Commission de sécurité des consommateurs

HAVING REGARD TO the Consumer Code and specifically Articles L. 224-1, L. 224-4, R. 224 4 and R. 224-7 to R. 224-12

HAVING REGARD TO petition no. 05-095

 

 

In March, April, May, and July 2005, a series of serious accidents occurred on park machinery on fairgrounds or at amusement parks, namely in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region, Oise and Aube départements. The Commission, which had already issued a recommendation on rides installed at amusement parks or operating on fairgrounds, on 7 June 1995, deemed it timely to issue a follow-up recommendation on the safety of these products, at its plenary session of 15 September 2005.

 

 

 

Merry-go-rounds are amusement rides that have existed for more than three centuries. The recent growth of amusement parks and extreme sports shows that that there is an increasing demand of some consumers for family entertainment, for the experience of thrills and dreams, a demand met by fairgrounds and amusement parks. However, the success of amusement parks is closely linked to investments in innovative and amazing attractions while fairground success is largely due to a location in or near the city centre where the fairgrounds offer more traditional rides available to everyone.

 

 In France as in Europe, although the available accidentology data is incomplete, the safety level provided by the rides seems satisfactory overall. Even if mechanical failures and human error may have dire consequences, which are much touted by the media, they are still rare occurrences compared to reported attendance rates and strike at the heart of a profession that is proud of its know-how.

   

 

Accident typology can be drawn up by comparing various studies on rides at amusement parks, conducted in several European countries, including France, the United States and Canada:

 

-         A low apparent accident rate compared to amusement park attendance;

 

-         A low serious accident rate (in the EPAC[1] database, the accidents entailed medical follow-up in 50% of the cases, and hospitalisation lasting less than a week in 4%). The rate is confirmed in reports by the insurance companies covering fairground operators for civil liability. However, a study published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine of Minneapolis shows that the number of serious accidents has substantially increased in 20 years. However, the trend cannot be correlated with higher ride attendance, size, increased performance, or high-risk user behaviour;

 

-         Varied causes: shocks against ride frame, falls, jostling in the queues, or falls over the protective barriers, as well as nausea or diffuse pain experienced after taking a ride;

 

-         Presumptions of higher hazards on some rides: some ‘classic’ rides such as bumper cars, tunnels of love and carrousels are to blame for a particularly high number of accidents (bumper cars: one out three accidents in the EPAC database; carrousels: one out of six);

 

-         The seriousness of accidents due to mechanical failures: equipment malfunctions or breakdowns on a ride often have dire consequences for passengers because of the actual speed of the ride or height of its structure;

 

-         A high share of accident victims are children: they account for two-thirds of accident victims, of which 40% are between 5 and 14;

 

-         The existence of ‘masked’ accidentology: ride users often see a physician for delayed disorders compared to time of risk exposure, in situations where an accident did not necessarily occur. They complain of headaches, ringing in the ears, neck pains, dizziness, or nausea. The disorders may be the consequences of their exposure to high speeds (up to 170 km per hr), sudden swerves, or even minor shocks (specifically on bumper cars) causing micro-trauma, on the rides. Cardio-vascular disorders may also occur.

  

  

Unlike other European countries, in France there are no regulations but there is a 1984 protocol, which is now largely obsolete and does not lay down any constraints. On the other hand, since 2000, a European standard on machinery and structure design and operations has been adopted by numerous European countries and used as the reference for ride safety controls. However, the standard has not yet been published in France because it is not consistent with fire safety regulations for areas open to the public. 

 

Current equipment technology and performance levels and the possible opening up of markets to new foreign manufacturers outside the European Union requires the set-up of an updated regulatory and standard framework in France, to improve consumer safety guarantees.

 

For several years, all the stakeholders in the field, manufacturers, operators, technical control bureaus, local and regional authorities, the public authorities, and European authorities, aware of the need and in favour of the principle, have been trying to reach an agreement, yet have not managed to lay down the methods for the framework arrangement. Very clearly, the activity of fairground operators is critical to local economic and cultural life and the activity of small or medium sized amusement parks is essential for the creation of a number of permanent or seasonal jobs.

Although the rapporteurs realise that consultation is difficult between players from different worlds, they believe that it should now rapidly lead to an updated consistent arrangement acceptable to all. The conclusions will have to take account of interests that may seem conflicting at first, but that converge on the final objective, i.e., keep rides as a means of public entertainment in the best feasible conditions of comfort and safety. This could facilitate the official recognition of fairground core skills as an integral part of France’s historic and cultural heritage, as was the case for the circus arts.

The time seems right to make progress and conclude on these issues since the partners now have:

 

− A single ‘state-of-the art’ technical reference, i.e., European standard EN 13814, which could be the basis for designing national regulations taking account of the special features of ride operations in France. In this respect, it would be important that the standard be published rapidly to underscore the public authorities’ firm determination to see the rollout of a new framework for park machinery and structure operations, before the standard, which was first drafted five years ago, becomes obsolete

 

− French and foreign regulations to draw on, such as the Order of 18 January 1984 regulating fairgrounds in Paris and the Belgian Royal Order of 18 June 2003 on fairground ride operations, or by analogy, other regulations (Order of 1 March 2004 on verifications of hoisting machinery and accessories, Order of 2 March 2004 on maintenance log of hoisting machinery)

 

− Foreign experience in public information on the hazards of rides and recommended behaviour for accident avoidance (specifically in Canada and the United States).

Whereas every year park machinery operations on fairgrounds and at amusement parks cause a certain number of serious accidents due to mechanical failures, and operator or user behaviour errors;

 

Whereas France does not have any nationwide regulations specifically addressing the safety of park machinery and structures;

 

Whereas park machinery and structures are subject to the general obligation of product safety decreed by Article L. 221-1 of the Consumer Code;

 

Whereas pursuant the provisions of the General Code of the Local and Regional Authorities, policing fairgrounds is the competence of the mayors or, in their absence, of the Prefects, thus enabling an a priori safety control of the park machinery and structures installed in their municipality with their agreement;

 

Whereas mean age of French park machinery and structures is advanced and increasingly complex and physiologically trying products, including some that may be manufactured without reference to any satisfactory specifications or reference standards in terms of consumer safety, may arrive on the market;

 

Whereas the 1984 technical reference currently used in France by most fairground operators for controlling ride safety is inadequate and European standard EN 13814 of 2004, which has not yet been published in France, exists;

 

Whereas, accreditation based on objective competence criteria is lacking, on the one hand, as is the administration’s approval of the control bureaus currently certifying the safety level of rides, on the other;

 

Whereas the messages and signage informing and advising users on the access conditions to rides and their possible hazards are lacking or are not harmonised;

 

Whereas specialists have serious questions concerning the hazards to consumer health of ‘extreme’ rides, specifically the rides that subject physically unprepared users to strong accelerations and sudden swerves of an intensity comparable to what aviation test pilots experience;

 

Whereas the Ministry for Labour is competent to control the implementation of all the applicable rules in terms of employee health and safety;

 

1./ The Public Authorities

 

- Should deploy every effort for the prompt design of a legal framework (law and/or decree and implementation orders) based on European standard EN 13814, that will define the consumer and operator safety obligations of manufacturers and operators of the park machinery and structures installed at amusement parks or operating on fairgrounds. The framework should define the manufacturing requirements and the methods for installing and carrying out the technical controls of the different types of rides (frequency, content and traceability), detail the conditions for accrediting and approving the organisations empowered to carry out controls, and the conditions of user access to, and information about park rides.

 

- Should conduct an assessment study of the potential hazards of new generation attractions likely to be more ‘aggressive’ to the human neurosensory system, and specifically the rides with sudden accelerations or virtual reality. In any case, ample and relevant information on the hazards of, and contraindications to taking the rides should be provided to consumers.

  

Pending the implementation of the legal framework:

 

− The Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Industry should carry out regular preventive safety controls of park machinery and structures and launch technical and administrative investigations so as to take protective safety measures for the same type of equipment installed in the country when there is a serious accident involving a ride. If needed, the expertise of the problematical ride should be entrusted to control bureaus that are accredited to carry out the regulatory technical controls of the equipment within the scope of the Machinery Directive;

 

− The Ministry for Labour should control that operators of park machinery and structures within the scope of Article L.231-1 of the Labour Code implement all current employee safety and security rules (specifically regarding ride operations and maintenance), including the rules likely to improve general ride safety for users;

 

− Mayors and Prefects should exercise their legal policing competence and systematically require three-year control certificates for the equipment, provided for in the 1984 protocol of agreement, and check that any reservations have been lifted and fairground operators are properly insured for civil liability.

2./ The Authorities in charge of Standardisation

 

- As soon as the European Committee for Standardization has ruled on the reservations that were submitted by the French authorities to safeguard the safety requirements recommended by current regulations on establishments that are open to the public, the authorities should transpose European Standard EN 13814 into a French standard.

 

 

 

- Should particularly focus on safety issues when training full-time or seasonal operators that will be working on fairground rides;

- Should keep an updated ‘log’ for each ride, which lists technical incidents, repairs and human accidents occurring during equipment transport or operations;

- Should appropriately strengthen and improve public information on the rules to obey and the hazards incurred by certain behaviours on and near rides, and on the specific hazards for certain people

 

 

4./ Fairground Operator Trade Organisations

 

- Should continue to provide their essential contribution to the design of a legal framework for ride design and operations;

- Considering their experience and the most often reported accidents, should work with manufacturers to address issues concerning park ride design, to improve ride ergonomics and technical safety

- Should continue training and information efforts on the means of preventing accidents due to technical failures or to operator and user behaviour errors, for their members

5 / Consumers

- Should scrupulously comply with warnings and safety instructions provided by operators and, in doubt, should comply with a principle of care and caution regarding access to some new generation rides with sudden accelerations or virtual reality; rides whose effects on the human body have not yet been fully assessed.

 

 

 

The full recommendation on this topic is 27 pages long. It includes the petitions, the applicable standards, accidentology in France and abroad, a technical and regulatory study, and the minutes of the hearings.

The full version in French can be found on the CSC website at:

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