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Are parks putting too much risk in thrill rides?

The state doesn't regulate the rides at big theme parks, despite the attempts to make each one bigger, faster and more wild than the last.

By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published June 19, 2005

	[AP photo]
	Mission: Space at Epcot set a new standard for thrill rides in Florida theme parks. For instance, it was the first one to be equipped with airsickness bags.
	[Times file photo: Bill Serne]
	According to court reports, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls at Universal's Islands of Adventure has drawn at least 10 lawsuits from injured riders. The ride ends in a 75-foot plunge at 50 mph.

Every year millions of people flock to Walt Disney World, which touts itself as "The Happiest Celebration on Earth." But for a few families, it is a setting for tragedy.

A 9-year-old riding Pirates of the Caribbean has a thumb severed when it's pinned between two boats. A 4-year-old wanders off and drowns in the moat around Cinderella's Castle.

Now a 4-year-old boy has collapsed and died while riding Epcot's popular new ride, Mission: Space.

As the parents of Daudi Bamuwamye await the results of an autopsy, his death has raised questions about whether the pursuit of bigger thrills by the nation's amusement parks has led to bigger risks for the riders.

Amid growing competition for customers, park owners have begun building high-technology rides that are faster and wilder than before.

When theme park engineers design new rides like Mission: Space, "the goal is controlled fear," said Bill Avery, an Orlando ride safety consultant. "They want to take you to a psychological brink. Your mind thinks it's out of control, but it's not."

Still, some risk is involved.

From 1987 to mid 2004, 64 amusement park ride fatalities were documented by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Five years ago, for instance, William Pollack, 37, of St. Petersburg was midway through the Splash Mountain flume ride when he told friends he felt sick. The ride slowed and he climbed out of his seat. He tried to use the log-shaped boats to cross to the other side, possibly to an exit.

Then the ride started again. Pollack fell in the water, was hit by another boat and died.

Usually only the rare, deadly accidents make headlines. More frequent incidents involve back, leg, foot, head or hand injuries, which might give potential thrill-riders pause.

Ed Normand, an Orlando lawyer, has two suits pending against Universal's Islands of Adventure for clients who say they were injured while riding a flume ride called Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls. The ride ends with a 75-foot plunge at 50 mph.

Recent court filings by Universal indicate the park has been sued by eight other people who said they were injured on that same ride. Universal officials did not respond to a request for comment.

"There's no restraint system," said Normand, whose clients include a 6-year-old girl whose forehead was sliced open. "Then when you get hurt, they claim it's your fault for not holding on tight enough."

Normand has asked a judge to invoke a little-used state law that says if enough people are hurt by a product, it can be declared a public hazard.

"Maybe people shouldn't be getting on these rides, if they're that dangerous," he said.

Since it opened in 2003, Mission: Space has boosted interest in Epcot, long considered the stodgy sibling of Disney's more popular parks. The 4-minute, 20-second ride simulates a flight to Mars using a centrifuge that spins 10 capsules at once. Each capsule seats four people. The G-forces on liftoff are more than double the normal force of gravity.

When amusement park designers plan new rides like Mission: Space, they start off with the concept that's supposed to make this one different from the rest - more thrilling, more amazing.

Then they start calculating how to build it.

"You start with the ride experience, then you go backward into the structure," said Ed Pribonic, former senior design manager for Disney's ride-building arm, Walt Disney Imagineering.

That includes figuring out what it does to riders.

"First they analyze what kind of forces would be exerted on the riders and compare that against the standards," Pribonic said.

The standards for amusement park rides are set by the American Society of Testing and Materials, which figures out requirements for everything from nuclear reactors to sports equipment. The list for amusement park rides, drawn up by industry insiders such as Pribonic, covers such minutiae as the height of guardrails and the maximum forces on a rider going up, down, left, right, backward and forward.

"The standards are really based upon assessing the level of risk," said Steve Elliott, a former Disney engineer who designed Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris. "We know we have some limitations in terms of G-forces to keep a ride safe."

More than 40 states, including Florida, have adopted those standards as law. But the standards don't cover everything, such as a minimum age for riders.

"That's a real gray area," Pribonic said.

On Mission: Space, Disney requires riders to be at least 44 inches tall. That was based on the best fit for the ride's restraints, said Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak.

Although he was 4, Daudi already was 46 inches tall, so he was allowed to ride.

"He didn't violate the riding requirements," Avery said. Given the intensity of the ride, though, "I think about my 4-year-old grandson, and I wouldn't ask him to do that."

While amusement park rides are built to accommodate customers who fit within the most common range of height and weight, often people climb aboard who are not average-sized.

Those people are "going to have a bad experience," Avery said. "A lot of people ride these rides and they get upset stomaches, headaches or bruises."

The standards also rely to some extent on riders exhibiting safe behavior.

"The rider has a lot of responsibility to know what he's getting into," Pribonic said.

That might not be good enough for some states.

Last week, the California Supreme Court ruled that amusement park rides are "common carriers" - a legal category that includes trains, elevators and ski lifts, meaning operators must provide the same degree of care and safety.

The ruling came in the case of a 23-year-old woman who suffered a brain hemorrhage and died after visiting Disneyland on her honeymoon. Her family blames her death on the violent shaking of the Indiana Jones thrill ride.

The "Imagineers" who dreamed up Mission: Space made sure it's different from more traditional Disney rides like It's a Small World.

It's the only one with airsickness bags.

To build it, in 1998 Disney hired a Pennsylvania company called Environmental Tectonics Corp. with expertise in creating flight simulators for the military and the space program.

But in 2001, Disney and Environmental Tectonics executives had a falling out over the $45-million contract. The dispute played out in federal court in 2003, where Environmental Tectonics accused Disney officials of blocking the company from doing crucial safety inspections before the ride's August 2003 opening.

Without those tests, Environmental Tectonics officials warned, "There are increased risks of injury to the public at large."

Hogwash, said Disney officials.

Disney's engineers are "some of the world's most experienced professionals in the area of ride safety," Mike Lentz, executive director of attractions development, said in an affidavit. They thoroughly went over the ride "noting potential hazards and the appropriate means of mitigation," he testified.

The final inspection was certified by an engineer, Susan Richardson, and the ride opened to the public. At the time, Richardson was "a Disney cast member," said company spokeswoman Polak.

Richardson, reached at home last week, declined to comment on how extensive her inspection was.

A new carnival ride must be inspected and approved by a state official, not an employee of the carnival. But Florida officials have long treated the big theme parks differently.

When state lawmakers passed a law regulating carnival rides in 1989, they exempted theme parks with more than 1,000 employees. That means Disney, Universal and Busch Gardens don't have to worry about the state Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection shutting down a ride because of safety concerns.

Four years ago, though, after a series of well-publicized theme-park accidents, the three companies signed an agreement with the state to file quarterly "occurrence reports" on any injuries or deaths.

Since then they have filed reports noting 55 complaints of injuries, illnesses or deaths, ranging from a broken arm on the Dr. Seuss carousel at Universal to a leg fracture at its Wet 'n Wild park.

The reports give no details other than date, time, ride, the age and gender of the rider and a brief note on the injury or illness. State officials do not follow up on the reports unless asked by the park.

"It's the fox guarding the henhouse," said Orlando lawyer Bruce Gibson, who has sued Disney and Universal over ride injuries.

Theme park officials say their safety inspectors are better qualified to examine their complex rides than the state's inspectors.

That may be, Gibson said, but "the fact of the matter is they're still employees of that company. They're not going to shut the ride down. . . . They shut one of those down and they lose a ton of revenue."

There is also no guarantee park officials won't omit some incidents from their reports. For instance, Normand pointed out, despite the number of lawsuits over Ripsaw Falls, Universal has reported only three injuries to the state from that ride.

Mission: Space, which opened in 2003, has been the subject of eight such "occurrence reports," more than any other Florida theme park ride.

Three of the reports concerned riders experiencing chest pains. One noted that a 40-year-old woman was taken to a hospital after fainting. Three listed nausea or "didn't feel well" as the problem. The most recent, before last week's death, was for a 50-year-old man who got dizzy and had an upset stomach.

Disney officials point out more than 8.6-million people have ridden the simulator without serious complaints.

State inspectors do make semiannual site visits, including Epcot about four months after Mission: Space opened. They talked with Disney's safety inspectors, looked over the ride and even tried it out.

"I thought it was a good ride," state inspector Paul Driggers said last week. "I enjoyed it."

Not everyone was so enthusiastic. Longtime theme park enthusiasts Rich and Carol Koster, who for 15 years have run an unofficial Web site for fellow fans called Disney Echo, tried it in 2003.

Afterward, Carol Koster said, "my head felt weird." Other fans logging onto their Web site have reported vomiting and dizziness, sometimes well after the ride ended.

Rich Koster says Disney should have spent its millions on a more family-friendly ride, even if it was less likely to draw away thrill-riders from Universal and other theme parks. And he's not going to let his 9-year-old on Mission: Space. Not yet, anyway.

"I now do not want my son riding that ride until we know it's safe," he said. "I think they ought to have an age restriction, in addition to a height restriction."

Times staff writers Matthew Waite and Alex Leary and researchers Caryn Baird and Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.

[Last modified June 19, 2005, 00:39:12]