Looking at it from an external point of view, the way the US do it at the moment seems quite strange to us.
We have an independent body that inspects every ride to give it a one year bill of health (ADIPS). They're supported by the amusement park industry in the UK and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Essentially, the HSE say "don't kill people, and prove to us how you're avoiding killing people". ADIPS is one method of giving the HSE proof. So if there's an accident, the park can say "we followed the ADIPS guidelines, they checked the procedures and said we were okay". If the park doesn't follow the procedures (like Oakwood with Hydro), then they get the book thrown at them by the HSE.
Everything here is done through the government when things go wrong (or with inspections if they think you're not doing enough and things are heading into doing it wrong territory) - but it's still self regulation until that point.
The US is very much based on money :lol: I know there's a degree of self regulation within park chains and some states also do safety checks. However, it seems that most of the regulation is done by insurance companies. They're the people who will have to pay out if there's an accident, so they are the ones who do the checking to ensure parks and fairs are doing everything they can to be safe.
Now, is there an independent body the insurance companies all go to for advice on how to insure a park and ensure they're acting in a safe manner? What is the procedure a park's insurance company go through each year to check that the park is behaving?
We don't know, and I think that's part of the issue. The other part of course is money. As soon as you introduce money into the situation, things can go badly awry as Joey hints at.
It could be that a park manager/director is also on the board for an insurance company. The insurance company obviously don't want to make a pay out and the park don't want to be blamed. So it's possible for things to be covered up by one person in the right place. However, you really are into foil hat territory there, but we all know that corruption does happen (everywhere in the world).
What I don't get is how if there's a death, the police aren't more involved. The investigation should be carried out by the police, with the assistance of the park and insurance "experts". You need that independent authority overseeing things to make sure it's all above board.
I don't think the US industry needs a federal park equivalent of our HSE though. We're a small country, so it works for us. Maybe some better guidance, but let's face it, the deaths and injuries in the US on parks is a grain of sand next to a boulder of other avoidable deaths and injuries in the US. However, it's much more newsworthy than drunk drivers, gun accidents and poverty because these people are meant to be having fun!!!
