Ride Report Recaps
Ride Report Recaps (RRR) compiles headlines about amusement ride accidents from public sources. Reports are linked and tabulated using a simple coding system to provide a broad overview.
RRR uses media reports as the only available source. Regulatory oversight and reporting thresholds vary from jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and accident reports to regulators are rarely available to the public. Internal reports collected by the owner/operator organization are treated as confidential. Self-reported data from consumers are limited by consumer awareness of the self-reporting platform and language access. Media reports are publicly available, but they are limited.
The presence of a report depends on the news media editor learning of an occurrence and determining it to be newsworthy. As a result, some occurrences may be excluded entirely. The information captured on RRR is vulnerable to the comprehensiveness of information obtained in reporting, and the accuracy of the terminology used in the story. As such, RRR has quantitative and qualitative limitations as a metric of ride safety.
This project scanned news headline compilations from major industry clipping services, and other headlines linked from these reports. Sources included daily news email blasts from IAAPA, ITPS Leisure News, and Amusement Today which link to regional, national, and international media, and cases appearing as “related news” internet links. News reports capture events that captured the attention of a reporter and pass the “newsworthiness” assessment by an editor, and then come to the attention of the clipping service sources, or related-news link sidebars on those articles.
Additional searches were performed as needed to clarify the nature of some reports. As reporting is often incomplete, some clarifying comments may be found here, sometimes documenting implications left between the lines of the reports. However, the blog is not making allegations or providing evidence about any of these cases. Additional headlines located for clarification purposes were also logged, but in the event summary, each event was tabulated once, regardless of the number of headlines about the same event.
This analysis included fatal and non-fatal injuries and no-injury accident events at attractions. Ride stoppage / evacuation cases were excluded as were reports from other attractions such as museums and zoos, and within parks related to non-ride related amenities such as retail, scenery, and transportation, but have been included in the narrative recaps.
These reports do not account for many minor injuries or exposures in parks, as well as more serious occurrences that are not reported in the media.
Some venues attract more attention than others because reporters and editors are already interested in them, and coverage of those venues will reflect more occurrences than neglected venues. Occurrence should be put in perspective of the amount of participation. A respected source for attendance at major attractions is the Theme Index published by the Themed Entertainment Association.
Inclusion Rules
Types of reports excluded:
- Reports that summarize multiple events, e.g., overview reports
- Reports that inform that event or venue is being inspected, has been inspected, how inspections are done, without initial report or update on a specific event
- Ride openings, closings, announcements
- Regulatory programs, legislative changes
- Reports that describe alleged defects in ride equipment without corroborating event
- Commentary on previous concluded litigation (newly filed suits on previous occurrences involving rides are included, noting the date of occurrence)
Venues excluded:
- Boats at marinas linked to parks or venues
- Aquariums and zoos other than rides
- Art galleries, museums
- Ropes courses, climbing walls, Hallowe’en mazes
- Golf courses
- Hotels and off-park retail (e.g., Disney Springs) even if part of theme park resort
- Swimming pools, spas/hot tubs, waterslides at hotels, private homes, municipal recreation centres, and natural bodies of water, even with “waterpark” in name.
- Washrooms, change rooms, restaurants within the venue
- Parking lot, transportation station, or other adjacent facilities such as escalators, parking trams, monorails, ferry boats to and from parks or between lands
- Hot air balloon, including tethered balloons
- Municipal playgrounds and parks
- Offroad vehicle courses
- Observation towers where the ride up and down is not the attraction
Events excluded:
- Stoppage with restart or evacuation, unless an injury was sustained other than heat, dehydration, anxiety, whether due to power outage or sensor-activated ride stop
- Parade related mishaps or character greeting interactions
- Food poisoning, infectious diseases, water quality / public health, Legionnaires
- Patron rejection for disability / eligibility reasons
- Guests fighting, assaulting, or offending each other, use of weapons, indecent exposure, attempted abduction, molestation
- Thefts, break-ins, vandalism, trespassing outside of operating hours
- Bomb threats and other events affecting or threatening public safety/security
- Weather based events, damage, and recovery from e.g., hurricane, earthquake, lightning
- Employee injury events not involving a ride, e.g., struck by delivery truck, electrocuted by streetlamp, fall off roof of building. Injury to employee directly involving a ride, such as struck by ride vehicle, electrocution during assembly, are NOT excluded.
- Patron injury events not involving a ride, e.g., involving landscaping near ride, personal property lockers, fencing, gates outside show building or not at load/unload area. Injury to bystanders, queued patrons, unloading patrons when involving the ride, ride parts and substances, or show building are NOT excluded.
- Fire of adjacent structures, fires during overnight/closures. Fire of ride or show building occurring during ride (e.g., a malfunction) is NOT excluded.