State needs to get it right on carnival law

The Legislature needs to decide if it wants to get serious about protecting people at amusement parks and carnivals in Kansas.

Legislators turned their attention to amusement park safety this year after 10-year-old Caleb Schwab was killed in August 2016 on a 17-story water slide called Verruckt at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City.

Caleb was the son of state Rep. Scott Schwab of Olathe.

The slide Caleb died on was not inspected by the federal government, and state and local governments had little oversight regarding its safety. Caleb’s death exposed a lack of accountability across the state for the safety of amusement park and carnival rides.

To its credit, the Legislature attempted to address the issue in April, when it passed a law that would require annual inspections of amusement park and carnival rides by a nationally certified inspector or an engineer with experience inspecting amusement parks.

As it turns out, though, the law doesn’t go far enough to protect people at carnivals, and most legislators didn’t have the political will to put the law into full force on July 1, when it is supposed to take effect. Instead, they voted to strip the enforcement component of the law out until Jan. 1.

The delay was prompted by concerns from the owners of carnivals who said they were not prepared to meet the requirements of the law. Lawmakers specifically cited problems the law would cause of smaller “home-owned” carnivals who set up at county fairs across the state over the summer.

Sadly, we have learned that traveling carnivals can be just as deadly as big-city amusement parks.

On May 12, 15-month-old Pressley Bartonek was electrocuted outside a bouncy house at a traveling carnival in the parking lot of Towne West Square in Wichita. She died five days later.

Pressley wasn’t big enough to go into a bouncy house with other members of her family, so she stayed outside and played near a guard rail. Pressley was electrocuted when she grabbed the guard rail.

A Westar employee later determined that 290 volts of electricity were surging through the guardrail from power supplied by a privately owned generator.

An investigation by Wichita police determined that a nearby light and power box were not insulated. The light pole was touching the guard rail grabbed by Pressley, police said.

Pressley’s death exposed a gap in the law passed by the Legislature: The law, even if put into full effect, would only require inspection of the rides themselves and not electrical equipment set up as part of the carnival.

The Legislature should revisit the inspection law when it returns for next year’s session, with an eye toward protecting people rather than protecting businesses. It should add a requirement that all carnivals be inspected each time they set up in a new location by someone with the appropriate skills who is not a carnival employee.

The inspections should include the rides and all related equipment and power sources.

The Legislature misfired with its attempt to make amusement parks and carnivals safer this year. Next year, legislators need to get it right.

This story was originally published June 25, 2017 at 5:08 AM with the headline "State needs to get it right on carnival law."