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Your responsibilities and
obligations
as the guest of an amusement park: |
When you and your family
and friends are at the local amusement park or carnival, you may not be constantly aware
of it, but you have certain responsibilities to yourself, your friends, your family, the
other park guests and also the amusement park itself. Being surrounded with very
large mechanical equipment and lots of it, you should keep a few things in mind: |
| 1- Rider Responsibility Act. Many states have now adopted a law which basically mandates that
you, as a patron of a park must not do anything foolish or unsafe that would or could
endanger yourself or the other people around you, or you can be charged with a
crime. CLICK HERE to view the Amusement Ride Safety Act. |
| 2- Spotting danger.
If you spot someone doing something unsafe at the amusement park or carnival which could
get someone hurt, you have the responsibility of reporting it to the park or carnival
management. This also goes for destruction of property, and tampering with ANY park
equipment, even if you don't know what the equipment is used for. Park employees will
almost always have on a uniform or will be wearing professional clothes, so if you see
someone not in uniform attempting to access an area that does not appear to be a
public-access area, then for your benefit and the benefit of the people around you, please
report it to the site management. People have been killed and seriously injured by being
in restricted areas, so please keep this in mind. |
| 3- You must know YOUR
limitations. Most states require the
posting of Ride Safety Restriction signs. These signs provide valuable safety
information about an individual ride. You need to pay SPECIAL attention to these signs if
you have ANY kind of health related condition, such as HEART PROBLEMS, PREGNANCY, BROKEN
BONES, RECENT SURGERY or ILLNESS, BALANCE DISORDERS, EPILEPSY, or basically anything else
that would prevent you from safely operating your motor vehicle, as an example. I must
also remind you that there have been people who have died as a result of ignoring these
health-related warnings, so please READ THEM before you ride if you have any kind of
health condition. |
4- Follow Instructions.
Yes, it is generally understood that when you are at an amusement park, your head is
usually in la-la land, but when you are in line or on a ride, you must be prepared to
listen for instruction from the ride operators or other park employees. There are times
when you could endanger yourself by not being aware of your surroundings. For example, if
you are on a ride, and the operator tells you that when the ride is over you need to
remain seated until instructed to exit...depending what ride you are on, ignoring this
warning could get you injured by the slowing motion of the ride as you are
dismounting.
Say, for another example, if you are supposed to be boarding a roller
coaster and you aren't paying attention. Some coasters have lap bars that lock in
the up position while boarding, and many people will generally use this lap bar as a
hand-hold as they climb into the car. If you aren't paying attention to when you
should be boarding, and you go to get into the car after the lap bars have been set to
lock down, then when you go to lean on the lapbar as it is up, it will fall away from you,
closing on the people behind you. I tell you this because I watched a man break his
ribs by doing just that. He leaned on the open lapbar after I had hit the LOCK button, and
when he expected it to support his weight, it closed away from him, and he fell onto the
car and broke his ribs on the top of the seat back. Had he been paying attention to the
operator, he would have boarded at the proper time, and would not have gotten
hurt. Bottom line...pay attention! |
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