Legislator Announces Amusement Park Bill

A Northern California legislator came here Tuesday to announce yet another legislative attempt to force state government oversight of California’s 71 amusement parks.

Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) said he will introduce legislation this week to address growing concerns about accountability at the parks, compounded by the death of a Disneyland patron in December.

“We can make a difference that will avoid future tragedies and deaths,” Torlakson said at a press conference on Santa Monica Pier, which houses one of those amusement parks. The state requires safety inspections “for elevators. We do it for ski lifts. We do it for the restaurants in the parks. But for rides themselves, for mechanical safety, for the training of employees, there are no regulations.”

Torlakson said his California Permanent Amusement Rides Safety Act would require state inspections of rides and machinery, employee safety training, proof of insurance and the creation of a public reporting system for injuries.

California is one of 10 states that have no regulatory authority over permanent amusement parks; the parks have no responsibility to report injuries or accidents.

“Portable carnivals--that’s an area where California has regulated for over 30 years,” Torlakson said. “The area where we don’t ask questions is for fixed amusement parks.”

California, home to six of the 15 most popular amusement parks in the nation, leads all states in amusement park fatalities. Fourteen people have died in California parks in the past 25 years. Florida, which has nearly double the number of park patrons, has had one death in the same period.

Torlakson introduced a similar bill in 1998, after a student was killed and 32 of her classmates injured in a June 1997 water slide collapse at Waterworks USA in Concord. The bill died after facing fierce lobbying by the amusement park industry.