Saturday, Aug. 30, 1997 | 7:41 a.m.
Almost every day, Pat Manus is first in line to ride the Manhattan Express.
But before he goes, he'll climb around on it, looking for something he doesn't want to find.
Manus is a mechanic at New York-New York and one of his responsibilities is to inspect the 4,777-foot track for the resort's high-speed looping roller coaster.
The Express was under the media microscope in March when the ride was closed after several tension rods bracing the towers supporting the track snapped and had to be repaired with thicker, heavier bars. Now, the resort, collaborating with county inspectors and ride designers, is testing cables to replace the bars.
The support structures are built with a certain amount of give to prevent riders from being injured.
Manus walks different portions of the track, checking for loose bolts and potential stress problems. On some sections of the track, he buckles himself to the red pipes with a safety harness, becoming a thrill-ride mountaineer.
He's part of a fraternity of operators, engineers and maintenance professionals who are responsible for keeping Southern Nevada's rides safe.
The track-walkers are the first line of defense for a system that Clark County's Ron Lynn calls the safest in the country.
"It's in everybody's best interest to provide the safest possible environment for guests," said Lynn, assistant director of the Inspections Division of the county Building Department. "This isn't something the county set out to mandate -- the resorts themselves wanted to have the high standards."
Lynn and his staff have implemented standards established by the American Society of Testing Materials and continuously monitor and update files on rides and attractions built in Southern Nevada.
For David Durkee, principal engineer on the inspections, it's a never-ending job, since the county not only monitors thrill rides, but nearly every other attraction that has moving parts -- from Excalibur's hydraulic dragon and The Mirage's volcano to mall carousels, monorails and Wet 'n Wild's flumes and chutes.
County officials make unannounced inspections at attractions and have the authority to shut a ride down if something is amiss. But it usually doesn't come to that.
Representatives at each of the properties offering thrill rides say they will slam on the brakes on their own.
"Safety comes first -- that's non-negotiable," said Debi Fetzner, assistant vice president of theme park operations at MGM Grand Adventures, the resort's 14-acre park.
Fetzner, who has 18 years of park management experience, including 13 at Disneyland, said training is the key to safe operations and MGM has a stringent program in effect.
A prospective operator of the park's Lightning Bolt roller coaster gets 20 hours of training on opening, closing and evacuating the ride in emergency and non-emergency situations.
Operators are tested and must score with at least 85 percent correct. Then they are retested on the questions missed. Refresher courses and testing is done annually.
When the county pays a visit to a park, it will put operators on the spot with a simulated emergency. Operators must demonstrate how they would react.
Maintenance is also a key to keeping rides safe. Clifford Hay, who oversees ride operations at Circus Circus, said there are daily, weekly, monthly and annual schedules of inspections carried out on the Canyon Blaster. Everything is logged and signed off by inspectors.
"We climb the track on a daily basis, looking for loose bolts. Each bolt is marked so you can tell if it's been loosened," Hay said. "We also look around for puddles of oil or anything unusual. It's like caring for a car. Only the areas under our rides are usually a lot cleaner than the floors in most garages."
The high-speed coasters at New York-New York and Buffalo Bill's have high-tech systems in place to detect hairline fractures in the tracks. Each track pipe is pressurized and connected to a control panel. If the pressure in the parallel lines isn't consistent, there's a problem somewhere on the line and an alarm notifies the operator.
The pressurization system gives track-walkers an advantage in finding problematic joints and failing pipes. That's helpful to Dan Rasmussen, director of rides and attractions at Primadonna Resorts, whose inspectors have to be hoisted into position with special equipment on the tallest sections of track.
Rasmussen said his workers also conduct an audio inspection, listening for unusual noises when the train is operating when doing daily reviews.
One property that isn't under county jurisdiction is the Stratosphere Tower, which also has been carefully scrutinized after a tension cylinder on a drive mechanism failed and fell to the observation deck.
Mark Rozinek, lead ride engineer for the tower since it opened, said the rides get four hours of inspection every day before they're opened. The city of Las Vegas oversees the rides and has contracted with independent specialists to inspect them regularly.
Most properties hire their own independent experts to oversee their work with what amounts to an audit system.
Most safety administrators agree that all the maintenance, inspections and expertise won't stop the biggest danger -- the riders themselves. The biggest problems have resulted from riders breaking the rules.
"We have problems with people sneaking cameras aboard the ride," said Thomas McCartney, general manager of hotel operations at New York-New York. "They think they'll be able to take a picture, but find they have to hang on and lose their grip on the camera."
Several cameras and other personal belongings have been found at the base of the Manhattan Express' two loops, which protrude from the hotel's roof. Hotel spokeswoman Paige Gill said she was once on the roof when a camera whizzed by her head after the coaster had passed.
Lynn said legislation known as the Rider Responsibility Act may be considered on the state level, relieving properties of liability if a guest violates ride rules. In Ohio, home of several major theme parks, a state law makes it a misdemeanor to violate posted thrill-ride rules.
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