Theme Park Safety Failure$

Theme Park Safety Failure$

	"Thrill rides are becoming kill rides."
	Music score by Midge Ure FREAK THREATS

From the author:

"Contrary to rumours and hearsay, I am a rider and lover of various amusement rides. However, with the onslaught of prototypes and thoughtless contraptions I disclose in my book, I know what I can and cannot ride. It is more than a personal choice, rather a sense of instilled safety.

Kings Island's newest installation, Diamondback, is, by far, the greatest machine I've ever taken a ride upon. Its reliable manufacturer and performance is unparalleled.

My biggest concern, like with all facilities, is the staff. Now that Hollywood has reached over into adding amusement park, jackass mentality to their roster with the release of Adventureland, and knowing how films create a 'monkey-see, monkey-do' mindset, everyone attending a park should be more alert to the antics of the ones in alleged control."

Jeffrey P. Stoneking

Purchase your discount copy of Theme Park Safety Failure$ directly from AuthorHouse

REVIEW: Dayton City Paper May 14-20, 2008, pg. 24

By J.T. Ryder

Jeffrey P. Stoneking's latest book Theme Park Safety Failure$ (AuthorHouse) is a wild ride all on its own. The book not only recounts harrowing tales of safety flaws, but accidental injuries and death sustained through the pervasive trend of theme parks to eschew safety for the sake of the bottom line. He relates account after account of cursory safety inspections, mismanaged parks, ill-trained operators, idiotic thrill seekers, and ill-conceived ride designs. Stoneking, a former employee of Kings Island who also served as a ride operator for the Walt Disney Company, fills the book with his own observations as well. His warnings are not just the alarmist rantings of one individual, but a compilation of well-researched occurrences at theme parks around the world. Get in line, if you dare.

In the wake of the tragedy at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in 2007 where a young female rider lost both feet aboard Superman: Tower of Power, author Jeffrey P. Stoneking compiles research and related circumstances in his new book, Theme Park Safety Failure$. His previous experience in the theme park industry as Operations and Safety Counsel with the Walt Disney Company's North American properties during the pre-Eisner era and several positions with Kings Entertainment's Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio are re-awakened for this writing.

"The 2007 incident in Louisville is not isolated in the amusement ride industry. For many years, accidents have been transpiring, but the park owners and ride manufacturers do their greatest to silence the circumstances. It is gravely unfortunate that it takes such a hideous occurrence as the severing of a teenager's feet to wake people up.

"Having been around the world at various facilities for both business and pleasure, I've seen too much and am no longer accepting what is deemed permissible. Ride operators are unskilled in dealing with valuable and precious lives. Manufacturers are introducing thoughtless contraptions with virtually no time for error, whose evacuations are also near-impossible.

"This book is not only a whistle-blower, but also a light-shedding source of advice to the innocent ones who think they are safe when entering a park.

"The writing of it, as with my first book, Reality Therapy: The Influence of Rollercoasters, Religion, and Rock 'n Roll, was in the same capacity of Jonathon Livingston Seagull where an unseen force was delivering it. Those are the indefinable elements which are indicative that some things are truly meant to be. If it offends any industry official or theme park fan, then the truth of what is being fully disclosed is upon their guilty heads."

Photo by S. Hurley

KINGS ISLAND, The Racer, October 24th, 2008

Around 8:15pm, this control panel operator, with loaded trains in motion, enjoys stuffing his face with a double cheeseburger, french fries, and a bottle of Mountain Dew. The bottle tipped over between the panel and the monitor. Thankfully it was capped.

When I contacted the park to report it, I was told by the operator, "We are not allowed to transfer any calls to the executive offices."

Welcome to more truth as told in Theme Park Safety Failure$.

Cedar Point, Millennium Force, May 2009

What is often considered to be the greatest steel rollercoaster ever, how great it would have been for a train filled with passengers to come plummeting vertically at 93 mph into the broken lift system?

Photos from the web.

Cedar Point: Top Thrill Dragster's Smoking Cable

During a visit to Cedar Point on May 12, 2008, I couldn't resist recording Top Thrill Dragster's cable which launches trains 0-120 m.p.h. in 3.5 seconds. My position for recording was on the walkway where park attendees are able to witness their loved ones rocketing by before heading vertically skywards 42 stories up.

Each and every launch requires the cable to halt once the desired speed is achieved at which point, without fail, smoke emits. A clear fluid then drips down directly onto it.

While exiting the park, several crew members of Top Thrill Dragster were walking beside me and a conversation regarding Theme Park Safety Failure$ was initiated. One of the workers commented that he fears the cable used on that ride.

In Theme Park Safety Failure$ an incident involving Top Thrill Dragster's cable during the second season of operation is referenced.

KISS THE FUTURE!