 50 years!

Harumph harumph. ANGRY WORDS!

[Politicalboi]

28. My guess then

The woman committed suicide. Case closed.

[fglad]

11. Wouldn't that be "big government"?

[One_Life_To_Give]

14. Thats funny, CPSC Lists one

Texas Department of Insurance Loss Control. Which appears to be a state agency.

Amusement Ride Safety
Inspection & Insurance Act 28
TAC, Subchapter J. 5.9001-
5.9014, Rules to implement the Amusement Ride Safety &
Inspection Act.

Sure looks like the state is involved to some extent.

http://www.cpsc.gov/PageFiles/107002/amuse.pdf

[Atman]

16. I'm dubious about "Insurance Loss Control."

Look, as shown in my post above, Six Flags themselves stated that they would be doing the "investigation" themselves, because there are no authorities in this situation. So what if Six Flags vindicates themselves? Are they off the hook? And what is "Insurance Loss Control's" main objective? Making sure the insurance companies don't suffer any losses, or park safety? Again, read my post above, in Six Flag's OWN WORDS...it appears no one is legally responsible for overseeing park safety. Which would appear to mean no one actually has any authority. NO REGULATIONS.

[One_Life_To_Give]

18. Official State Agency

How many roller-coaster safety experts are there in the world? Can any one state afford to keep one such expert on staff full time?

The program may or may not be crap. Not sure for any such small Niche you are going to find any state really has the experts on staff. If anything a federal program would make more sense. Roller-Coasters are not as common as bridges. State inspectors for the latter make sense. Specialty items like this really should be done by people with more experience than most individual states could afford to keep on staff.

[Atman]

23. Why are you focusing on roller coasters?

Roller coasters are not the primary issue, merely the current issue. Of course I wouldn't expect a state to have one dedicated "Roller Coaster Inspector." I never stated that. But only 17 states, Texas among them, have no agency responsible for inspecting amusement parks and carnivals and rides at the State Fair midway. Don't tell me Texas doesn't have a lot of carnivals and festivals! And it's not as if the Carnival/midway industry is already known for it's fine, upstanding adherence to truth and honesty. With number of carnivals and state fairs and amusement parks in any given state, I tend to disagree that it would be a waste to have people dedicated to inspecting them. All but 17 states seem to agree.

[One_Life_To_Give]

25. Somebody has to

Annual inspection required
with inspection certificate
submitted to the Texas Department of Insurance for review.

IIRC most of the risk is with Portable rides used at Carnivals. And why the State and Insurance Carrier would not require an inspection each time they are moved seems unwise to me. But the case in point is the third(?) largest amusement park company in the US. And one of the top 5 Roller-Coasters in the world. Apples and oranges to the local carnival show.

[SCUBANOW]

26. Inspection are covered under this act.

The Amusement Ride Safety Inspection and Insurance Act, Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 2151

[joeglow3]

15. Doesn't mean shit

We were at cedar point and tried to get on this ride about 15 minutes after this happened:

http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/water-ride-accident-cedar-point/2013/07/22/id/516215

Ohio has state inspectors and it happened here as well. Reality is that accidents do happen and two fatalities in over 50 years is pretty darn good. This, something is being done right.

[Gothmog]

17. Goodhair is an idiot

One of his major claims is that a lack of regulation is good. In this case, a mother lost her life due to a lack of regulation

[JCMach1]

20. So, the park will cover-up (ooops meant to say investigate) itself

Pretty clear-cut negligence in this case... Six Flag's insurer will be breaking out the check book...

[tammywammy]

21. After the only other guest fatality Six Flags brought in outsiders to investigate.

The manufacturer of the coaster & trains is already on the way to Arlington.

They settled the previous case for $4M and joined in the lawsuit against manufacturer of the seating and made modifications to all Rapids rides to prevent it happening again.

Based on the only other previous incident, it doesn't look like Six Flags skirts the investigation at all.

[Atman]

24. Don't worry...the "INSURANCE LOSS" agent will be on the case.

He'll make sure that check is as small as possible. Right after he supposedly "inspects" the rides.

[ananda]

22. Well, safety regulations would make it harder to steal business ...

... from other states.