Safety Corner - September 2023
Fairground Safety
Safety Corner is a monthly column published in CarnivalWarehouse.com's Amusement Warehouse Magazine written by Worldwide Safety Group's president, Avery Wheelock. Please consider a subscription to Amusement Warehouse Magazine to read this and more about the Carnival, Fair, and Amusement Park Industry.
Wow is it been a hot one this year! Hopefully everyone has had a successful season so far and are ready for fall season to begin. Everyone at Worldwide Safety Group is excited for the beginning of our State Fairs which we are doing even as I type this Article, I’m enjoying the cooler temperatures in Toronto at the CNE before going back to Minneapolis for the Minnesota State Fair, a new client for us this year. Several of our associates have been busy at fairs all over the country. We love what we do and it shows.
Remember that our employees need to be hydrated and given plenty of breaks with all the heat we deal with working outside all day. I have repeatedly said that taking care of the ones that make sure our guests have a pleasant experience is important to the success of any carnival, fair, event or park. The heat is definitely a contributing factor to fatigue and illness, so please, if you haven’t developed a procedure for your employees, get one together.
I have been to many different states so far this year and have encountered different company managers and other state inspectors while performing my work. One thing that I have noticed, is that most all are receptive to learning about ways to make their facility or show or state a safer environment. We strive to educate people as we perform inspections and anyone that knows me knows I KNOW NOTHING! But I do stay at Holiday Inns a lot and it seems to be making me smarter. If I can give one bit of advice to the readers it is to stay humble, remember the job is to get the equipment open as safely and in a timely manner as possible.
When I encounter people that are happy that they issued 24 stop orders so far this season, it is disheartening that one, there is equipment that needed to be closed because it wasn’t safe to operate and two, that the inspector would have the mentality to be proud to shut down a person’s livelihood in some cases just because they could. I say it in all my classes don’t be that inspector that suffers from “Badge Syndrome”, making people do things just because you said so. Have proof of why something shouldn’t be operating. Provide the information, and try and help find a solution instead of saying “Well we closed another one, figure it out and call for a re-inspection”.
Everyone in this great outdoor amusement business is in it to make money I understand it is a business, but we’re also in it to make people happy and let them make memories they will remember for a long time and help to grow the image of family fun at the fair or park.
Sometimes thoughts come to me, and I just have to share them because I do believe in safety through communication, but I don’t believe in safety through selective enforcement — just my thoughts. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Now let’s talk about state fairs. We perform various types of inspections at several fairs throughout the country working in different capacities for either the fair or the carnival. No matter what the job description is, the outcome is always the same, providing a safe environment for the guests. So, I would like to share a few items that we might not think about as far as safety is concerned.
The first thing the guest experiences coming to the fair, besides the smooth roads leading to the fairgrounds, is the parking lots. Depending on if you have paved lots, gravel lots or grassy lots, they all should have smooth walking surfaces without potholes, mud holes or gopher holes. The number one claim in the insurance business is trips and falls and in the parking lots and then on steps afterwards, is where the falls occur. If your fair doesn’t have a safety person checking for these potential exposures, you may consider hiring someone or hiring a private consultant that specializes in these types of inspections.
Once the guests make it onto the fairgrounds there are hundreds or thousands of wires and hoses running in every direction imaginable, creating a potential to trip someone that is looking into their phone or looking at a ride and not where they are walking. These wires and hoses should be arranged in such a way to not create the potential incident.
One area that doesn’t get much attention but, in my experience, should, is the animal barns. There always seems to be watering hoses and cords running to fans every which way in the barns. If you don’t have a system in place to keep these areas neat, you should consider it.
The midways have another set of exposures for incidents. The behind-the-scenes areas should be closed or barricaded off so that people are not walking around in what should be a restricted area. The employee only areas can provide a whole different set of exposures for the guests, and we should do our best to keep the public on the shiny side of the equipment.
The fairgrounds walkways between the exhibit buildings and the midways also should be evaluated for smooth surfaces.
Most fairgrounds have trees growing and as the trees grow their roots sometimes heave the ground up, creating another area of exposure. These are all areas that a safety person would be assessing each year and having repairs or adjustments made to reduce the potential for exposures. Ask yourself, does you company or fair board have someone looking at this stuff?
How about propane tanks? Does anyone look at them on your carnival or at your fair? I see so many food vendors at little events that have grills with propane tanks sitting around and even sometimes being used as tie downs for their pop-up tents. Probably not a good idea to have them be able to be tipped over and possibly break the line on them. I always recommend that any propane tank is secured from tipping over and a sign should be posted “No Smoking”. A lot of Propane suppliers have signage on their rental tanks “Danger Propane”, or “No Smoking”.
Speaking of pop-up tents, does your fair allow them to be used or do you require actual professional tents with tie downs? If they are using stakes for tie downs, are the stakes covered and or painted a bright color to make clearly visible to reduce trip hazards? If allowing the pop-ups, do you have a procedure when high winds come to keep them from flying down the midway.? How about umbrellas at the food stands and sitting areas, are they secured in the base to reduce the potential of them becoming airborne in high winds. All of these are things that are items a safety person should be looking at or developing a plan to look at for your carnival or fair.
Ok enough of the easy stuff, now how about the emergency action plans for evacuating the fair in a severe weather situations?. Does your event have a plan of how to get the people off the grounds or into the large structures on the grounds. These are things we all need to be thinking about. It should be someone’s job to coordinate with local emergency services and practice these plans.
Speaking of working with local emergency services, how about practicing with the fire department how to evacuate the Sky Ride or the Giant Ferris Wheel or a giant Swing Tower? Several carnivals do just that at large fairs and it has helped make them better prepared for an incident that they hope never happens. If you have large rides on your midway, do you have written evacuation procedures and are they posted at the controls for the hydraulics or pneumatics for bringing the ride down to evacuate the riders. All these are things we should all be thinking of practicing. Evacuations we talked about last month, but it is so important to be prepared in case something does happen we don’t look like, we have no idea what to do when the crowd is going Facebook Live with what’s happening at the fair.
So, we have covered a lot of areas to keep an eye on, to help promote safety at the fair this month. Hopefully, I have got you thinking about ways to make your company better. I learn every day and I hope each one of our readers does as well. There are so many other areas to look at on fairgrounds for exposures, from the grandstands, to the pulling rings to the free act stages, to the portable bleachers. We will save them for another edition of the Safety Corner.
As a side note, I get asked by many people how do you get to be a third party inspector, and I tell them, “well you should first have a mechanical background to understand some of the equipment, but you also need to work with people that are doing it and be trained on the job, as well as go to the safety seminars that are offered by several different organizations such as NAARSO and AIMS”. Not everything can be taught in a classroom, or from reading a book or a manual. You have to physically be in the field looking at the equipment. There are so many older inspectors retiring and not many new guys coming into the field. This is an awfully hard way to make an easy living, but I love it, and thankfully ,I have a large group of associates that love it as well. So, if you have ever thought about becoming an inspector, reach out to a company that does that type of work, and ask about apprenticeship, I’m sure that my colleagues in the industry are looking for more associates, just like we are all the time, adding new talent to help keep our industry as safe as we can. Just a thought and I had to share it.
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!”
Remember that our employees need to be hydrated and given plenty of breaks with all the heat we deal with working outside all day. I have repeatedly said that taking care of the ones that make sure our guests have a pleasant experience is important to the success of any carnival, fair, event or park. The heat is definitely a contributing factor to fatigue and illness, so please, if you haven’t developed a procedure for your employees, get one together.
I have been to many different states so far this year and have encountered different company managers and other state inspectors while performing my work. One thing that I have noticed, is that most all are receptive to learning about ways to make their facility or show or state a safer environment. We strive to educate people as we perform inspections and anyone that knows me knows I KNOW NOTHING! But I do stay at Holiday Inns a lot and it seems to be making me smarter. If I can give one bit of advice to the readers it is to stay humble, remember the job is to get the equipment open as safely and in a timely manner as possible.
When I encounter people that are happy that they issued 24 stop orders so far this season, it is disheartening that one, there is equipment that needed to be closed because it wasn’t safe to operate and two, that the inspector would have the mentality to be proud to shut down a person’s livelihood in some cases just because they could. I say it in all my classes don’t be that inspector that suffers from “Badge Syndrome”, making people do things just because you said so. Have proof of why something shouldn’t be operating. Provide the information, and try and help find a solution instead of saying “Well we closed another one, figure it out and call for a re-inspection”.
Everyone in this great outdoor amusement business is in it to make money I understand it is a business, but we’re also in it to make people happy and let them make memories they will remember for a long time and help to grow the image of family fun at the fair or park.
Sometimes thoughts come to me, and I just have to share them because I do believe in safety through communication, but I don’t believe in safety through selective enforcement — just my thoughts. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Now let’s talk about state fairs. We perform various types of inspections at several fairs throughout the country working in different capacities for either the fair or the carnival. No matter what the job description is, the outcome is always the same, providing a safe environment for the guests. So, I would like to share a few items that we might not think about as far as safety is concerned.
The first thing the guest experiences coming to the fair, besides the smooth roads leading to the fairgrounds, is the parking lots. Depending on if you have paved lots, gravel lots or grassy lots, they all should have smooth walking surfaces without potholes, mud holes or gopher holes. The number one claim in the insurance business is trips and falls and in the parking lots and then on steps afterwards, is where the falls occur. If your fair doesn’t have a safety person checking for these potential exposures, you may consider hiring someone or hiring a private consultant that specializes in these types of inspections.
Once the guests make it onto the fairgrounds there are hundreds or thousands of wires and hoses running in every direction imaginable, creating a potential to trip someone that is looking into their phone or looking at a ride and not where they are walking. These wires and hoses should be arranged in such a way to not create the potential incident.
One area that doesn’t get much attention but, in my experience, should, is the animal barns. There always seems to be watering hoses and cords running to fans every which way in the barns. If you don’t have a system in place to keep these areas neat, you should consider it.
The midways have another set of exposures for incidents. The behind-the-scenes areas should be closed or barricaded off so that people are not walking around in what should be a restricted area. The employee only areas can provide a whole different set of exposures for the guests, and we should do our best to keep the public on the shiny side of the equipment.
The fairgrounds walkways between the exhibit buildings and the midways also should be evaluated for smooth surfaces.
Most fairgrounds have trees growing and as the trees grow their roots sometimes heave the ground up, creating another area of exposure. These are all areas that a safety person would be assessing each year and having repairs or adjustments made to reduce the potential for exposures. Ask yourself, does you company or fair board have someone looking at this stuff?
How about propane tanks? Does anyone look at them on your carnival or at your fair? I see so many food vendors at little events that have grills with propane tanks sitting around and even sometimes being used as tie downs for their pop-up tents. Probably not a good idea to have them be able to be tipped over and possibly break the line on them. I always recommend that any propane tank is secured from tipping over and a sign should be posted “No Smoking”. A lot of Propane suppliers have signage on their rental tanks “Danger Propane”, or “No Smoking”.
Speaking of pop-up tents, does your fair allow them to be used or do you require actual professional tents with tie downs? If they are using stakes for tie downs, are the stakes covered and or painted a bright color to make clearly visible to reduce trip hazards? If allowing the pop-ups, do you have a procedure when high winds come to keep them from flying down the midway.? How about umbrellas at the food stands and sitting areas, are they secured in the base to reduce the potential of them becoming airborne in high winds. All of these are things that are items a safety person should be looking at or developing a plan to look at for your carnival or fair.
Ok enough of the easy stuff, now how about the emergency action plans for evacuating the fair in a severe weather situations?. Does your event have a plan of how to get the people off the grounds or into the large structures on the grounds. These are things we all need to be thinking about. It should be someone’s job to coordinate with local emergency services and practice these plans.
Speaking of working with local emergency services, how about practicing with the fire department how to evacuate the Sky Ride or the Giant Ferris Wheel or a giant Swing Tower? Several carnivals do just that at large fairs and it has helped make them better prepared for an incident that they hope never happens. If you have large rides on your midway, do you have written evacuation procedures and are they posted at the controls for the hydraulics or pneumatics for bringing the ride down to evacuate the riders. All these are things we should all be thinking of practicing. Evacuations we talked about last month, but it is so important to be prepared in case something does happen we don’t look like, we have no idea what to do when the crowd is going Facebook Live with what’s happening at the fair.
So, we have covered a lot of areas to keep an eye on, to help promote safety at the fair this month. Hopefully, I have got you thinking about ways to make your company better. I learn every day and I hope each one of our readers does as well. There are so many other areas to look at on fairgrounds for exposures, from the grandstands, to the pulling rings to the free act stages, to the portable bleachers. We will save them for another edition of the Safety Corner.
As a side note, I get asked by many people how do you get to be a third party inspector, and I tell them, “well you should first have a mechanical background to understand some of the equipment, but you also need to work with people that are doing it and be trained on the job, as well as go to the safety seminars that are offered by several different organizations such as NAARSO and AIMS”. Not everything can be taught in a classroom, or from reading a book or a manual. You have to physically be in the field looking at the equipment. There are so many older inspectors retiring and not many new guys coming into the field. This is an awfully hard way to make an easy living, but I love it, and thankfully ,I have a large group of associates that love it as well. So, if you have ever thought about becoming an inspector, reach out to a company that does that type of work, and ask about apprenticeship, I’m sure that my colleagues in the industry are looking for more associates, just like we are all the time, adding new talent to help keep our industry as safe as we can. Just a thought and I had to share it.
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!”
