Scary-safe rides

One of the most common questions I receive both in small-talk conversations and media interviews (such as _this one_), is how rides can be scary and safe at the same time. A student asserted to me just the other day that rides were “notoriously dangerous”.  This is actually quite inaccurate.

Based on reportable injuries, rider injuries are generally mild or moderate and overwhelmingly involve some inadvisable behaviour or sometimes health condition of the patron. This can be because the patron is just not ready for the attraction, i.e., tall enough but not mature enough. People with adverse health reaction often have pre-existing conditions, and in many cases, conditions that they did not know they had. This is always an unfortunate finding but considering the sheer number of rides taken, the low rate of health reaction is very, very small. In other cases, the patron is perhaps too familiar with the attraction and tries to “enhance” the experience with some creative action or posture, and creates a hazardous situation. While the rides have the potential to be almost completely safe, they also have these possibilities to be used unsafely. The safety issue is not so much of the ride itself, but of the interface between ride and voluntary behaviour. We need to look at additional ways to communicate the boundaries between safe and unsafe behaviours to deter patrons from those unsafe actions. Those are the kinds of questions we are researching in the human engineering area.

It is true that when one looks at media reports of ride injuries, they are overwhelmingly mechanical in nature, and much more likely to be fatal. In other words, if we perceive rides as dangerous, this likely is a reflection of the way the media covers ride injuries. Media reports also unfortunately find it newsworthy when a ride shuts down and “strands” riders pending evacuation. This is not an accident at all, but in fact a correct function of a safety system that has detected some type of condition that has to be fixed, perhaps overheating, or ride vehicles too close together. It is certainly a customer-service disappointment and often inconvenient and uncomfortable, but safe stopping positions are designed into rides to provide a safe “Plan B” if the normal ride cycle cannot be completed. As long as it does not happen so often that the customer-service experience is truly negative, people should feel reassured that this happens. (I personally enjoy the occasional ride stop as it can provide a nice view and chance to look at the ride environment that would usually be going by too fast.)

It has been my experience that the amusement industry has a strong passion for safety and, especially where the ride owners and the regulators work in tandem as they do in Ontario, there are multiple layers of protection for the public.

All rides licensed to operate in Ontario are reviewed before operation and at intervals thereafter to ensure that they comply with regulations. Regulations incorporate CSA/ASTM F24 standards governing the design, maintenance and operation of rides, including restraint design and G-forces. CSA works closely with ASTM’s F24 committee, which includes leaders in the amusement ride industry with a passion for safety. As a result, properly registered amusement rides in Ontario are very safe.

But people don’t buy tickets for safety and they don’t want to feel the safety. Naturally, they want safety more than they want to be hurt, but they want to feel thrill, exhilaration, and a little bit of fear. Even the mildest carousel or kiddie train is pretty exciting to the target audience. People seek out thrill attractions for the same reason we go to horror films and do alpine skiing: a feeling of suspense or exhilaration distracts them from the mundane. As well, everyone is humanized when screaming and laughing. Historically, amusement attractions provided opportunities for mixing among social classes, which at one time was quite scandalous in itself.

To balance the guest’s confidence in the safety of the attraction and the guest’s excitement with the attraction as a whole, the ride designers maintain safety in the “real world” and hide the real world inside an illusory world, sometimes a specific illusion such as flying in space, and sometimes just a sensation that differs from everyday life. “Fright” and even the perceived “speed” of a roller coaster can be created or increased by optical illusions and sensory surprises like sudden changes of direction or moments of near weightlessness. The excitement level can be raised with disorientation and quick pace with many features to attract the guest’s attention, such as sound tracks and show effects involving lighting, pyrotechnic effects, scenery, and water fountains. These sensory illusions make you feel more precarious than you are. Ride designers know that it is critical to the enjoyment of thrill that there is no actual risk. We cannot enjoy those scary feelings if we believe we actually are in jeopardy. A properly seated rider in good health on a properly designed, maintained, and operated ride is not in danger, but in most cases, should feel at least a little bit like she is.