Disney Tragedy Reflects Experts’ Latest Worries

Experts on amusement park rides called this weekend for adopting recommendations to train park workers to shut down rides immediately after an accident and stay with the injured person.

In addition, the experts at a national conference in San Diego called the lap-bar restraint a mostly psychological safety device that does little to physically restrain passengers.

The issues of lap-bar safety and ride-operator response have emerged as concerns after 4-year-old Brandon Zucker was severely injured Sept. 22 on Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin at Disneyland. Brandon remained in critical condition Sunday at UCI Medical Center after he toppled from a ride car he shared with his mother and brother and was caught under the following car.

His parents have kept vigil at their son’s bedside. On Sunday, David and Victoria Zucker released a statement thanking well-wishers for their concern.

“We hope no one else ever has to go through an experience like this,” they said. “We used to worry what we’d do if anything bad ever happened. We found an inner strength we didn’t know we had.

Thank you very much. Please continue your prayers for Brandon.”

Flowers, cards, phone calls and donations have poured in to the hospital for Brandon and his family, residents of Canyon Country in northern Los Angeles County. The boy has remained in a drug-induced coma since the accident.

The comments on training of ride operators and whether lap bars keep passengers safe emerged at this weekend’s meeting of the Amusement Rides and Devices Committee of the American Society for Testing and Materials, a group that writes and publishes safety standards on anything from surgical instruments to nuclear power plants to amusement park rides. The conference drew carnival and park owners from Anaheim to Orlando, Fla., along with ride engineers and designers.

Conference participants avoided specific references to the accident on the Roger Rabbit ride. Investigators have said they intend to look at the ride’s lap bars as part of their probe of the accident.

Last week, two Disneyland patrons who tried to free Brandon from under the ride car said that while several bystanders tried to lift the vehicle, they saw no ride operators or other employees at the accident scene. After some minutes, the two witnesses said, Disney maintenance workers arrived and raised the vehicle by lifting floorboards.

At the conference, the lack of specific discussion of the Roger Rabbit ride was due in part to professional courtesy and lack of clear explanations, participants said.

“I didn’t expect there to be any discussion on it when I got here,” said Jeremy Aldrich, a Florida amusement park consultant. “Most of the stuff involved is so proprietary that most people know not to ask each other about it.”

Ray Gomez, Disneyland spokesman, declined to comment on the conference or on the workers’ response, citing the ongoing investigation. Last week, Gomez said the ride operators followed Disneyland procedures.

At Sunday’s conference, some experts said they believe ride operators at parks nationwide frequently lack appropriate training.

“I’ve seen places where they’ll just grab someone off the street and tell them to press the green button to make a ride go and the red button to make it stop,” complained amusement park inspector Ken Martin, of Virginia. “That’s all the training they get.”

Martin was among a group that advocated that the association adopt a list of recommendations for training amusement park employees--particularly in response to customer injuries. Among other things, proposed recommendations call for workers to shut down rides immediately, stay with the injured person at all times and never treat a customer for injuries the employee is not trained to deal with or move the victim of a suspected back or neck injury. Witnesses said the ride operators in the Disneyland accident did indeed wait for the park’s medical personnel to arrive to begin emergency medical care.

Some Park Owners See Too Many Rules

Some amusement park owners at the San Diego conference spoke against adopting those ride-operator recommendations, saying they would add to an already confusing mix of guidelines from the government and theme park associations. Others said they have guidelines of their own that are specific to their attractions.

The backers of the recommendations will draw them up more formally for consideration by the testing association’s entire Amusement Rides and Devices Committee. The committee has been working on the issue for two years.

Engineers and ride designers at the conference talked about safety restraints on rides, from lap bars to over-the-shoulder straps. Several engineers agreed that lap bars are intended to serve a psychological function, reminding passengers to stay in their seats but allowing them to adjust their position and steady themselves by hanging on.

“Let’s face it, a lap bar is not a restraint,” said Richard Brown, a Huntington Beach specialist in orthopedic biomechanics and a 28-year designer and consultant for the amusement ride industry. “A lap bar is a lot of things, but it is truly not a restraint.”

In his ride car at Disneyland, Brandon Zucker was sitting closest to a cut-out doorway, his mother and 6-year-old brother, Nicholas, to his left. Some experts say lap bars present special problems when a child is riding with an adult, because the bar adjusts to the larger person’s lap, leaving room for the child to wriggle about.

Investigators with the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health have said their agency is focusing on the ride’s design, including the lap bar and open doorway.

Edward Pribonic, a Seal Beach engineering consultant, agreed that lap bars do little to restrain passengers. However, in an interview, he said he could not see a child being thrown from the ride. “There just isn’t enough force generated by the Roger Rabbit ride to eject someone,” Pribonic said.

Lap bars have emerged as safety issues in other accidents as well.

Earlier this year, a boy spilled out of a spinning car, with lap bars, on the Men in Black ride at Universal Studios Florida. The fantasy ride features vehicles that spin wildly when attacked by aliens. The boy, who was riding with his father, was sitting on the car’s open side, as Brandon had been on the Disneyland ride. The father managed to rescue his son, and Universal Studios quickly added seat belts to the lap bars on the ride.

Three years ago, a 4-year-old girl died in Las Vegas after being flung from the car of a spinning ride she shared with her 10-year-old sister. Although the lap bar fit the older child, there was enough wiggle room for the younger girl to be thrown while trying to stand up during the ride. In that case, the rider’s behavior was considered by investigators to be the cause of the accident.

Still, the ride no longer operates. “The business chose to lock it up somewhere,” said Rita Mincavage, of the Clark County, Nev., Department of Buildings.

Gauging Purpose of Ride Restraints

Engineers say they have long struggled with the issue of whether restraining systems are meant to “protect customers from themselves” by keeping them from trying to exit the ride.

Pribonic said that’s not the point of the restraints. “The restraining systems aren’t supposed to hold you against your will,” he said. “They’re really to keep a person safe against the forces generated by the ride.”

The Amusement Rides and Devices Committee, founded 24 years ago, meets regularly to discuss how to standardize safety regulations.

“Everyone wants to avoid accidents and deaths,” said ride designer Brown from Huntington Beach. “Even the most blackhearted individual in this business wants to make sure no one dies. Death is bad for business.”

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Times staff writers Jessica Garrison and Meg James contributed to this report.

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