Theme Park Bill No Longer Seeking State Inspections

After months of secret talks with Disney officials, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) has quietly diluted his bill to regulate amusement park safety and added provisions that place a laundry list of safety requirements on park visitors instead of the parks.

“Rather than a public safety bill, it’s an amusement park insulation bill,” said Barry Novack, an attorney involved in litigation with Disneyland.

Torlakson brought the bill in response to the accident Christmas Eve at Disneyland, in which a metal cleat tore off the Columbia Sailing Ship and was flung into a crowd of park visitors, killing a Washington state man and seriously injuring his wife and a park employee.

At the time, Torlakson said his bill would mandate annual state inspections of amusement parks and public reporting of injuries on rides.

Torlakson introduced his bill in broad outline form in late February and has been working out the details ever since. A committee hearing on the bill was postponed to give Torlakson and theme park officials more time to reach agreement.

But in amendments to the bill filed Wednesday and in late April, Torlakson calls instead for inspections of at least once every four years and no more often than twice every five years. In addition, the bill does not call for reporting injuries to the state, which would give the public access to information about the safety records of rides. Instead, parks would keep their own records of injuries. State inspectors would be given access to the records.

Moreover, parks would need to keep records only for deaths and for injuries that require overnight hospitalization for treatment, which would leave out many injuries. Also, the theme park is required to keep records only if park officials know about the hospitalization. Since many injured people are transported to the hospital by paramedics, in most cases parks would not know about their overnight hospitalization.

There is no provision for public access to accident records; indeed, state inspectors must view them with a park employee present.

Finally, the bill includes a long list of rules that put the burden on park visitors, not the park, to make sure hands and feet are inside the ride carrier and know whether they have the ability to go on a ride safely.

“Most of the bill deals with putting the onus on the rider,” said Novack, who represents a woman who says she suffered a brain hemorrhage on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Records that have come out in the suit showed that others also had been injured on the ride--but those records are not available to the public. The park’s lawyer tried unsuccessfully to get the lawsuit dismissed on grounds a rider assumed the risk of such injury by going on a thrill ride.

“I’m really disappointed in the amendments coming out of [Torlakson’s office]. The industry has been able to sell a bill of goods that doesn’t protect the public,” said Kathy Dresslar of the Children’s Advocacy Institute. “The rider responsibility parts makes it even worse for the public.”

Torlakson said not to judge his bill as it reads now.

He said annual inspection was not feasible given the lack of state inspectors, and defended including rider responsibility in the bill because 70% to 80% of accidents are attributable to it.

Torlakson emphasized that the amendments do not represent the final form of the bill but a “‘place holder” to get the bill moving forward.

“I’m concerned about inspections and an accident reporting system. . . . My intent is central accident reporting.”

Torlakson’s bill is on the calendar for its first hearing next week.

Disney spokesman Ray Gomez said the company was working with Torlakson on developing the bill.

There are already strong signals that the Assembly Democratic leadership is not enthusiastic about the bill, and that to pass it would have to meet the approval of the industry, especially Disney, a major campaign contributor.

California is one of 10 states that do not regulate permanent theme parks.

Speaking for Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa--who was recently honored at a $1.2-million fund-raiser hosted by Disney vice president for governmental relations, Jeffrey Schwartz--Elena Stern gave the Torlakson bill a lukewarm review.

“He [Villaraigosa] wants to work with the author to find a balanced compromise and to find a solution that will benefit everyone.”

Another theme park bill, by state Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), would require state inspections of rides twice a year, along with public reporting of injuries. Perata’s bill has not been negotiated with Disney and other theme park officials.

Perata said Schwartz tried to get him to drop the legislation and back Torlakson’s measure.

“He said [my bill] was unnecessary,” Perata said.

Perata’s bill passed its first committee and is up for a hearing in the Appropriations Committee next week.

Schwartz did not return calls seeking comment. He referred phone calls to Gomez, who said, “We wonder why [Perata’s bill] is necessary?”