http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=...&id=5500712

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=...&id=5500712

Does anyone think that there have been more accidents at parks this year or is the news just more sensitive to it after the accident at SFKK?

It certainly has not been a good year... and there may well be more attention paid once a bad trend seems to start......

Here is an interesting site with good information about ride accidents. According to this site the SFKK happened first. I guess the point I'm trying to make is it seems the news is covering these types of accidents more than they normally would. I didn't know if it might be because of the high profile accident at SFKK. It just seems a little odd that a child drowning at a wave pool made national news.

http://www.rideaccidents.com/

OMG. LOTS OF THINGS ON RIDES THIS YEAR

The Consumer Product Safety Commission produces a report annually that were either killed or had to visit an emergency room while visiting a fixed or mobile amusement ride.

The 2005 report is the newest at the moment and available on the CPSC website. I should point out that they only provide statistics and do not go into depth on fixed site attractions. My understanding is that they only have jurisdiction over mobile attractions.

Here are some good quotes then I will give some statistics at the end...

"There was no statistically significant trend, positive or negative, for mobile

amusement ride injuries over the period from 1997 to 2004."

"Inflatable ride injuries had a statistically significant upward trend over the period

from 1997 to 2004."

"From 1987 to 2002, for mobile and fixed-site amusement rides combined, there were

an estimated 4.4 amusement-ride fatalities per year. When this report was prepared,

CPSC had reports of 5 amusement ride fatalities in 2004 and 5 in 2003. CPSC may

become aware of additional fatalities for the years 2003 and 2004."

"When this report was prepared, CPSC had reports of 4 fatalities from inflatable

amusement rides. These fatalities occurred from 2002 to 2005."

This is for 2004 which is the latest figures from a CPSC document and are from the PDF I linked above.

17,132 injuries total of which 4,602 did not occur on a ride (people running in the park who trip etc), 1,417 which the CPSC could not confirm where it occurred, 1,705 which they are not sure if it occurred on a ride, and now for the interesting figures 1,937 on mobile rides, 2,590 on fixed site rides, and 4,881 on inflatable attractions.

More people needed treatment at an emergency room after riding on an inflatable attraction then fixed site and mobile rides combined. But having said that 2,590 people needed treatment in an emergency room after riding a fixed amusement park attraction. You will never hear about every single one of those problems but its obvious from that large number there could be a lot of them out there. I believe with the huge move to just make every little thing that happens anymore into a news story on the web that we are just seeing a slightly higher percentage of the accidents not that there are more occurring.