I didn’t know what a roller coaster was in 1958 when I took that first ride on a Mad Mouse. Jerked, jarred and jammed on an old ride that rattled and creaked when the cars made those hard and abrupt turns. The structure reminded me of pieces of my erector set with about the same gage steel. It may be a stretch calling a Mad Mouse a roller coaster by comparing it to a modern coaster but it meets the basic definition. It wasn’t until years later when I again exposed myself to a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia. This experience offered me a new and different rush on a higher scale and this time it is a swaying wood. Then in 1976 I joined Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida. The first roller coaster installed there was an Arrow Corkscrew, double looping steel coaster and its theme name was the “Python”. It was my destiny. By today’s standards that ride was like comparing a model airplane to the Concord. But we were proud; it was new, it was ours and we were in the game. When you start with one coaster you have a tendency to over analyze and learn a lot about roller coasters. The Python had been opened a very short time when I arrived for work on July 6, 1976. The first stack of papers I was handed dealt with the death of a rider on the Python. My first thought in this new safety position was perhaps I had made the wrong choice.

I will never forget one of my first duties was speaking to marketing about pulling the “I Challenged the Python and Lived” advertisement blitz. There were thousands of campaign style buttons in inventory made up to give riders with this marketing line on them. The stage was a news media pre-opening party for the ride. One gentleman who worked for a local newspaper was very large and apparently had a history of serious health conditions decided to ride on one of the maiden voyages of the Python. He did so against the wishes of the guest accompanying him because of his condition. After he exited the ride he told his party he did not feel well, sat on a park bench and subsequently had a heart attack and died. This event personally set the stage for my professional future.

At this time in amusement ride industry history there were not any standards, codes, regulations, books or literature to research regarding roller coasters or amusement rides safety. The American Society for Amusement Park Safety and Security Personnel was formed and included members who worked at amusement parks having over one million visitors annually. Basically our group met annually at/near a theme park in the United States, went behind closed doors and kept no secrets as we tried to improve safety in our parks. These meetings spawned relationships with other park safety personnel and provided a sense of comfort to picking up a telephone and talking to another person with the same or similar ride you may be experiencing issues with. During this period ASTM on Amusement Rides and Devices was in its infancy and still arguing over the definitions of a ride and the scope of the standards. I can recall where it required multiple meetings to define three words. But it was a beginning; we had to start somewhere and develop and capture information we as a group could rely on and future generations could use as a guideline. The American Recreational Equipment Association (AREA) was the forerunner to AIMS and offered invaluable annual seminars on amusement ride and device safety/maintenance. This forum presented another opportunity to discuss industry problems with personnel in the business that included manufacturers. AREA was where the doors to communication between all the players opened widely. In this one forum state, regulatory personnel, consultants, safety personnel, maintenance, owner/operators, theme parks, carnivals; all came together with rider safety as its number one goal. These seminars began with a lot of finger pointing and disagreements over who was failing in the safety area but at least improving rider safety continued to be the purpose behind heated debates. It was a lot of fun and a lot of long hard days hammering out improvements on safety issues that impacted us all.

Roller coaster and amusement ride safety has come a long way since those early days of “Pigs” and “Goats” running through the hotel lobby of Greenville, South Carolina’s finest hotels during an AREA seminar. The amusement industry has matured and continues to work hard at improving safety on roller coasters as well as other rides and devices. But it still has a long way to go! This job never ends.