Texting While Operating Amusement Park Rides Uncovered in Illinois
When you think about rides at county fairs, safety probably isn't the first thing to pop into your head. More than likely, you'll think of corn dogs, vomit, and the sheer terror that your chosen ride will fall apart at any second. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, then, that ride operators at a Chicago-area fair were discovered to be texting instead of monitoring their rides.
This month, Chicago's CBS 2 captured undercover video of ride operators at the DuPage County Fair and a festival in Wood Dale, Illinois as they sent text messages while behind the controls of rides, creating the potential for disaster. The video, which features the texting operator of the 'Super Shot,' a ride that lifts passengers 60 feet in the air and drops them, was shown to owner Rob Driskill. The Driskill family runs Spectacular Midways, which orchestrates these traveling fairs. Driskill told the reporter, "I was glad you brought it to our attention." (Can you say 'understatement?') We do have to give the man some credit, though. Having seen the video, Driskill has started taking up his employees' cell phones when they arrive for work.
According to the report, Driskill's operation has a fine safety record, but this video is still alarming. If, God forbid, something did go wrong on one of these rides, the operator's ability to respond would be greatly impaired due to texting. Illinois's Department of Labor doesn't specifically ban the use of cell phones for ride operators, but with this video making the rounds, we can only hope that will change in the near future. [From: CBS 2]
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