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Posted at 2:19 AM EDT (0619 GMT)  Apr. 8th, 2005 -- Disneyland is seeking to overturn a ruling by a California appeals court that it says would hold amusement park rides to higher-then-needed standards. The ruling stems from a tourist who was killed by a brain hemorrhage after riding Disneyland's Indiana Jones ride. The matter is now before the state's Supreme Court.
A ruling in favor of the victim's family would hold ride operators to the same standards as transport operators. State law requires that carriers "use the utmost care and diligence". Currently, the state asks ride operators to use "reasonable" care. Six Flags has sided with Disney. In papers filed with the court, Six Flags states that the higher standards, initially passed in 1872, were designed to protect people from what was considered experimental transportation technology. See The Orlando Sentinel for more.
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slnewbus
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 1670
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Come on. people got injured and a man died. And If I'm not mistaken thunder railroad derailed TWICE. That is unacceptable. It should and has set off an alarm that more needs to be done to keep safety as a #1 priority.
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| 4/8/2005 2:38 PM |
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WildeFyre
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 2967
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But it's not always the operator's fault. How would you feel if you were an operator when an accident happened (that isnt your fault) and someone died? You would be held fully responsible and possibly charged.
The ruling is pretty rough, it'll be hard to keep old operators and get new ones if the stricter standards are placed. Disney and other chains are going to have to try harder to keep their employees.
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| 4/8/2005 10:44 PM |
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CoasterDJ
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 572
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While I agree that a lot needs to be done, the utmost possible when it comes to guest safety, there is such a thing as going too far sometimes. Accidents will happen first of all. Coasters are million dollar toys that if not used with care can injure or kill riders, employees, or others.
But let's not forget that rides are in essence nothing more than very large mechanical devices - and they can break down and malfunction.
That said, do you really want to potentially hold a ride operator liable for something that they have little or no control over. Ride operators can not prevent guests from misbehavin' 100% of the time. They can try, but no one can see everything at every time. Ride operators do not design the ride, so they may not think twice about a part that may come off, or a part that could fail unless it gives some kind of warning.
Bottom line is ride operators are sometimes at fault in their jobs. When they are clearly at fault due to negligence or distractions or what not...then yeah I think it is a fair consideration. But there is a whole host of people that are responsible for every ride from the initial designers all the way down to the park guest - and it is not right to hold ride operators single handedly responsible for things that sometimes may be beyond their control.
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| 4/9/2005 1:26 AM |
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ClicheCoaster
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 61
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First, there's a good article about this here: http://www.magicalmountain.net/WDWNe...1&NewsID=753 />The Common Carrier standard should clearly apply to the monorail and other vehicles used as public transportation through the park and others. If you are driving a vehicle, tram, or monorail you should be responsible for the passengers within and be appropriately licensed and aware of the law. However these should not apply to rides.
You must consider that this court case is from 2000. The other accidents had not occurred yet and may or may not be part of the court's ruling, I'm not sure legally which would be acceptable.
Ultimately it is not fair to hold operators liable when equipment fails because of maintence problems or user stupidity, but there has been a recent trend in doing just that. More than one state is proposing (or has passed) amendments to previous laws that stop school bus inspections and instead expect drivers to be aware of and report problems. If anything goes wrong the problem is the fault of the driver.
In parks this would not improve maintence, which we know is an issue that Disney is currently having from recent accidents but which may not be as obvious only looking at a year 2000 brain aneurysm.
The courts could rule that Disney is ultimately the "operator" of all the rides, and that Disney is liable for all that occurs on them, which is a fair ruling.
They could also rule still that the operators are the ones liable though, which would not solve any of the maintence issues and simply end in a lot of private individuals being sued and park workers being more difficult to find.
But I wouldn't worry because Disney and their lawyers certainly aren't stupid. They will only let this pass if they want to be able to cut back on their liability in accidents which is unfortunately a possibility.
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| 4/9/2005 2:07 AM |
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