Amusement Park Safety Bill Gains New Life

In the wake of a fatal Christmas Eve accident at Disneyland, a state assemblyman said he hopes to revive a bill requiring safety inspections at the state’s amusement parks.

Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), who spearheaded that bill after a teenage girl died in a 1997 water-slide collapse at Waterworld in Contra Costa County, said the legislation failed in the face of opposition from the amusement-park industry.

“I find it somewhat perplexing that the industry is so much against any regulation,” Torlakson said. “We’re exploring avenues where legislation may be possible this year.”

The new general manager of Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park on Monday embraced the idea of state inspections--a change from last year, when the amusement park was part of the lobbying effort against Torlakson’s bill.

“My view is, if it’s done correctly, it can be beneficial,” said Jack Falfas, who took over after the Buena Park facility was sold in late 1997. “It can be another set of eyes for everyone.”

Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez said that amusement park rides are reviewed by park employees to make sure they are operating safely. New guidelines could be “premature,” he said.

“If I were just to look at Disneyland’s safety record since it opened 43 years ago, and since we’ve had more than 400 million guests in the park since it opened, I would say our safety record on the whole would be very, very good, and it might be premature at this point to start calling for state inspections,” said Gomez.

He added that Disneyland officials never took an official position on the Torlakson bill.

Luan Phi Dawson, 33, of Duvall, Wash., died Saturday of a head injury after a metal cleat tore loose from the Columbia sailing ship ride. His wife, Lieu Thuy Vuong, 43, who also was struck, was moved Monday from intensive care to the regular care unit at UC Irvine Medical Center.

The accident also injured Disneyland employee Christine Carpenter, 30, who remains hospitalized with a severe foot injury.

“It’s a tragedy and our hearts go out to the family and friends and to the Disney employee who was injured,” said Dan Leach, spokesman for Microsoft Corp., where Dawson worked as a computer programmer.

A friend of Vuong’s used the Internet to talk about the woman who fled Vietnam to make a life for herself in the United States. After her first husband had a heart attack and died, Vuong turned to school and a new vocation to support their two young children.

“Her courage let her learn English and attend school to become a pharmacy technician,” wrote Carl Anderson, a longtime family friend. It remains unclear exactly what caused the cleat to fail. Some Disneyland employees, who spoke on condition that they not be identified, said they believe that the boat was moving too quickly when the bow line was attached to the cleat, which could have caused it to pull loose.

Investigators from the Anaheim Police Department and the Orange County coroner’s office spent much of Monday examining the accident scene. Cal/OSHA has launched a probe because a worker was hurt.

The question of stepped-up state oversight has surfaced repeatedly over the years, especially after deaths or injuries.

Six of the 15 most popular amusement parks in North America are in California, which has 71 permanent amusement parks, according to a report prepared by the state library’s California Research Bureau. That report also found that California is in the minority when it comes to oversight.

“Given the large number of amusement parks, many people are surprised to discover that California is one of only 10 states that does not have specific state oversight over permanent amusement parks or rides,” the report states.

Regulation varies state to state. Hawaii inspects amusement rides every six months, Pennsylvania does so monthly, and some states do random checks, the report found.

California’s permanent rides are not entirely unregulated, however, because they are subject to local building codes.

The 1997 bill would have required the state to compile information on deaths and accidents at state amusement parks. Currently, the state has no way of compiling such statistics, said Dennis O’Connor, assistant director of the California Research Bureau.

At the federal level, a fight over the regulation of rides at permanent amusement parks arises nearly every time there is a fatality.

Federal lawmakers have argued over whether to allow the Consumer Product Safety Commission to inspect rides since 1979, when two gondolas at the Texas State Fair fell 85 feet, killing one man, crippling a teenage girl and injuring 18 others.

The commission responded by proposing safety standards. But in 1981, with the help of former Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), whose district included Disneyland, an amendment was passed exempting rides at permanent parks.

Times staff writers Elaine Gale and Tina Nguyen contributed to this story.