Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt_Carter /img/forum/go_quote.gif
"The Agriculture Department is responsible for inspecting amusement park rides in Kentucky. "
Whhhhhhuuaaaatttt?
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Typical sort of thing that people will get all up in arms about when these types of situations occur. Suddenly, everyone starts looking for simple labels to attach that will allow them to explain away such a terrible accident with a sentence or two.
In reality, I suspect that the matter of exactly which governmental department happens to be responsible (in name) for conducting inspections of amusement park rides has little, if anything, to do with how well such inspections are actually carried out, or indeed whether they're conducted by well qualified and experienced people.
It's not like the state of Kentucky has an Amusement Park Rides Insepection Department. Instead, they use broad, general categories and thus lump all sorts of thing together into various portfolios, yet maintain decentralized control at various levels within the reporting structure. Amusement parks didn't exist in the early years when Kentucky set up it's offical state-wide departments so I don't see this being a factor at all. The original county fairs were always agriculturally based so that's probably how amusement parks became part of the same portfolio.
What is relevant in this case is what what the reporting structure actually is, what kinds of inspection procedures and controls were put in place, how effectively and how regularly they were administered, whether there were any warning signs that were reported but then subsequently neglected, that sort of thing. In other words, they need to focus on the substance of it and not the form. Study the situation carefully and learn from it. Don't have a knee jerk reaction to introduce all sorts of new rules and regulations on the basis of one isolated occurrance.
Let the alarmists say what they want to but this situation may well have occurred in any event despite their best efforts to ensure safety. You hear people say things like, "We have to avoid this at all costs!" Oh really? All costs? Who is going to pay for it?
There is no such thing as a perfect system when it comes to physical, mechanical, moving parts, be they planes, trains, automobiles, or even amusement park rides. Not all accidents can be prevented when it comes to these things because physical stuff eventually breaks down or becomes obsolete. Buildings will one day crumble and fall but hopefully most of them will be condemned beforehand. Old planes are grounded if they fail inspections, and the same goes for cars.
The reality is that most people are willing to take that 1/450,000,000 chance and get on the ride. We don't necessarily need to make in 1/900,000,000 to deem it as being "safe" nor do we need to shut the whole park down for months because of an isolated incident that occurred on one ride, which may well be attiributed to a freakish event that could not have been predicted or controlled for.
Then again, maybe the cables had been showing signs of excessive wear for weeks, months, or even years, but nobody did anything to deal with the facts in front of them because to do so would mean a loss of profits. It's too soon to tell what the real story is but that's what the investigation should focus on, getting down to the nitty gritty of what went wrong and why. Until then, we can only speculate, but it didn't all happen because the guy in charge of everything only understands pigs and cows.
