Safety in amusement parks: Rapid river rides are connected to serious, sometimes fatal, accidents

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DES MOINES, Iowa – When its Raging River ride claimed its second victim in five years, officials at Iowa's Adventureland Park described it as a freak, unpredictable calamity.

"No known capsized boats have been reported at the more than 60 similar rapids rides built by the manufacturer," Adventureland attorney Guy Cook told the Des Moines Register, part of the Paste BN Network, two weeks after a raft on the ride overturned July 3, drowning 11-year-old Michael Jaramillo.

In fact, the accident was far from unique. A decadeslong string of deaths and injuries has been connected to simulated river rapids rides, including several made by the Liechtenstein-based manufacturer of Raging River, Intamin Amusement Rides, a Des Moines Register investigation found.

The investigation, which collected hundreds of accident reports and reviewed a dozen safety-related databases, found that:

• There have been at least 21 serious accidents involving river rapids rides since 1984, and at least eight people have died in them.
• At least nine of the previous accidents involved capsized rafts, several on Intamin-made rides.
• Intamin failed to inform some ride operators of government recommendations that followed accident inquiries.

►Rapid rivers ride accident: 11-year-old boy dies after raft overturns on water ride at Iowa theme park

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The Register's investigation also found that the conditions at Adventureland the day of the accident that killed Jaramillo were consistent with dangers identified in a service bulletin from a competing ride maker and in a pair of government reviews conducted after fatal accidents.

Intamin and Adventureland separately declined to comment on the Register's findings, citing an open investigation by Iowa regulators.

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For its part, however, Intamin raised questions to the Register about whether Adventureland had properly maintained the decades-old ride, installed in 1983.

"The time period of 35 years is a very long time, so many parts had to be replaced, and the suppliers of those parts have to be responsible for the products they sold for replacements," said Sandor Kernacs, president of Intamin Ltd., the company's U.S. subsidiary.

Cook defended the ride and its record, saying the state "has inspected and approved the ride every year of its operation." 

Similar to rapid river rides around the world

River raft rides seat six to 12 seat-belted people in a large, circular raft designed to emulate the appearance of an inflatable raft used on a trip down a true river rapids – but without the need for paddling or a guide to steer.

The rides generally begin with the rafts careening one-by-one down a sloping "waterfall," then floating freely as they are carried along by the current through the twists and turns of an artificial waterway, replete with rapids created by underwater structures. Many of the rides have a cave – a tunnel through which rafts travel – and multiple waterfalls through which they pass, treating riders to a dousing on hot days.

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At the end, a conveyor belt pulls the rafts back to their starting point. Some have more than one set of conveyors and falls. The point is to simulate the excitement of a swift-water adventure with the relative safety of a heavy-duty boat in only a few feet of water.

International Amusement Inc., which markets the rides for Intamin, describes them on its website as "robust, reliable and safe." As of mid-September, Adventureland's website still described Raging River, which has remained closed for the rest of the season following the July accident, as "a great way to cool off with the whole family!"

The Iowa Division of Labor is investigating the accident that killed Jaramillo, severely injured his father, David, and critically injured his older brother, also named David, who spent weeks in critical care at a Des Moines hospital before returning to his family's home in the Cedar Rapids suburb of Marion, Iowa.

Some data missing, but 2021 Adventureland accident fits consistent patterns

The Register reviewed cases found in regulatory databases in Iowa, regulatory data collected by the nonprofit ride safety advocacy group Saferparks Inc., the Consumer Product Safety Commission's database of randomly selected emergency room visits for ride-related injuries, and decades of media reports.

Although many U.S. states don't track accidents at amusement parks, Saferparks compiled available state data covering the years 1988 to 2008 and 2011 to 2016. It identified 249 accidents, although most were reported by parks as involving minor injuries.

The CPSC's anonymous surveys of U.S. emergency rooms from 2000 to 2020 suggest as many as 100 people were treated in emergency rooms for potentially life-threatening injuries on river raft rides during that period – although the incidents were too infrequent in the sample to allow for statistical certainty.

The data and accounts of accidents show the rides present several dangers: being ejected from a raft, being pulled under by a conveyor belt, and suffering broken bones or other injuries from being tossed about inside the raft. 

Another is the experience aramillo and his brother faced: being trapped underneath an overturned, nearly 2,000-pound raft, unable to unfasten their seat belts. Of the four fatal raft ride accidents prior to the one that killed Jaramillo, two of them, accounting for five of seven deaths, fit that pattern.

Similar accidents caused dozens of injuries, as well, many of them severe. Due to large gaps in regulatory requirements, there is no way to know how many such accidents have never entered the public record.

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The first incident the Register identified came in 1984, the year after Adventureland's Raging River debuted. A 6-year-old boy suffered a broken leg when he became trapped under his overturned raft on the Fury of the Nile ride at Worlds of Fun park in Kansas City, Missouri. The story became public when the Kansas City Star obtained court records showing the park had settled with the boy's family for $30,000.

Other serious injuries recorded on river rides over the years include a severed ear, punctured lungs, broken ribs and brain damage. 

First known death came when raft overturned at Six Flags over Texas

The first recorded death came in 1999 when a raft flipped on the Roaring Rapids ride at Six Flags over Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Arlington. A woman died after being trapped underwater. Ten other passengers were injured, some severely.

Six Flags eventually settled with the woman's family and other riders, citing faulty parts as the cause. Intamin manufactured the ride, but not the suspect parts, which Six Flags claimed were defective raft flotation bladders made by a third-party manufacturer.

The other deaths most similar to Jaramillo's came in 2016. That's when four children drowned on the Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamworld in Queensland, Australia, when their raft overturned as it began to ascend the final conveyor belt.

Also that year, a worker at Adventureland died when he was pulled under by the ride's conveyor belt and his head was crushed. And in 2017, an 11-year-old British girl drowned after being thrown from her raft on the Splash Canyon ride at the Drayton Manor amusement park in the United Kingdom.

Investigations called for changes after Australia, United Kingdom deaths

A major investigation followed the deaths at Dreamworld in Australia, detailed in a 274-page report by the state coroner in Queensland, which triggered regulatory changes in Australia.

Further recommendations came from a coroner's inquest into the girl's death at Drayton Manor in the United Kingdom. The coroner issued directives to parks operating river rapids to change their policies. 

In the U.S., however, no single agency has oversight over park safety. Starting in 1977, the CPSC took a number of steps aimed at improving safety at parks. Regulators prevailed in court, winning authorization to pursue penalties against ride operators. But amid continued litigation by the industry, Congress passed a law in 1981 exempting amusement parks from federal oversight, leaving regulation to state governments.

Of the 50 states, six exercise no regulation of the parks. Another 29 collect publicly available information about ride accidents, according to information compiled by Saferparks in 2017. Twenty-two require government inspections of rides. Saferparks identified 20 states as having "comprehensive" regulations.

Tough rules in New Jersey require service bulletins

• One of the toughest sets of regulations is New Jersey's. There, ride makers since 2002 have been required to disclose service bulletins to state regulators. In response to public records request by the Register, officials there said Intamin – which built the Congo River ride at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey's Jackson Township – has made no such disclosures to them.

Furthermore, a database of service bulletins kept by the U.K.'s park safety oversight bodies shows no disclosures by Intamin in relation to the rides. It does, however, show a March 2000 warning from a rival ride maker, Florida-based Hopkins Rides. It lists nine steps ride operators should take. Among those, echoing the coroner's recommendation in the Drayton Manor death, is to require continual monitoring of riders.

"You must provide a sufficient number of operators stationed around the ride to allow the entire course of the ride to be under observation at all times. Leaving any areas of the ride unobserved, or with blind spots, is unacceptable and could lead to a dangerous situation should an un-ordinary event take place out of view of operations personnel," the bulletin said.

Adventureland officials declined to comment on whether Intamin issued service bulletins following the Australian and U.K. accidents, but said they comply with all service bulletins from ride manufacturers.

Raging River death happened out of view of Adventureland workers

Records indicate that much of the Raging River ride at Adventureland was outside the view of park employees. A bystander first called 911 to report the Jamarillos' overturned raft.

Recordings of 911 calls and Polk County dispatcher radio broadcasts indicate the park's emergency personnel learned of the accident several minutes after it happened when ambulances were sent. Even then, the severity of the accident was unclear.

Intamin declined to comment on whether it had issued safety bulletins following the rulings from Australian and U.K. authorities. It also declined to comment on whether that contributed to Michael's or others' deaths.

"We do not comment on any incident until all relevant investigations are completed," said Kernacs, the Intamin executive.

Advocates consider Iowa's system of amusement park regulation among the more stringent in the U.S. State employees must inspect each ride annually. State officials say they inspect rides at least once each year to ensure they are in good condition and are being operated according to the manufacturer's safety guidelines.

Inspectors have the authority to revoke a ride's permit if it fails an inspection, and operating a ride without a permit is a criminal offense. The Iowa state Division of Labor inspected Adventureland's Raging River on July 2, the day before Jeramillo's drowning. The inspector gave it a clean bill of health, identifying no issues with the ride or the park's procedures for operating it.

Raging River ride suffered equipment failures after passing inspection

However, records show the ride had suffered multiple equipment failures the day of the accident. As the day began, the pumps that control the ride's water level weren't working properly, and park employees worked on them for several hours, according to employee statements that the park provided to state regulators.

About 3 p.m., park employees determined that three rafts had partially deflated flotation bladders, including the one the Jaramillos later boarded. The employees said in their statements that they repaired two of the rafts and took the third out of service. A state report says that as soon as the family boarded the raft, it began taking on water, scraping along the bottom of the ride's channel until it overturned.

Kathryn Woodcock, a safety researcher at Ryerson University and head of the Tools for Holistic Ride Inspection Learning and Leadership lab there, said inspectors can't spot every potential defect.

"Defects don’t just turn up immediately just before an inspection. They can occur any time, and state inspectors cannot catch them all because they are not continuously present," Woodcock said.

Accidents have happened at marquee parks such as Disney World, Six Flags, Kings Dominion

Experts disagree as to whether the current U.S. system for regulating amusement rides is sufficient to protect people from injuries and death.

"Immediately after one such rare event, it's obviously front of mind, but objectively, the rate of occurrence … is vanishingly small," Woodcock said.

Woodcock said that the combination of parks' own inspections, state regulation and the vigilance of ride operators prevent most potential problems. 

"As the safety record shows, those layers of protection are almost always effective," she said. "But if they are not, the consequences can be serious. The industry responds to this with continuous safety education and review of safety standards."

Even so, the Register found serious accidents at marquee parks such as Walt Disney World, Six Flags and Kings Dominion.

An expert on process safety said that's the wrong way to look at it. Trish Kerin, director of the safety center at the Institution of Chemical Engineers, researched the 2016 deaths in Australia and determined parks could dramatically improve safety by following process safety approaches used by companies that handle dangerous chemicals.

While there are multiple variations on "process safety," Kerin's center promotes the idea of creating a company environment where leadership, employee knowledge, culture and processes are aligned toward ensuring safety rather than mitigating risk.

"If lack of following a procedure leads to a catastrophic outcome, then we have not designed a system that is resilient enough to actually do what we need it to do," she said.

Follow Daniel Lathrop on Twitter: @lathropd.