The growing number of "roller-coaster" accidents should be no surprise.
Recent news reports have carried what seem to many an alarming number of accidents involving thrill rides, such as roller-coasters, at various amusement parks. Some are amazed that there should be such a profusion, but even moderate analysis removes the mystery about such occurrences.
First, there are more amusement parks and more such rides available to the public. That means more people, some without using good common sense, are riding the "coasters." Some patrons, for whatever the reason, like to depict themselves as daredevils and bypass the normal safety procedures and devices for what proves to be a costly effort to show off.
Add the fact that it takes more personnel to operate more rides, and that means some of the people may not be getting the fullest training and that some maintenance people may not be given sufficiently complete schooling to do their jobs at their best.
Then there is the element of risk, or at least perceived risk. The more dangerous a ride is regarded, rightly or wrongly, the more eager aficionados are to test it, and themselves, of course. Amusement parks are experts at portraying their latest plaything as the "biggest and baddest" to be found, and they dare people to get out and find out why. So people do that.
The combination can prove harmful and even deadly, as it has done recently.
So it shouldn't be any massive surprise that there are more accidents in such venues these days. As long as the public demands park operators to continue to push the envelope of safety and sanity to tease and appease them, there will be growing numbers of accidents.
The solution is simple enough, the same as it is when people can turn off an offensive television show or decline to read a bothersome newspaper article: Don't ride the potentially dangerous devices no matter how much assurance there is of ultimate safety.
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