Do portable funfair rides scare you more than static park rides?

For some reason I always tend to feel safer on theme park rides. This might be because funfair rides are set up and taken down continuously, or the fact that accidents seem to happen more frequently on funfair rides than park rides. Also note that funfair ride cycles tend to be longer than those at theme parks.

The funfair ride that gets me the most is the Freak Out (I literally do just that every time I ride one), partly due to the fact the the harnesses don't have retaining straps.

Anyone else feel this way?

me too!

It's because of the nature of carnies. They are (for the most part) faceless and will be gone within a week meaning that they cant be as easily tracked by H&S and any incidents would be quickly forgotten by the public thus removing the threat of bad PR, A symptom of this is that they can* get away with shoddy maintenance and workmanship. Couple that with the fact that they are in direct competition with the 2-3 identical rides at the same fair means that they will probably push the rides as hard as possible resulting in a less safe ride!
(Plus, I "think" the H&S guidelines for temporary structures are more lax)

Compare this to say, Ripsaw at Alton Towers (RIP Rippy) Where if a restraint was to come loose during the ride, even if no one got hurt, there would be hell to pay from both the public and the media and the stigma it caused would probably never fully vanish.

Yup, went to a funfair for the first time in about twenty years last week and went on this ride that.... well.... when we got off my wife said we'd been on the ride for over ten minutes, aparantly the operator had left the cabin and walked off back to his caravan half way through, presumably for a comfort break, and only returned ten minutes later looking a tad confused that the ride was still running with the same passengers on.

IanSR said:

Yup, went to a funfair for the first time in about twenty years last week and went on this ride that.... well.... when we got off my wife said we'd been on the ride for over ten minutes, aparantly the operator had left the cabin and walked off back to his caravan half way through, presumably for a comfort break, and only returned ten minutes later looking a tad confused that the ride was still running with the same passengers on.

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Surely the ops aren't supposed to leave their cabins untill the ride has stopped? Can you remember what type of ride it was?

Actually, I feel just as safe on traveling rides as I do at parks. For a couple of reasons.

Firstly, each time the ride is built at a new location, every single nut and bolt is freshly tightened. While park rides have daily checks, they cannot possibly check every single fastening. That's usually done in the off season.

Second, most fair rides are family owned. They often grow up with it from childhood. They know every little detail about it, and they care about it. That ride is their family livelyhood, and often costs more than most people's house and car combined!
The people who build it, operate it, and dismantle it have a lot to loose should something go wrong. Meanwhile, the majority of theme park ride ops, dedicated to their job as they may be, are ultimately on minimum wage, often temporary, working for a large company. They are usually only trained in the basic operation of the ride, and have to contact tech services for anything more complicated than pressing dispatch.

.... Now, before anyone objects, I honestly mean no offence to park ride ops. I know you work hard and care about your job. And some park staff are genuinely interested their rides, of course. I'm certainly not trying to imply you guys are unsafe!
I'm just explaining why I also feel perfectly safe in the hands of traveling showmen.

skyscraper said:

Surely the ops aren't supposed to leave their cabins untill the ride has stopped? Can you remember what type of ride it was?

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It was a travelling fair, arrived Friday, left Sunday, it was a gondola type ride, I'll see if anybody I know took a photo as we didn't. Of course there could have been someone hidden in the back of the cabin, but I didn't see anybody when I looked.

DiogoJ42 said:

Actually, I feel just as safe on traveling rides as I do at parks. For a couple of reasons.

Firstly, each time the ride is built at a new location, every single nut and bolt is freshly tightened. While park rides have daily checks, they cannot possibly check every single fastening. That's usually done in the off season.

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While I agree with you on some points of your post I will say that every nut and bolt is freshly tightened each erection (oh-errr) but I doubt they are tightened to a standard (say with a torque wrench) and are done to 'feel'. Being a mechanic myself I don't tighten bolts/nuts to torque specs and go by feel (as you pick it up) unless they are for special conditions like Cylinder Head bolts, Cam/Crank bolts & Flywheel bolts. But the speed in which these rides are put up can lead to some mistakes such as missing to wrench on a bolt/nut enough. Also Bolts have a certain amount of resilience to tightening and loosening over a long period of time to where they don't have their original strength properties due to the twisting nature put on the constantly being 'done up' and taken off again.

Another thing to consider is the amount of extra stress put on to the rides structures due to them being used on longer/more extreme cycles than their park counterparts. Not so long ago there was a ride at an Ohio Fair that collapsed and killed one and injured a few others -



And if I remember correctly it was down to fatigue/corrosion in the metal in one of the branches of the arm of the ride. It looked fine on the outside but when viewed inside the box section then you could see the fatigue which had been eroding the metal within, for years.

True, mistakes do happen. But they also happen in theme parks.

I don't mind either, especially in this country.

Did follow this news earlier this year though,

https://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/funderpark-xxl-owners-deep-shock-14526266

The ride was called Xlerator, and was a Tivoli Orbiter. [Edit : see post below] as far as I can tell the restraint opened mid-ride, throwing a passenger out of their seat.

There has been little significant media coverage, there has been no follow up article. Very curious what the outcome of any investigation was!

Regardless, these kind of things happen rarely and is an accepted risk with this kind of machinery. One freak accident doesn't put me off funfairs, much in the same way I'll still go on smiler and the rapids.

Edit to add : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-43713765
Breif article from BBC.

Lurker said:

The ride was called Xlerator, and was a Tivoli Orbiter. As far as I can tell the restraint opened mid-ride, throwing a passenger out of their seat.

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The ride was manufactured by PWS Rides and is a variant on their Twist (Sizzler) ride but with lift up arms.

I actually wrote my dissertation on public perceptions of theme park safety, and included a section on fairs! HSE have identified that the risk of visiting a fair or theme park is perceived as being far higher than the actual risk is.

There generally seems to be a societal belief that fair rides aren't as safe as rides at theme parks, even thought they're subject to the same HSE legislation. HSE said "fairs are intrinsically less easy to regulate by inspection, but not necessarily less safe."

Although this report was from 2001, there was an interesting point raised that there is a cultural aversion to maintaining paper records within the fairs community