Monday, March 14, 2011

Lawmakers Consider More Regulation Of Amusement Rides
Chris Lehman / Northwest News NetworkChildren play on inflatable play structures at JJ Jump in Clackamas, Oregon.
Chris Lehman / Northwest News Network
Children play on inflatable play structures at JJ Jump in Clackamas, Oregon.Cary Hanson had a rotten Valentine's Day this year. She took her six-year-old daughter to a Beaverton amusement center -- the kind that specializes in inflatable playhouses and slides.
Hanson was having a great time with her daughter, until...
Cary Hanson: "Going down the slide I knew, ow, I'm getting injured really bad here. And when I got up and I looked, there was skin hanging off of the wound."
Hanson says she was following the posted rules when she went down the slide with her daughter. Their weight had shifted and Hanson's arm was dragged along the surface of the slide for most of the way down.

It still smarted when she showed it to me a few days later.
Cary Hanson: "Yeah, it's pretty bad. It was an open wound for about three days and it finally scabbed over."
Hanson's pain gave way to anger when she found out that inflatable rides like the one she was injured on are unregulated in Oregon.
She thinks that should change and at least one state official agrees with her.
Patrick Allen is head of the Building Codes Division of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. He presented to lawmakers a proposal that would bring inflatable rides under state regulation.
Patrick Allen: "They're kind of flying under the radar right now. And they really are an area where there are some significant safety concerns."
read more at: http://news.opb.org/article/70837-lawmakers-consider-more-regulation-amusement-rides/


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