Many directions for inspections

At the North Carolina State Fair this year, the ride inspection process was thrust into the spotlight when 11 of the 107 rides brought in by Wade Shows — which was playing in the state for the first time — had yet to be certified by noon on opening day.

North Carolina has some of the most stringent ride safety regulations in the nation, operating under a "100% rule" that requires all rides to comply completely with manufacturer's specifications to pass inspection. It could be something relatively minor, something on which other states' inspectors would sign off.

So reporters bombarded Jonathan Brooks, chief inspector of the state labor department's amusement ride division, with the question: Does North Carolina's 100% rule mean that other states' programs are not up to par?

"It agitates me when the media tries to compare one state's statutes with another state's statutes. It's like comparing apples to oranges," he says. He notes that Oklahoma, where Wade played the state fair in Oklahoma City before Raleigh, has one of the best programs in the country.

"Their statutes and processes are different. It doesn't mean that they're not safe," says Brooks, adding that Wade is an excellent show that worked diligently to get all the rides in Raleigh certified within a week.



'fine variances'

Don Hankins, Oklahoma's chief inspector, points out that "even with the best of programs there are going to be fine variances." As president of the Council for Amusement and Recreational Equipment Safety — which was founded to share information among state ride officials and move toward standard rules and procedures — he understands that it's frustrating for the show owner who goes from state to state.

"We've made some progress," he says, "but the downside is it's a very slow process, almost like snails. You're dealing with 50 different state legislatures. Sometimes it can get as silly as cultural differences."

Wade plays events in 14 states, including the Michigan State Fair, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and the South Florida Fair. "I'm for whatever system makes rides the safest," show owner Frank Zaitshik says. He cites an estimated 15 million riders and fewer than 10 reportable incidents to the show's insurance company per year during the past five years as proof that his reliance on in-house safety experts, various state inspectors and third-party inspectors is working.

"I'd love to encourage our national trade association to gather data and compare all the inspection processes and see if one method makes a ride safer than another method," Zaitshik says.

According to Jim Barber, communications chairman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials, "The biggest problem in the inspection of amusement rides is the wide variation in what's required and how it's enforced state to state."

The organization developed a test to certify safety inspectors in 1994 and now has 409 Level I inspectors and 99 Level II inspectors on the roster. Barber, one of 50 Level III certified inspectors (the highest level; Oklahoma's Hankins is one, too), spent 28 years as a New York State official and now does third-party inspections in more than a dozen states.

"We look at things from maybe a different perspective than the carnival's own inspectors or the state inspectors, so they get an extra pair of eyes out there," says Barber, who notes that insurance company inspections are especially important in the 10-12 states with no formal inspection programs.

Top carnivals rely on full-time safety directors to navigate a thicket of rules and regulations. Amusements of America's William "Billy Bobs" Costagliola (a Level III who also serves as NAARSO's director of education) knows that Kentucky does a thorough electrical inspection, Ohio emphasizes the mechanical and that AofA's home state of New Jersey has engineers as well as inspectors on its staff.

As for his NAARSO role, Costagliola says, "We try to get everyone on the same page as to what needs to be looked at in a particular ride. If you have a knowledgeable inspector, it's good for everybody, versus if you have a building official who comes out to inspect a ride that he knows nothing about."



tar heel techies

Les "Corky" Powers, owner of Powers Great American Midways, notes that North Carolina can afford the tools and training that other states don't have because its inspection program has been self-supporting since 2001. So, it doesn't need to rely on taxpayers or the state's general fund.

"Every inspector in North Carolina has a Nextel phone so they are in constant communication with their supervisors and a laptop computer downloaded with all of the service bulletins and manuals. If there's a question, they can just bring it up," says Powers, a member of the state's amusement device advisory board.

New this year were fiber-optic scopes to examine rides' inner structures and a state-certified (soon-to-be federally certified) apprenticeship program.

The North Carolina program, which brings in a great deal of revenue from inspecting elevators, has 30 inspectors, and 23 were in Raleigh. They conduct more than 28,000 inspections annually. These are huge numbers compared with other states. It charges $30 for children's rides and $60 for adult rides per setup. To compare, New York charges an annual fee of $100 per ride, though it does inspections at every setup, while South Carolina charges $50-$250 per ride for one required annual inspection.

NAARSO's Barber cautions against raising inspection fees to make a program self-sufficient. "It would have the effect of raising ride fees and killing the goose that makes the fairs work," he says. At the same time, he believes every state should have some type of program to inspect rides at a number of setups.

Independent ride owner Michael Wood (a Level III) of Wood Entertainment learned the business from his father, F.G. "Red" Wood, who helped draft Michigan's pioneering ride regulation law in 1966 and establish NAARSO in 1987.

"He felt that regulation was going to come eventually," Wood says, "so why not help make the rules rather than just complain about the ones that are there?"

Wood believes there needs to be more consistency and uniformity among states. "The only problem is, who is going to pay for it? We're giving away too much already. Regulation is one of the few things that's going to bring the business back to center," he predicts.

In Germany, where ride owners give up significantly less percentage to the fairs, he notes, regulations hold ride owners to a much higher standard, but it is a costly procedure roughly equal to 10% of the ride's original cost.

In the U.S., he adds, "every jurisdiction's got its little pet peeve, so throughout the course of my operating season, the whole spectrum pretty much gets covered."

Says Bob Johnson, president of the Outdoor Amusement Business Assn.: "We have federal OSHA laws that dictate worker rules and regulations, then the states took over the responsibility for federal OSHA requirements. Maybe we could have something like that for amusement rides. We might be a lot better off. It might be a lot less bureaucracy and paperwork for the carnival industry."

According to Wayne Pierce, counsel for the OABA, ride legislation is generally enacted in reaction to accidents. "It's hard to write anything on a blank slate," he says, citing Kansas Rep. Tom Sloan, who tried twice to get ride legislation passed after his wife learned in an article in Redbook that her state was among several that has no regulation.

The OABA, along with Kansas' Ottaway Amusements, testified in favor of the legislation, according to the show's co-owner, Chris Flattery, who also is an attorney.

"They wanted ride regulation, but they didn't want to spend the money to do it," Flattery recalls. "So what we proposed to them — and the city of Wichita has somewhat followed this recently — was to accept other certificates that were NAARSO approved." The measure never made it out of the committee.

Ottaway has about a half-dozen spots in Oklahoma, where rides are inspected by the state. In Kansas, Flattery's nephew Brent Ottaway, 23, who has Level I certification, helps with the self-inspection.

"People probably think, you guys don't want that additional expense for your business," Flattery says. "But we would like to see (Kansas) adopt this, because they can do it at a minimal cost. We stress safety because we know it's good for business." o