Rollercoasters and any other given attractions found at major theme parks around the world are statistically safer than all common forms of transportation and recreation, with redundant safety features making today's thrillrides virtually failsafe, but there is one aspect of theme park safety which I beleive has been overlooked for just too long. No, not concerning actual ride design, but rather the potential of terrorism at our parks.
Just stop and take a look at the security at the turnstiles the next time you enter through the front gate at any given park and you may begin to wonder if the pre-9/11 airport security officials just might have found work in the theme park industry.
Take for example one afternoon last year when I was visiting Six Flags over Georgia just outside Atlanta less than two weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11th - a time when national park security was supposedly at its highest. Although I've come to expect lax security at parks in general, I was no less than amazed to find no security whatsoever at the entrance, no one manning the metal detectors, abselutely nothing.
And the Disney chain in particular has had a number of plots created against their parks and even nearly carried out in the past, including one which was set to take place at Anaheim, California's Disneyland during New Years celebration in December, 1999, financed and masterminded by Usama bin Laden but foiled when U.S. customs discovered the materials needed for the attack that month.
In addition, an increased risk warning has been issued for theme parks throughout America this Summer, but I fail to see anything adequate being accomplished in the security measures being taken.
Nothing could stop me from visiting the parks and riding the rides, however, and the risk of terrorism, as much as at theme parks, likely exists almost anywhere in the world, but more or less the potential still exists more than I believe it should.
