This issue is the Gibtown special edition, and it is so exciting to be at the greatest gathering of showpeople in the country. Over the last two years, I have been writing these safety corner articles and have shared my thoughts and sometimes opinions on things, trying to keep our industry as safe as possible. I hope that our readers have implemented some of the ideas I have shared about promoting the safety culture at your company or facility.

What is a “safety culture” you might ask? Well, it is when the entire organization is united in promoting a safe environment for the front-line workers, the behind-the-scenes people, and the guests. To have the people on your team have the same objective, they must believe that it is companywide, it must start at the top. The Owner, President, CEO or the Head Honcho must set the example for everyone that is under their leadership. If you require your people to wear a hard hat you should be wearing one if you are in the work area.

The upper management must enforce all applicable requirements whether they be OSHA requirements for workers or company policies for workers. If there are not any repercussions for not complying with requirements, then the policy is not effective, won't be followed and eventually the Safety Culture turns into a lax culture for practicing a safe work environment.

As we all get ready for the 2024 season, we must plan with all our returning workers and prepare to train the new workers. We have talked about training so many times over the years, and remember, even returning workers must have refresher training. Make sure that you document the training and create the new 2024 folders for the documents. Some companies hire third party companies to come and perform training on things like proper use of “PPE”, personal protective equipment, for example. Does your company have a training program on how to wear a climbing harness, hard hat, steel toed shoes, gloves, and eyewear? Do you have a written policy for when this equipment must be used? If you don't, you should. In some states you can request a courtesy inspection from OSHA to help you develop a program or maybe get some sample programs.
I'm writing this while at the annual AIMS safety seminar and in a couple of weeks, I will be at the NAARSO annual Safety Seminar. When I'm not instructing a class, I'm sitting in a classroom learning and continuing to further my education. I know I will see lots of familiar faces and meet new people that are interested in learning about amusement ride safety. If you haven't been sending your employees or attending one of the industry's safety seminars, you really should consider attending one of them. There is also the Northwestern Showmen's Safety Seminar in Portland, Oregon the week of February 19 through 23, 2024. The seminar takes place at the headquarters of Funtastic Rides in their shop facility. There will be rides assembled inside the building as part of the training and it offers a unique experience for all that attend. Plus, they feed you three meals a day all included in the minimal cost of the seminar. I have been an instructor at this seminar for several years now, and I believe that it is a great seminar that is geared towards carnival workers. The training covers all kinds of areas the set up and tear-down crew need to know as well as the ride operators. If you can send your people to this seminar and are in the portable amusement business, this is a must attend to get some great training.

Enough about training for this issue, now let's talk about all the cool things we are going to see at the Tradeshow in Gibtown. There is everything from new rides, new foods, new food trailers, new teddy bears, new lighting products, and all kinds of suppliers of items related to the great outdoor amusement business. This is also a great opportunity to see people that you haven't seen since last year's trade show. The stories that are told in the breezeway will be some tall tales I'm sure, but they are always entertaining. If you have never attended the trade show I hope you will put it on the list of things to do next year, as it has changed over the years, but is still a great place to come see what's new and get ready for another season.

Some fairs are already in operation in Florida, and this has been a bit of a challenge with the changing state regulations regarding ride inspections and the auditing of the operations of the rides. The state has changed several requirements for signage on the rides and you must be aware of the changes to operate. All safety signage must now include the age restrictions, weight limitations, size restrictions, health restrictions, along with all other safety information. If a manufacturer does not have any of these identified in the manual, the owner must provide the state with a document stating that there is not a restriction applicable to the ride. This must come from the manufacturer or if no manufacturer is available, then it must come from a licensed professional engineer or a qualified inspector. The State of Florida has criteria to be a qualified inspector and in order to perform the third party inspections in accordance with the requirements, you must provide documentation of your certifications and continuing education to be on the list.

I'm not aware of any major changes in any other states in the country, but I would suggest that before you go out to your first spot of the year, you reach out to the state and ask if there is anything that is going to be different in their inspection process for the new year. As part of the application process, they may have already sent out any changes that will take effect. The point is to be aware of the requirements and that will hopefully eliminate any last-minute panic to get the equipment open.

I recently was asked to come and talk with the members of the North Carolina Fair association at the annual convention about safety on the fairgrounds. It was a well-attended talk, and we covered all kinds of areas on the fairgrounds to be aware of potential exposures of incidents or harm to a fairgoer. We have covered those areas in previous issues as well but while I was there, they had a guest speaker talk about planning for transfer of knowledge from one person to another as fair managers retire or any person that performs a duty, whether it be the secretary or the treasurer or any other position in the organization. That got me thinking of how we transfer the knowledge we have in the carnival business and what can be done to preserve the knowledge that we have in the industry. At your company you have people who have been with the company for years and in some cases, they are the only ones that know how to do a job. I want to ask you all to consider thinking about coming up with a way to save the information to be used by future employees or generations. Document the contacts or locations of certain items that only that person knows, so if anything ever happens the information is not lost forever.

A lot of the newer rides have great set up manuals that explain how to assemble the rides but what about the ones that don't? Have you ever thought about creating your own set-up manual and taken pictures of every step or made a video showing how to do the different steps in the process? I know I grew up around rides and was shown how to do things by my dad. Probably like a lot of the families in our business, a lot of things just come naturally to us, but we must preserve how to do these things for the future. I remember as a young man working on setting up the ground mount Eli Ferris Wheel, I was the top guy and climbed up the tower to put in the spoke pins or take them out on teardown and then you would slide down the guide cable and do the next step and climb up again for next spoke. Once I was strong enough, my dad let me do the ropes to pull the spokes and eventually pull up the tower and let down the tower. That took a little more strength and another wrap around the drive hub.

My point of bringing this up is that the skills needed to do those jobs were shown to me firsthand but what do you do if you're not a small family business and you have employees setting up your rides and need to teach how to do it. Is it written anywhere or did you have a step-by-step video of how to put together a ride that doesn't have a manual from the manufacturer? How do you handle the office duties regarding how to calculate the ticket sales or compute the settlement for the committee? Is there a written procedure on how to do the duties of the office somewhere to reference when the secretary that has been with the show forever retires or doesn't come back and goes to work somewhere else?

Now let's tie it to safety. How about the person that handles the daily inspection sheets, or the operator training documentation? Were they trained how to fill out the forms or how your company files the paperwork? We should just be aware of the different duties that go into the operation of the business and figure out a way to preserve how we accomplish all the things that make it run smoothly and adjust as we learn better ways to do things. These are just a few ideas to think about as you prepare for the new season. Maybe you can start documenting how to do the duties as you get back on the road. Does your company have operator training documented and used for every ride so that there is consistent training on how to operate the ride? This makes sure that every operator gets the exact same instruction on how to perform the duties of that position.

To wrap up this month's issue, let's review: try to establish a “Safety Culture” at your company. Make it everyone's responsibility to promote a safe working environment at your company or facility. Documentation again is so important for training and preserving how things are done and who to contact in certain events. Have a succession plan at the company. One thing I have realized, as many others have, is we are all getting older, and hopefully smarter, but we need to preserve that knowledge so that the future leaders of the company don't have to make the same mistakes or try to figure out how to do something that we have already done.

I hope that you gained one piece of information from this short article on safety and can help make our industry safer and better every day. I can be reached via email avery@worldwidesafetygroup.com or at 813-505-3938 for any questions or comments, please feel free to provide feedback to help me better communicate these safety related messages. Remember “Our World Revolves Around Safety!”