Safety Corner - September 2024
Ride operations safety Balancing, Documentation & Internal Inspections
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.
This month, let's change it up a little and talk about ride operations. It seems like there have been a few incidents in the industry with swing rides lately. These incidents always make the news and that is not what we need to have the public reading or watching on the tv to further make our great industry look bad.
Small swing rides, just like big swing rides, should always be balanced, the same with most rides. If the gate gets open and there are 32 swings and we only load the 20 seats that are closest to the gate then we are going to potentially have an incident, especially if the ground is soft or the blocking is poor, the possibilities are endless from damaging the center bearing to the ride tipping over and possibly hurting someone. I recently was doing some ride operations audits and saw a merry go round being loaded only on the one side. This will cause damage to the center and potentially damage the sweeps depending on the drive unit style. Please remind all operators that the ride should be balanced and to do so every time they load the ride.
I know we have covered this before in ride operator training, but again this seems to be the refresher edition of the safety corner. Checking restraints is another reminder we might want to discuss in our weekly safety meetings or when performing internal operation audits. Everyone can use a refresher on proper operation procedures.
Let's briefly talk about documentation again, I recently was at a restaurant and as I always do when I walk into the men's room, I pull down the baby changing station and look for the strap and buckles to be there and in working order. Well, the buckle was missing on this station. There happened to be a bathroom inspection log clip board hanging on the wall and this brings me to my point. It's called pencil whipping! All the inspection items listed had the famous check mark down the page and from my experience in documentation review they were all done check, check, check in a rapid motion. At the bottom of the page there are initials that only the people working that day will be able to identify. So, no printed name and a check mark that had just been made in previous hours of the day. I always share with the manager of any establishment that I find a broken baby changing strap the potential exposure for a baby falling. So, this is my public service announcement to save the babies.
Pencil whipping can happen on our daily inspection sheets so just a reminder to make sure the inspections are being performed and the documentation is not being done sitting on a bench in front of the ride or at the office steps.
I have another topic that I recently became aware of that I would like to share to help reduce the potential of another incident happening. There are several rock walls that are out there being used at fairs and festivals and in several states, they are regulated and require a certification inspection to operate.
There recently was an incident where the auto belay system did not keep proper tension on the climbing cable and a climber was able to descend without back pressure to keep the cable from becoming slack. Thankfully, this was not a severe injury. I was hired to perform an internal inspection for the owner to see if I could help determine the cause of this incident. After several test climbs and trying to recreate the issue, it happened again and that allowed me to discover the cause. With the help of the staff of this company, I discovered that the wire rope pulley assemblies had the last pulley in the line with the cable that should have been alongside the last pulley and was in the pulley grove behind the safety retainer bolt. This created the potential for the cable to become jammed and stop the auto belay from extending and taking up the slack. The lesson to learn is that no matter who performs the annual climbing cable replacements, all components should be inspected for proper installation.
There are other potential issues with portable rock walls that we could discuss but I just wanted to get you thinking about verifying that if you have one or inspect one that you are looking for potential issues that are not normally listed in the daily inspection logs. Sometimes you must climb in there and give everything a good look over.
These are just a few things to get you thinking about safety. 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!”
Small swing rides, just like big swing rides, should always be balanced, the same with most rides. If the gate gets open and there are 32 swings and we only load the 20 seats that are closest to the gate then we are going to potentially have an incident, especially if the ground is soft or the blocking is poor, the possibilities are endless from damaging the center bearing to the ride tipping over and possibly hurting someone. I recently was doing some ride operations audits and saw a merry go round being loaded only on the one side. This will cause damage to the center and potentially damage the sweeps depending on the drive unit style. Please remind all operators that the ride should be balanced and to do so every time they load the ride.
I know we have covered this before in ride operator training, but again this seems to be the refresher edition of the safety corner. Checking restraints is another reminder we might want to discuss in our weekly safety meetings or when performing internal operation audits. Everyone can use a refresher on proper operation procedures.
Let's briefly talk about documentation again, I recently was at a restaurant and as I always do when I walk into the men's room, I pull down the baby changing station and look for the strap and buckles to be there and in working order. Well, the buckle was missing on this station. There happened to be a bathroom inspection log clip board hanging on the wall and this brings me to my point. It's called pencil whipping! All the inspection items listed had the famous check mark down the page and from my experience in documentation review they were all done check, check, check in a rapid motion. At the bottom of the page there are initials that only the people working that day will be able to identify. So, no printed name and a check mark that had just been made in previous hours of the day. I always share with the manager of any establishment that I find a broken baby changing strap the potential exposure for a baby falling. So, this is my public service announcement to save the babies.
Pencil whipping can happen on our daily inspection sheets so just a reminder to make sure the inspections are being performed and the documentation is not being done sitting on a bench in front of the ride or at the office steps.
I have another topic that I recently became aware of that I would like to share to help reduce the potential of another incident happening. There are several rock walls that are out there being used at fairs and festivals and in several states, they are regulated and require a certification inspection to operate.
There recently was an incident where the auto belay system did not keep proper tension on the climbing cable and a climber was able to descend without back pressure to keep the cable from becoming slack. Thankfully, this was not a severe injury. I was hired to perform an internal inspection for the owner to see if I could help determine the cause of this incident. After several test climbs and trying to recreate the issue, it happened again and that allowed me to discover the cause. With the help of the staff of this company, I discovered that the wire rope pulley assemblies had the last pulley in the line with the cable that should have been alongside the last pulley and was in the pulley grove behind the safety retainer bolt. This created the potential for the cable to become jammed and stop the auto belay from extending and taking up the slack. The lesson to learn is that no matter who performs the annual climbing cable replacements, all components should be inspected for proper installation.
There are other potential issues with portable rock walls that we could discuss but I just wanted to get you thinking about verifying that if you have one or inspect one that you are looking for potential issues that are not normally listed in the daily inspection logs. Sometimes you must climb in there and give everything a good look over.
These are just a few things to get you thinking about safety. 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!”
