[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 16, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    INTRODUCING THE NATIONAL AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE SAFETY ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 16, 2007

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, Memorial Day is the beginning of the 
season when American families take their children to our amusement 
parks for a day of fun and sun. Unfortunately, it is also the case that 
over 75 percent of the serious injuries suffered on these rides occur 
between the months of May and September. Most of America thinks that 
the rides at these parks are subject to oversight by the Nation's top 
consumer safety watchdog--the Consumer Product Safety Commission 
(CPSC). But this is not true. The industry was subject to federal 
safety regulation, but in 1981 it succeeded in carving out a special-
interest political exemption in the law--the so-called Roller Coaster 
Loophole.
  It is time to put the safety of our children first--it is time to 
close the Roller Coaster Loophole. Today I am introducing the National 
Amusement Park Ride Act to restore safety oversight to a largely 
unregulated industry. I am pleased to be joined in this effort by 
Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Jim 
McGovern (D-MA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) 
and Anna Eshoo (D-CA).
  ``Fixed'' or ``fixed-site'' rides are found predominantly in 
destination theme parks. When an accident occurs on such rides, the law 
actually prevents the CPSC from even setting foot in the park to find 
out what happened. In some States, an investigation may occur, but in 
many, there is literally no regulatory oversight at all. And no matter 
how diligent a particular state might be, there is no substitute for 
Federal oversight of an industry where park visitors often come from 
out-of-state; a single manufacturer will sell versions of the same ride 
to park operators in many different States; and no state has the 
jurisdiction, resources or mission to ensure that the safety lessons 
learned within its borders are shared systematically with every other 
State.
  Although the overall risk of death on an amusement park ride is very 
small, it is not zero. Sixty-four deaths have occurred on amusement 
park rides since 1987, and over two-thirds occur on ``fixed-site'' 
rides in our theme parks. In August 1999, 4 deaths occurred on roller 
coasters in just one week, ``one of the most calamitous weeks in the 
history of America's amusement parks,'' according to U.S. News and 
World Report:

       Every one of these is an unspeakable horror for the 
     families, and every one of them deserves to be investigated 
     by a Federal safety expert with the knowledge and the power 
     to ensure that what happened at the accident site does not 
     get repeated in other states.

  It is simply inexcusable that when a loved one dies or is seriously 
injured on these rides, there is no system in place to ensure that the 
ride is investigated, the causes determined, and the flaws fixed, not 
just on that ride, but on every similar ride in every other State. The 
reason this system does not exist is the Roller Coaster Loophole.

  The industry attempts to justify its special-interest exemption by 
pretending that there is no risk in riding machines that carry human 
beings 70, 80 or 90 miles an hour. The rides are very short, and most 
people are not injured. But in fact, the number of fatalities per 
passenger mile on roller coasters is higher than on passenger trains, 
passenger buses, and passenger planes. The National Safety Council uses 
a standard method of comparing risk of injury per distance traveled. 
Riding on a roller coaster is generally safer than driving a car, but 
is not generally safer than riding a passenger bus, train or airplane:

       Fatalities are just the tip of problem, however. Broken 
     bones, gashes, and other serious injuries have been rising 
     much faster than attendance. The CPSC is prohibited from 
     requiring the submission of injury data directly from ride 
     operators, so it is forced to fall back on an indirect 
     method, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System 
     (NEISS), which gathers information from a statistical sample 
     of hospital emergency rooms and then estimates national 
     numbers. Nevertheless, NEISS has been gathering these 
     statistics systematically over many years, so that trends 
     become clear over time.

  Beginning in 1996, a sharp upward trend can be seen in hospital 
emergency room visits by passengers on unregulated ``fixed'' rides--the 
category of rides exempt from CPSC regulation under the Roller Coaster 
Loophole. These injuries soared 96 percent over the next 5 years. 
Meanwhile, such emergency room visits were falling for passengers on 
rides that the CPSC still regulates.
  The theme park industry likes to tell the public that its rides are 
safer than the mobile rides because they are overseen by a permanent 
park staff, but according to this independent government safety agency 
report, the mobile parks have less of an injury problem than the theme 
parks.
  For the most part, these rides are designed, operated and ridden 
safely. But clearly, the margin for error is much narrower for a child 
on a ride traveling at 100 mph than on a ride traveling 50 mph. 
Children often do foolish things, and the operators themselves are 
often teenagers. People make mistakes. The design of these rides must 
anticipate that their patrons will act like children, because they 
often are children.
  The bill we are introducing today will close the loophole that 
prevents effective Federal safety oversight of amusement park rides. It 
would, therefore, restore to the CPSC the standard safety jurisdiction 
over ``fixed-site'' amusement park rides that it used to have before 
the Roller Coaster Loophole was adopted. There would no longer be an 
artificial and unjustifiable split between unregulated ``fixed-site'' 
rides and regulated ``mobile'' rides. When a family traveled to a park 
anywhere in the United States, a mother or father would know that their 
children were being placed on a ride that was subject to basic safety 
regulation by the CPSC.
  It would restore CPSC's authority to investigate accidents; develop 
and enforce action plans to correct defects, and act as a national 
clearinghouse for accident and defect data.
  The bill would also authorize appropriations of $500,000 annually to 
enable the CPSC to carry out the purposes of the Act.
  The bill I am introducing today is supported by the Nation's leading 
consumer-protection advocates, including Saferparks.org, the Consumer 
Federation of America, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the 
National SAFE KIDS Campaign, and Kids in Danger.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in this effort to make this the 
safest summer ever in our theme parks. Let's pass the National 
Amusement Park Ride Safety Act.

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