Read Online Disney Declassified: Tales of Real Life Disney Scandals, Sex, Accidents and Deaths by Aaron Goldberg - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Aaron Goldberg
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or her everyday life. Accidents and incidents are not avoided just people because they are on vacation. As the top family vacation destination in the world, no place has more of a focus on them than Disney, especially when it comes to accidents, crimes, and death.
In the heavily-regulated society that we live in today, most people are surprised to learn that there are no uniform safety standards at the federal level in regards to the large theme parks across the country, and the parks would like to keep it that way. There is the Consumer Product Safety Commission that oversees traveling amusements like fairs and carnivals, but permanent theme and amusement parks are self-governing in regards to federal oversight. At the state level, things are different, yet similar. California and Florida have state agencies. In California it is the Department of Industrial Relations. In Florida it’s the Department of Agriculture—Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection.
The Florida agency inspects all rides of permanent or temporary nature, except for theme parks that have more than 1,000 employees and their own full-time inspectors. Obviously, Walt Disney World falls into the exempt category here; however, in 2002, Disney and the other major theme parks in the state entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Florida Department of Agriculture. The MOU requires quarterly reporting of any serious ride-related injuries and immediate reporting of fatalities. The MOU also performs biannual site visits, consultations, and reviews of the safety programs at Florida's permanent amusement facilities.
Over in California, home to Disneyland, the park was also self-governing for safety from 1955 until 1999. In 2000, a Theme Park Inspection bill—California's Permanent Amusement Ride Safety Law—was enacted allowing for the state’s Department of Industrial Relations to annually inspect permanent theme parks; thus, Disneyland is inspected by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health that performs ride inspections, operational and documentation audits, along with maintaining public reports on any accident requiring more than first aid.
Regardless of the state or federal involvement, when it comes to safety, the house of mouse’s reputation and business model relies heavily on safety. An accident or tragic event hits the media and, regardless of cause, brings unwanted publicity onto their theme parks; hence, Disney has a pretty thorough and detailed safety protocol for their attractions. According to Disney’s executive vice president for facilities and operations management, “you take care of the attraction like your family goes on every ride.”
With that in mind, Disney spends hours each night inspecting every ride after the park closes. Once the last guest is gone, maintenance crews descend on each attraction. The crews perform inspections of ride vehicles and tracks based upon Disney’s daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly maintenance checklist. They look for wear and potential mechanical problems. The ride engineers and maintenance workers perform their tasks, and by the end of their shift, just mere hours before thousands descend on the parks again, the attractions are powered up and run through their paces again before any guests can climb aboard. All of this preventive and corrective maintenance equates to roughly 1,000 daily hours of inspection time, on all attractions.
Disney’s diligences with safety, along with many of their cohorts in the industry are doing a commendable job. Just take a look at the numbers: you have a better chance of being seriously injured by a bee sting (1 in 79,842), being struck by lightening (1 in 34,906), or mauled by a dog (1 in 144,899) than being seriously injured on a ride at a theme park.
According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the chance of being seriously injured on a ride at a fixed-site park in the U.S. is 1 in 24 million.
In the heavily-regulated society that we live in today, most people are surprised to learn that there are no uniform safety standards at the federal level in regards to the large theme parks across the country, and the parks would like to keep it that way. There is the Consumer Product Safety Commission that oversees traveling amusements like fairs and carnivals, but permanent theme and amusement parks are self-governing in regards to federal oversight. At the state level, things are different, yet similar. California and Florida have state agencies. In California it is the Department of Industrial Relations. In Florida it’s the Department of Agriculture—Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection.
The Florida agency inspects all rides of permanent or temporary nature, except for theme parks that have more than 1,000 employees and their own full-time inspectors. Obviously, Walt Disney World falls into the exempt category here; however, in 2002, Disney and the other major theme parks in the state entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Florida Department of Agriculture. The MOU requires quarterly reporting of any serious ride-related injuries and immediate reporting of fatalities. The MOU also performs biannual site visits, consultations, and reviews of the safety programs at Florida's permanent amusement facilities.
Over in California, home to Disneyland, the park was also self-governing for safety from 1955 until 1999. In 2000, a Theme Park Inspection bill—California's Permanent Amusement Ride Safety Law—was enacted allowing for the state’s Department of Industrial Relations to annually inspect permanent theme parks; thus, Disneyland is inspected by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health that performs ride inspections, operational and documentation audits, along with maintaining public reports on any accident requiring more than first aid.
Regardless of the state or federal involvement, when it comes to safety, the house of mouse’s reputation and business model relies heavily on safety. An accident or tragic event hits the media and, regardless of cause, brings unwanted publicity onto their theme parks; hence, Disney has a pretty thorough and detailed safety protocol for their attractions. According to Disney’s executive vice president for facilities and operations management, “you take care of the attraction like your family goes on every ride.”
With that in mind, Disney spends hours each night inspecting every ride after the park closes. Once the last guest is gone, maintenance crews descend on each attraction. The crews perform inspections of ride vehicles and tracks based upon Disney’s daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly maintenance checklist. They look for wear and potential mechanical problems. The ride engineers and maintenance workers perform their tasks, and by the end of their shift, just mere hours before thousands descend on the parks again, the attractions are powered up and run through their paces again before any guests can climb aboard. All of this preventive and corrective maintenance equates to roughly 1,000 daily hours of inspection time, on all attractions.
Disney’s diligences with safety, along with many of their cohorts in the industry are doing a commendable job. Just take a look at the numbers: you have a better chance of being seriously injured by a bee sting (1 in 79,842), being struck by lightening (1 in 34,906), or mauled by a dog (1 in 144,899) than being seriously injured on a ride at a theme park.
According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the chance of being seriously injured on a ride at a fixed-site park in the U.S. is 1 in 24 million.
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