4 Persons Were Injured On Sunday When The Track Of A Roller Coaster Gave Way, Tourism Department Suspends Joyrides Till Experts Check Equipment
V Ayyappan TNN
Feb 17, 2009
Chennai: The police on Monday arrested three persons of the private company that owned and operated joyrides at Island Grounds while the tourism department instructed the company to suspend operations till engineers from the Indian Institute of Technology and Anna University inspect the equipment; after four persons were injured during a roller coaster ride at India Tourist and Anna Centenary Industrial Fair on Sunday. B a l a r a - man, manager of the company at the f a i r, Ramesh (32), the maintenance manager, and Pachais (24), who operated the ride, were arrested and charged under section 337 of IPC for endangering life or personal safety of others, the police said. The roller coaster has been completely dismantled by the company though tourism department officials said that they did not instruct them to remove the ride. Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) managing director M Rajaram said that “as a precaution we have invited mechanical engineering experts from IIT and Anna University to inspect the rides. The rides will not be operated for a day or two till the checks are completed. The private company already has a certificate because they have insured the equipment.” Safety is compromised because the operators of joyrides are not monitored, neither by the government nor by the tourism department. The 21 rides are installed, maintained and operated without external supervision or licensing. Except Tora Tora, Crazy Cup and a helicopterlike ride for children, all other rides look old and rusty and are held together by nuts and bolts. The rides just stand in the sand, depending on structure’s design for balance and stability. None of them have proper foundation structure that fixes them into the earth because the rides are dismantled and moved to other fairs. Three mechanics maintain the rides and operators do trial runs before the rides are put to use at the start of every day. “We have been maintaining the equipment everyday. The accident was minor, it happened because the track joints fell off,” said Balaraman. Meanwhile, a tourism department official said, “We do not have any norms to follow before allowing private players to operate joyrides at such fairs. The company has been in the business for more than 30 years. They have operated joyrides at such fairs in Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem and other places.” Said Rajaram, “We have sent a suggestion to the state government to draw guidelines to ensure safety of visitors at such fairs. The government is working on it.”
CHECKLIST
A maintenance team should come in early with a checklist before the fair is opened to the public and check the unit. A trial run should be conducted, after which a ‘ready to operate’ tag should be handed over to the ride operator. Only if the operator has the tag should he be given the authority to operate the unit The operator should conduct another trial run to ensure that the mechanism works smoothly. In this case, the unit was assembled when the fair began in December. The machine is said to be old and not properly maintained. The maintenance team seemed to have taken chances when there should have been no room for risk Preventive maintenance should be taken up for wear and tear of parts such as nuts and bolts. They have to be checked, lubricated and replaced once a week Such mechanised rides should have an ignition key in the control room that can be used to cut off the ride if the need arises. This ride didn’t even have a central control room, leave alone a third person to monitor the function of the unit. Safety handles on rides should be such that it is impossible for the passenger to remove or manipulate them Safety should be enforced at the drawing board level. It’s difficult to inculcate it into the plan after all the equipment was set up First-aid kit is not enough. There is a need for first-aid centres manned by trained nurses and a rescue team ready to handle emergencies
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