Six Flags Claims Rides ‘Extraordinarily Safe’
WASHINGTON–In the face of a congressional push to regulate safety in amusement parks, Six Flags–which operates a park in Gurnee–unveiled two studies on Tuesday that claim roller coasters to be “extraordinarily safe” and posing “no public health risk.”
The studies by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Failure Analysis Associates were paid for by Six Flags and conducted, according to Six Flags President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Story, “to put myths to rest and let real science be heard.”
Amusement parks have come under fire for widely publicized accidents over the past decade. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who is worried about people suffering brain damage on rides, is leading a charge in Congress to improve safety regulation of amusement parks.
Six Flags runs Great America in north suburban Gurnee, which features state-of-the-art roller coasters like Vertical Velocity and Deja vu!, a ride with vertical loops and drops that seem to defy gravity.
Dr. Gregory L. Henry, an emergency medicine specialist, said that G-forces on even the fastest roller coasters were no greater than falling on an exercise mat or sneezing.
He and his colleagues also claimed that out of all the roller coaster rides in amusement parks over the last 30 years, there have been only nine total cases of related neurological problems, none of which were directly caused by the rides.
Six Flags runs 29 parks in the U.S. and 10 in foreign countries. Markey said in a statement that he was encouraged “by the initiative taken by Six Flags” and welcomes “that they are finally taking so seriously the potential for brain injury on roller coasters and other rides.”
Markey stressed the need to take the investigations further, and also focus on non-brain injuries and other dangers in amusement parks.
The industry has fought against closing loopholes, despite injury data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission showing the number of emergency room accidents on rides soaring more than 90 percent in the last five years, he said.
Markey said he will continue to push the National Amusement Park Ride Safety Act, which would protect consumers by investigating serious accidents, ordering that unsafe rides be fixed, and sharing information about a ride with every other operator who owns a similar ride, even if it is not in the same state.
Published in The Chicago Sun-Times, in Illinois.
