Warning: Spent a weekend at Ocean City boardwalk and nobody was checking the ride safety equipment

I was down in Ocean City Maryland two weekends ago with my nephew and watched the guy running the tilt-a-whirl just walk away from the control panel for 5 minutes while kids were still strapped in. One of the bolts on the arm looked rusty as hell and I could see it wobbling on every rotation. Has anyone else noticed ride operators skipping inspections at fairgrounds or amusement piers?

2 comments

2 Comments

alices1622d ago

Bolt rust doesn't automatically mean unsafe, gotta say. A lot of that surface rust on carnival rides is cosmetic from being stored outside, not structural failure. Those things are built way heavier than they need to be. As for the operator stepping away, yeah that's not great but half those rides are on auto-cycle anyway once they're running. Your mileage may vary but I've been on hundreds of fair rides and the actual safety mechanisms are usually redundant. The scarier thing is when nobody checks the electrical or hydraulic lines, not so much a rusty bolt you can see.

patricia_wells22d ago

Wait, you really think surface rust on a bolt holding people in place is just cosmetic? I mean I get that they overbuild these things but I used to be the same way, I'd brush stuff off like that all the time. Then I watched a video of a ride collapse where a corroded bolt snapped during operation and it totally changed how I look at it. Now when I see something wobbling and rusted like that, it sticks with me. The safety mechanisms might be redundant but they still have to be maintained, not just checked when someone complains.