Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.
An amusement park ride at the Circus Circus hotel-casino remains in operation after a version of that ride crashed to the ground at a Michigan amusement park Monday sending 31 people to the hospital.
Chaos, a tilt-a-whirl type ride that spins passengers who are seated in cars along the outside of a large wheel, was installed at the Circus-Circus Adventure Dome on March 23, according to Reggie Burton, a public relations manager at the hotel-casino.
Chaos was designed by Chance Rides Inc., of Witchita, Kan., in 1996, and officials with the company say that 52 of the rides are being operated around the world.
"Our chief engineer actually took the initiative and called Chance Monday night," Burton said. "The investigation is ongoing as to what happened in Michigan, and we are in constant contact with Chance."
The ride at Circus Circus was looked at very closely before going into operation Tuesday, Burton said.
"We have a 50-point daily check list that we run on that ride," Burton said. "We took extra precautions and gave it a good once and twice over."
Burton added that all rides at Adventure Dome have regularly scheduled maintenance and safety checks, and that inspectors from Clark County were out to look at the ride Tuesday morning.
Operators of the Chaos ride at Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park say they probably won't know how the ride's spinning wheel sheared off its axis and crashed to the pavement until sometime today.
Seven of the passenger cars along the outside of the wheel hit the ground as the ride broke from its mount. Some of the 31 people injured had to wait as long as five hours to be freed from the wreckage at the park about 40 miles north of Grand Rapids, Mich.
After the malfunction, the park's parent company, Cedar Fair LP, closed Chaos rides at its parks in Sandusky, Ohio, and Shakopee, Minn.
From 1987 to 1999, there were 49 documented fatalities at the nation's amusement parks, according to the latest data from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.
A total of 10,400 visitors were injured in 1999, an increase from the 6,650 injured in 1996, the commission reported. More than 300 million people visit amusement parks each year, the industry says.
Inspectors and amusement park owners say the main reason riders get hurt is because they act irresponsibly. Rider behavior was at fault in all but one of the 47 injuries reported last year in Michigan.
"I'm not going to say it's a perfect world. But there's no one in this industry who wakes up and says, 'How many people can I hurt today?"' said inspector Lewis Merz, who has been inspecting rides since 1978.
Wayne Pierce, a Maryland attorney who helps states develop amusement park safety standards, says Michigan's inspection program is among the best, along with those in Florida, Maryland and Ohio.
Michigan is one of 25 states in which government employees inspect rides, Pierce said. Some states, including Texas, Minnesota and Oregon, have private insurance companies inspect their rides. Pennsylvania certifies private inspectors, while Virginia has county building inspectors perform the task.
Eight states don't have any sort of inspection program, according to Ken Giles of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Donnie Reid, a manager with Michigan-based Wade Shows Inc., says he has no problem with inspection programs. Wade Shows usually pays around $50 per ride for Michigan's annual inspections.
"I think it's very healthy for our business," says Reid, who was managing 27 rides and 60 employees at the Fowlerville Fair.
Burton says Circus Circus engineers will continue to run checks on the ride here. He said the fact that the ride is only a few months old is a plus.
"We have the newest version of the ride with all the newest safety features," Burton said. The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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