Theme Park Regulation Bill Amended Yet Again
An assemblyman pushing a bill to regulate amusement park rides will alter it once again to satisfy its most ardent supporter, a La Jolla woman whose son was injured on a Disneyland ride.
Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) agreed Tuesday to amend his bill after the woman, Kathy Fackler, spoke out the day before against its most recent incarnation.
Fackler wrote a letter to Torlakson and other legislators and vowed to testify against the changes at a hearing today in Sacramento following changes he made in the bill last week.
Fackler broke ranks with Torlakson because she said he had weakened sections of the bill covering outside inspections by state safety engineers and had removed a rider responsibility section.
She also said a new paragraph in the section on accident reporting had a loophole under which the theme park industry could argue they only had to report deaths and catastrophic injuries publicly, instead of all injuries requiring more than first aid.
As it stands now, there is no state law regulating theme parks. The parks are not required to report injuries, and the state has no oversight of ride safety.
The bill would establish standards for ride safety and set up a regulatory scheme for state oversight of permanent amusement parks. If it becomes law, theme park engineers would have to inspect rides annually and file an affidavit with the state attesting to the safety of the rides.
Major details in the bill have changed dramatically several times, always followed by outcry from either the industry or advocates of regulation.
Theme parks, which oppose any regulation, have fought every effort to have outside inspections and requirements for reporting accidents to the state.
Whenever consumer advocates see amendments in the bill they perceive as weakening oversight, they fight back, as Fackler did this week.
Though Torlakson insisted the amendments added late last week did not dilute the bill’s impact, he moved quickly to mollify Fackler. He agreed, for instance, to set higher standards for annual on-site visits by state safety experts.
Fackler said she is satisfied the standards would make up for the loss of a provision for a full, mechanical inspection of the rides.
Fackler was not able to get the rider responsibility section put back in the bill because of problems in its wording that could shift liability for injuries from the park to the person who is hurt.
Still, Fackler said Tuesday, “I’m very happy with the bill.”
Torlakson spokesman Gary Gartner said the bill is evolving as the legislator and his staff learn from safety experts about effective inspection systems.
For example, Gartner said, an expert just told him about a machine that takes what amounts to a cardiogram of a ride to diagnose problems without dismantling it.
