I don't even know where to start here. This is insane. Every state,
including Texas, has a government agency that inspects and regulates amusement rides: from the traveling scrambler to the Texas Giant.
For those of you who do not know Disney, Universal and Busch Gardens are exempt from state inspection. Direct from the Florida agency that oversees amusement rides:
10) EXEMPTIONS.—
(a) This section does not apply to:
1. Permanent facilities that employ at least 1,000 full-time employees and that maintain full-time, in-house safety inspectors. Furthermore, the permanent facilities must file an affidavit of the annual inspection with the department, on a form prescribed by rule of the department. Additionally, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services may consult annually with the permanent facilities regarding industry safety programs.
A few excerpts from Texas OCCUPATIONS CODE
TITLE 13. SPORTS, AMUSEMENTS, AND ENTERTAINMENT
SUBTITLE D. OTHER AMUSEMENTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
CHAPTER 2151. REGULATION OF AMUSEMENT RIDES
Sec. 2151.101. REQUIREMENTS FOR OPERATION. (a) A person may not operate an amusement ride unless the person:
(1) has had the amusement ride inspected at least once a year by an insurer or a person with whom the insurer has contracted;
Sec. 2151.102. INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS. (a) The inspection required by Section 2151.101(a) must test for stress-related and wear-related damage of the critical parts of a ride that the manufacturer of the amusement ride determines:
(1) are reasonably subject to failure as the result of stress and wear; and
(2) could cause injury to a member of the public as a result of a failure.
(b) If at any time the inspection reveals that an amusement ride does not meet the insurer's underwriting standards, the insurer shall notify the owner or operator.
(c) If repair or replacement of equipment is required, it is the responsibility of the owner or operator to make the repair or install the replacement equipment before the amusement ride is offered for public use.
A story that gives a little more insight into the insurance and inspection procedures in Texas.
From
msn
With no safety oversight, Six Flags will investigate coaster death itself
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 21 states that have no agency responsible for ensuring the safety of amusement park rides.
While he was previously in the House, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced legislation every congressional session to establish federal regulation of amusement park rides beginning in 1999. But the measure never passed.
Markey renewed his call Sunday for federal regulation of "roller coasters that hurdle riders at extreme speeds along precipitous drops."
"A baby stroller is subject to tougher federal regulation than a roller coaster carrying a child in excess of 100 miles per hour," Markey said in a statement. "This is a mistake."
The Texas Giant, a 14-story-high, 4,900-feet-long roller coaster that is among the premier attractions at the park in Arlington, Texas, remains closed until Six Flags concludes its investigation, a park spokeswoman said. The park gave no timetable for reporting any information.
Nadine Kelley, who had been waiting in line for the ride Friday night, told NBC 5 of Dallas that riders who were sitting behind the woman said that "right when they came down off the first bump and hit that first turn, she flew out."
The woman was accompanied by two children, who were "hysterical," Kelley said. "They were saying that their mother flew out of the car."
"It was sad. It was very sad," she said. "We kept telling them to let them out because they were hysterical. The daughter and the son said, 'We have to go get my mom. We have to go get my mom.' We were kind of in disbelief, and we just said a prayer for her."
Alfred Cannon, Esparza's next-door neighbor, said Esparza was "an incredible mother to those kids."
NBCDFW: Neighbors recall woman who died on Six Flags coaster
Texas: Safety certificate 'not an endorsement' of safety
The Texas Giant is what's called a "super hybrid" — a roller coaster with traditional wooden components that rides on steel tracks.
"This track allows us to do much more with a wooden structure: steeper drops, steeper banks," Fred Grubb, president of Rocky Mountain Construction of Hayden, Idaho, said after his company rebuilt the ride two years ago.
The rebuilding deepened the ride's first drop to 79 degrees and banked several of its turns beyond 95 degrees, with one reaching 115 degrees, Grubb told Funworld, the magazine of the International Association for Amusement Parks and Attractions.
An independent inspection of the new ride would have been conducted by the Texas Insurance Department. But the department won't be part of the death investigation because the park's insurance isn't in question.
That's the case even though the Amusement Safety Organization, based in Montecito, Calif., had previously recorded four "significant injuries" on the ride this year, after having recorded seven last year. Nearly all were for whiplash-like neck injuries, it said.
Meanwhile, federal oversight and statistics on amusement park safety are almost nonexistent.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Safety Council both cite amusement park safety standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials, but those standards are voluntary.
In Texas, the Insurance Department is responsible for setting regulations for amusement park rides. It requires an annual safety inspection certifying that ride meets ASTM standards. Texas law specifies that the inspection must be carried out by an inspector hired by the insurance company — not by any government authority.
To drive home the point that Texas isn't responsible for the safety of any roller coaster, the Insurance Department states: "Recognition by the Department that the amusement ride has satisfied these standards is not an endorsement by the Department or a statement regarding the safe operation of the amusement ride."
"There's absolutely no federal oversight, no state investigative oversight or any local investigative oversight," Ken Martin, an independent inspector and consultant on amusement park rides from Richmond, Va., told NBC News.
"It sounds like the fox guarding the henhouse to me," Martin said.
Charles Hadlock of NBC News contributed to this report