[Via The Stinger Report]
This last August was the worst month in history for the international amusement sector, not in terms of sales, but in injuries and deaths as is reported in the lastest issue of The Stinger Report. They document 16 separate incidents that occured in a number of amusement parks, some incidents affecting multiple riders including a couple of families that saw several deaths due to either mechanical failure, rider misadventure or operator misadventure. The issue also discusses the recent recalls of arcade titles such as Arm Spirit by Atlus and a safety harness issue by Raw Thrills.
Overall it is a very distrubing trend and what is equally disturbing is that some parks didn’t even close down after the incidents and continued letting people on the same rides afterwards. This demonstrates both gross incompetence and apparent indifference by park owners. The amusement industry really needs to do more to ensure that their rides are safe and working if they really want to survive, and safety is something they should be putting first, around the world. Fortunately it is rare that arcades end up injuring someone, many times that is due to the customer misusing the game. Either way, let’s hope that some changes are made and that we never have to see a fatality nor injury rate like this again.
