Aug. 23, 1999: a 20-year-old man died on the Shockwave roller coaster at Paramount King’s Dominion theme park near Richmond, Va.

Aug. 22, 1999: a 12-year-old boy fell to his death after slipping through a harness son the Drop Zone ride at Paramount’s Great America Theme Park in Santa Clara, Cal.

Aug. 7, 1999: a raft flipped over at Riverside Park in Agawam, Mass., trapping six riders underneath, leaving one victim hospitalized for a week in critical condition.

June 11, 1999: a 17-year-old Brooklyn teenager died of internal bleeding when a bobsled-style car on Coney Island’s Super Himalaya broke loose from the ride, flipped and crushed her.

March 21, 1999: a 28-year-old woman drowned at the Six Flags Over Texas theme park what a raft capsized.

And, certainly, many Chicagoans recall when a wheel broke off the Demon roller coaster in 1998 at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, leaving 23 people hanging upside down for nearly three hours.

People are still going to amusement parks in droves - a record 170.5 million people visited the 50 largest theme parks in North America in 1999, a 3 percent increase over the previous year.

So, what’s being done about what is considered to be the most calamitous year in the history of America’s amusement parks?

Right now, nothing by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency that bears the responsibility to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injuries and deaths associated with consumer products. That’s because permanently fixed theme parks are entirely exempt from safety regulation by the CPSC.

In October, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., tried to change that. He introduced a bill (H.R. 3032) called the National Amusement Park Ride Safety Act of 1999. It would restore the ability of the CPSC to investigate serious accidents in amusement parks that offer rides that are permanently fixed to the site. That bill currently sits in a subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee.

In 1981, Congress exempted from federal regulation rides that are permanently fixed in place at an amusement park. Two of those sponsors were representatives from Southern California, home of Disneyland. No one was officially given jurisdiction over fixed-site parks, so authority fell to whatever state or local office was willing to take it on.

Some states inspect rides regularly and require accident reports. Private insurers sometimes conduct their own inspections. Florida, for instance, lets Disney World inspect itself.

In Illinois, state statute governs safety inspections of traveling or temporary carnivals as well as of fixed rides like at Great America through the creation of a five-member board appointed by the governor. 430 ILCS 85/2-3. This board promulgates and formulates all rules and regulations for the safe installation, repair, maintenance, use, operation and inspection of all amusement rides and attractions, based upon engineering standards. 430 ILCS 85/2-6.

The board’s director or an inspector hired by the state Department of Labor may order a temporary and immediate cessation of operation of any amusement ride or attraction if it is deemed to be hazardous or unsafe. Permits and liability insurance must be obtained and fees may be charged; failure to follow the law may result in being guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. 430 ILSC 85/2-15.

Municipalities and counties likewise may regulate amusement rides or attractions at carnivals or fairs, provided they shall be "at least as stringent as those provided for in this Act and the rules and regulations adopted hereunder." 430 ILCS 85/2-17.

Under Illinois law, amusement ride operators are deemed common carriers, which means they owe the "highest duty of care" to their passengers. Pajak v. Mamsch, 338 Ill.App.337, 87 N.E.2d 147 (1^st Dist. 1949).

Still, the inspection of rides and reporting of incidents is erratic at best, and some 13 states have no state-level inspection program. Given the new breed of extreme attractions, combining higher speeds with twists and turns, that’s intolerable.

Just last year California instituted such a program under a new state law on the heels of a tragic accident in 1998 at Disneyland, where an eight-pound cleat snapped off a sailing ship, killing a tourist.

In introducing the new federal bill, Rep. Markey said, "The manufacturer or owner of ever other consumer product in America is required by law to inform the CPSC whenever it becomes aware that the product may pose a substantial risk of harm - but not the owners and operators of ‘fixed-site’ rides in amusement parks."

He noted that this is particularly disturbing in light of the "dramatic" increase in the number of injuries at fixed-location rides int eh last five years.

According to admittedly incomplete figures compiled by the CPSC, in 1998 there were 9,200 ride-related injuries, a 24 percent jump from the 7,400 in 1994, even though visitorship rose only 12 percent in that same time period.

"Today’s rides are huge metal machines capable of hurling the human body through space at forces that exceed the Space Shuttle and at speeds that exceed 100 miles per hour. They are complex industrial-size mechanisms whose design, maintenance and operation can push the limits of physical tolerance even for patrons in peak condition, let alone members of the broad spectrum of the public who are invited to ride each day," Markey said.

And the people running these rides? Besides enduring the monotony of being a ride operator, they typically earn just above minimum wage, a reported average of $5.47 per hour, which does not ensure experienced, mature individuals who can recognize or prevent problems.

The time has come for stringent federal regulation of amusement park rides before another person is killed in a loop-de-loophole.