Data

In 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2017 Saferparks submitted public records requests to U.S. state and federal safety agencies that regulate amusement rides, asking for data on ride-related accidents and injuries. A few additional requests were submitted during that time, targeted to specific agencies for specific purposes. The resulting records were harmonized and incorporated into the Saferparks Database.

• The processes, agency responses, data formats, and harmonization strategies were all non-uniform, resulting in a hodge-podge of U.S. accident data pertaining to amusement rides and devices.
• Note that reporting criteria, level of detail provided, equipment types included, and years covered vary widely by year, jurisdiction, industry sector, and a variety of other factors.
• In almost all cases, the accident descriptions were provided by the owner/operator of the ride, and may lack detail. Some records include information from regulatory officials based on investigation or discussion with the owner/operator.
• In aggregate, the regulatory records provide some insight into the ways in which patrons are hurt using amusement rides and attractions, but the data set cannot be used to estimate injury rates or compare states, parks, rides, or years.
• The bulk of the data is clustered around the early to mid 2000s and the early to mid 2010s. The Saferparks Database splits the aggregated records into two data sets by date.

2017 Accident Data Set

• Approximately 8,300 amusement device accident reports. Includes all the data from the 2017 records request, except for a few older accident records provided by responding agencies that occurred prior to 2010.
• Saferparks 2017 accident data set – CSV (2.7 MB)
• Saferparks 2017 accident data set – Excel (1.4 MB)

Legacy Accident Data Set

• Approximately 15,000 amusement device accident reports. Dates range from 1986-2009 with most records from years 1999-2007.
• Saferparks legacy accident data set – CSV (4.8 MB)
• Saferparks legacy accident data set – Excel (2.4 MB)

Documentation

• Saferparks Accident Data – Description

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) samples data on ER-treated injuries related to consumer products through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). NEISS data is a probabilistic sampling used to estimate national injury rates. The medical data is patient-focused and can be useful in analyzing patterns of amusement ride and device-related injury.

2018 NEISS Analysis

• In 2018, Saferparks retrieved NEISS hospital data for 2013-2017 from the CPSC website and performed a quick-look analysis for product codes: 1293 (amusement devices), 3295 (water slides, public), and 3259 (go-karts).
• Records were sorted into categories based on narrative and location fields. Note that NEISS product categorization is approximate. Injury estimates are likely to be lower than actual since a significant number of records failed to reveal the device type associated with the injury.
• Saferparks NEISS 2013-2017 data set – CSV (1.33 MB)
• Saferparks NEISS 2013-2017 data set – Excel (762 KB)
• Tableau visualization – NEISS 2013-2017 amusement device related injuries

Other NEISS Analyses

• Tableau – NEISS 2010-2013 inflatable device injuries – Saferparks graphical analysis of CPSC NEISS hospital data on injuries involving inflatable amusement devices in years 2010-2013.
• Tableau – NEISS 2013 trampoline injuries at sports facilities – Saferparks graphical analysis of CPSC NEISS hospital data from 2013 for product code 1233 (trampolines) where location of injury was coded as “place of sports or recreation”.