So, it’s finally summer and amusement parks, fairs, carnivals are all in full swing. Up north it’s still cool at night, but people are excited to get out and head to the parking lot carnival or the local amusement parks. I have been in the New England area for several Amusement Park pre-opening insurance inspections lately and have seen a few things that I would like to talk about in this month’s edition of the Safety Corner.

When the season starts let’s remember the number one claim that we have in the amusement industry insurance world is? Drum roll please! You guessed it trips and falls. The leading edges of steps and transitions should have been highlighted in the off season, but we still find them worn off and not painted yet but, we are now open for the season. Remember in some high traffic areas these markings must be maintained to be clearly visible as the season goes on. Its like at the fair, where you want the guests to get the same experience on the last day as they do on the first day.

I know I say it all the time and our readers are probably thinking ok we get it — enough with the highlighting of training and documentation already! Well boys and girls, that is what keeps our industry safer and helps protect us from the men and women with the big billboards that want to get our hard-earned dollars and use them to buy bigger office buildings and feed their families instead of us feeding ours. Just my opinion, and I have a few of them.

I recently went up to the Great State of Maine and saw some of the State inspectors in action getting a small-town amusement park inspected for the season’s opening on Memorial Day weekend. I am proud to say that some of those guys were recent students this past year at several of the classes I instructed at the annual NAARSO safety seminar. It is great to see some of the lessons that get instructed at the safety seminars being applied.

For any of the attendees of this past year’s NAARSO study review class, you may remember our buddy “Bubbles” from the ABCs of Fire extinguishers. I got to visit with him for a bit and was glad to see him, he shared why he is so slow doing his job. He told me he was 12 year old before he got a birthmark. If you can’t laugh while doing your job, you shouldn’t be doing it.

Now onto what we were talking about. Summer is here, and we have all our operator’s trained for the rides they operate, we have a program in place to train new hires properly and document training, and we are also making sure we are documenting all the maintenance that has been done since the start of the season. Remember, if you didn’t document it, you didn’t do it.

Please keep in mind that some areas of the country can become extremely hot during the season and our employees at the outdoor amusement parks and traveling shows are working in the heat all day long. The company should have a policy or procedure for routine breaks and reminders to the employees to stay hydrated. Several companies provide water coolers for the employees in break areas or even have a person go around passing out water to the employees. If your company doesn’t have something like this in place, maybe you should consider it.

The permanent parks that we get to see have some unique issues that the traveling shows do not, such as, but not limited to, erosion around the base of rides. I have seen many places where heavy rain over time has washed away the dirt or even rocks from foundation areas and this creates a potential for movement of that support or even a whole section of a ride or device. We investigate these issues as we perform inspections, and you should also investigate if you are in a location that has this potential issue. There are lots of ways to control water flow and I’m not a water diversion expert, but I do think that every problem has a solution, we just need to find it.

Another potential issue I have seen was at a beachfront park that has sand blowing into the ride areas, covering over the jack stand pads. This creates a couple of issues, one being you can’t see what you’re looking at when doing daily inspections. It also creates the potential for water to accumulate in the sand and create corrosion on the parts that are covered. If your park or temporary carnival is near this potential hazard, be mindful and create a plan to minimize the amount of sand or even dirt that is covering components of the structure.

Corrosion is also a big area of concern in our industry, and it doesn’t matter what part of the country you are in, you can get corrosion of the structure of the rides and devices. How you address the corrosion is the issue I would like to briefly discuss. We do inspections for several companies that own amusement parks or carnival rides that travel near the coasts or travel by ship that are exposed to saltwater air on a regular basis.

With most amusement ride manufacturers now requiring annual corrosion inspections, we are seeing more and more areas of concern and learning about more ways to combat the corrosion. Several companies have routine washing of the rides to clean off the salt. Other companies are using products that they apply to the surfaces to keep corrosion from starting or spreading. One product I never knew existed until recently is Cavity Wax. It is used to coat the parts and keep the salt air off them. I understand there are other uses for it as well, but that’s for a different kind of article.

Painting surfaces and removing bubbling paint and areas of corrosion is still the best way to combat material loss and preserve the structural integrity of the ride or device. Routine inspections are always the best way to identify problem areas and help address concerns before they become bigger issues than they are.

Next topic is daily inspections being documented and being done at the rides during the inspection and not at the office or at the bench in kiddieland. This is something that we must be aware of. We talk about documentation all the time, but we must actually do what we say. Do not let your company be complacent with pencil whipping the paperwork.

If something is found to be defective during the inspection, make the repairs and then document that you did the repair. Documentation is our friend and proves we have a good system in place for maintaining our equipment and to prove to the judge or jury that we are a top-notch operation and fix problem areas.

If you find something that is a potential issue, and you call the manufacturer, and they say “well that’s never happened”, but we have a kit for that issue, ask someone else that has the same equipment. Chances are it’s happened to them or someone else, maybe it hasn’t become an issue and now they can look out for it. Let’s talk to each other.

During the season as we are traveling around this great country of ours, I hope that my fellow ride inspectors continue to share information with the guys and girls that are out there day in and day out maintaining the equipment. We all learn everyday, at least I know I do, and I don’t claim to know anything. I also hope that the show owners and park owners and all the maintenance personnel in our industry communicate when they learn about an issue so that we can try and keep something from happening that will affect our industry in a negative way.

It’s unfortunate that we have incidents that make us look bad and even though accidents are rare, it still gives the industry a black eye. So please do your part in making a difference at the company you work for, and the industry that supports your livelihood. I know I try to do what I can everyday to keep our industry safe and I do firmly believe in safety through communication.

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!”