Danger: ‘Gray Area’ in Park Law

When Disneyland’s Space Mountain roller coaster slammed to a halt on July 31, park visitors were thrust forward in their seats--jamming necks, splitting lips, trapping a foot, bruising legs and arms.

At the time, state investigators and Disneyland said the injuries to nine passengers were not serious. The state never opened a formal investigation, a decision that underscores a “gray area” surrounding a new state law on amusement park safety. Rules to enforce the law, which took effect in January, have not been approved and will be the subject of a hearing next month.

Jonathan Woodcock, 34, who along with his wife, Julie, was injured in the roller coaster derailment, dismisses the idea that the injuries were minor.

“I got $60,000 in medical debt to prove different,” the St. George, Utah, man said Thursday. “I’ve been in physical therapy for three months and I’m still going, and I’m still out of work because the doctor will not release me to go back. . . . The car we were in literally and physically fell apart.”

Officials believe the Space Mountain car derailed when some bolts broke on a support beam underneath the metal flooring, sending the beam into the car on the track.

After park officials agreed to send suspect bolts to a laboratory for testing and analysis, the state ended plans for a formal investigation, said Richard Stephens, spokesman for the state division of Occupational Safety and Health, the agency responsible for amusement ride accident investigations.

State investigators visited the scene at the time of the accident and consulted with officials from Disneyland and the Anaheim Fire Department on the severity of the injuries, Stephens said.

Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez said Thursday that the exact cause of the accident is still being investigated. “We have not gotten the results back from the lab yet. As soon as we do, we will share those results with OSHA,” Gomez said.

The ride reopened several days after the accident.

Woodcock and his wife were in one of two cars involved in the accident. He said he flew forward with a force so great his face and shoulder broke the headrest in front of him. His wife’s face hit the safety bar and her foot was pinned inside the ride’s flooring.

“The right front wheel derailed, so we were teetering. . . . We sat in the dark for 15 minutes before they ever even got the lights on.” The cars were suspended on the track, 15 feet in the air.

Woodcock said he is still hobbled by eight bulging discs, a dislocated jaw and several loose teeth. He said his wife suffered an injured foot and dislocated ribs. She was trapped on the ride for 45 minutes with her foot caught between floorboards that buckled.

Gomez declined Thursday to comment on the couple’s claims. Woodcock said they have consulted with an attorney but have not filed suit.

Disneyland fulfilled its responsibility under the new law by quickly notifying the state of the Space Mountain accident. Although none of the injuries were life-threatening, nine people--including the Woodcocks--were treated at local hospitals.

Stephens said the agency could still open a formal investigation.

It is the agency’s mission to find the cause of accidents and determine whether an amusement park ride is safe. Since investigators quickly zeroed in on the broken bolts, there might have been little more to investigate, Stephens said.

“Our role is to ensure the safety of the ride. It’s not to find blame or punish someone,” Stephens said.

Without investigation, Woodcock said there is no way of knowing whether something else malfunctioned or if maintenance was lacking.

Consumer advocates and an aide to the state legislator who wrote last year’s law said the state should have been more aggressive.

“It seems in this case it should have been automatic to have an investigation,” said Robert Oakes, spokesman for Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch). “But right now there is this gray area and Cal/OSHA has some discretion during the phase-in period for the regulations.”

Elisa Odabashian, senior analyst for the Consumers Union in San Francisco, said the state should investigate any accident more serious than someone falling down “and scraping their knees.”

“Sometimes a small injury is just a lucky thing,” Odabashian said. “It could have been a disaster. . . . Consumers do deserve some measure of security that the ride they are on is safe, that the operators have been trained, that the mechanisms are working.”

Although Gov. Gray Davis signed Torlakson’s measure a year ago, state officials and industry representatives haggled over the wording of regulations for much of this year. The division of Occupational Safety and Health released its proposed regulations last month and plans a Nov. 20 session in Oakland to hear public testimony on the proposed rules.

The new law requires theme parks to report serious injuries, anything that requires more than ordinary first aid.