Amusement Rides

This weekend I did some focus groups on a case involving an amusement park ride death.  I didn't know alot about amusement park rides, but the attorneys who had this case had done a ton of work educating themselves. In the end, the educated me too. The bottom line; these rides are complicated pieces of machinery that require operators and maintenance workers who are well trained professionals. Once the ride is sold, the manufacturers don't do much to make sure the new owner can really operate the machine safely...and the new owners don't always realize all that is involved.  It's a deadly combination of "it's not my job" from both manufacturers and operators that can result in tragedy.  Two points: 1. the shadier the operation the less trust I would put in the machine being safe and 2. even if the operation isn't "shady" you can't know for sure that the machine is really safe.