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Eleven years ago, I became an accidental advocate. Accidental means "happening by chance or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things". My son's injury in 1998 took me down an unexpected and highly unusual course. Advocacy became my career for a time, not through ambition or skill or training or temperament, but because I knew that children deserved safer amusement ride experiences. January 2010 marks the ten year anniversary of the Saferparks website, and also my retirement from the ride safety world. Both are significant milestones.
I started this website as a way to help consumers learn about safety issues on amusement rides so they could better protect themselves and their children. Its content has been based, in large part, on data, standards, analyses, and recommendations from the broad safety community, including government regulators, ride manufacturers, amusement park and carnival operators, ride inspectors, and academic researchers. The Saferparks website also incorporates opinions and recommendations from people who don’t have special insider knowledge of amusement rides, but spent their hard-earned cash to use them for a few moments. All of those people trusted that they would be safe. Not all were. Consumer reports of accidents and near-misses enrich and enliven the more carefully filtered information provided by industry and government. You can’t effectively problem solve human user systems if you ignore the human user's perspective.
In 2004, I announced a five-year plan with three goals, some more ambitious than others, and a snappy slogan that left no room for schedule slips. “Safer Thrills for Your Kids and Mine by 2009” was borne of the sober understanding 
that systemic change takes time and the equally sober understanding that, for me, long-term public advocacy on this issue exacts a high personal toll.
Saferparks didn't make dent in any of Big Theme's exemptions, not in Texas or Florida or at the federal level. Really, you have to wonder what I was thinking. We were still knee-deep in the Bush years, anti-regulatory zealots had the run of Congress and most statehouses, and my opposition had me outspent by about infinity-to-one. Talk about the eternal optimist.
I did improve public access to safety information. Last year 42,000 unique visitors browsed 335,000 pages on saferparks.org. To borrow from Stephen Covey, this is the one area in which my circle of concern intersected my circle of influence.
The database gets the most traffic, and is the work product I'm most proud of. Accidents should be studied to improve future outcomes. I had a geeky good time working on the database project, but it wasn't intended as more than a somewhat over-involved concept demonstration. I'm not planning any more updates. The database is useful as a window into failures that happened during the "oughts", but what about the twenty-tens and beyond? The task of aggregating, analyzing, and disseminating detailed public safety data for a multibillion-dollar industry shouldn't fall to its accident victims. In every other reputable machinery-based industry, this is considered a fundamental public safety function.
We don’t yet have an overarching set of child safety guidelines for U.S. thrill rides, but the conversation advanced significantly in the last decade. The industry standards committee has been debating new requirements for restraints on full-sized rides approved for children under 48” in height. Many parks, carnivals and regulatory agencies expanded their focus on this unique safety niche. I’ve heard from numerous parents that the information provided by Saferparks has made them more aware of safety when choosing rides for their children.
It’s hard to remember that just a decade ago, child safe containment wasn’t mentioned in the ASTM standards or considered by much of the industry or regulatory community as anything but a family discipline problem. Over the past few years, better fitting restraints have been added to a few of the more wide-open ride designs with distressing ejection histories, and child containment accidents have been reduced. That's a win for everyone.
If amusement ride experiences marketed to young children are safer than they were five years ago -- and I believe they are -- it's thanks to the combined efforts of the amusement ride industry, regulatory community, and consumer safety world. I’m proud to have been part of that, and relieved that my part is finished. Every child matters. So does every business. I hope that my friends in the ride safety world will continue to search for solutions that respect both of those priorities, even without my pointed reminders.
I also hope that parents will continue to use the resources on this website, so painstakingly gathered, to protect and guide their own children when visiting theme parks and carnivals. Parents are an important part of the ride's restraint and containment system for young children. You may not see that posted on the safety signs, but trust me when I say it's the key to enjoying safe thrills with the children you love so much.
Kathy Fackler
President, Saferparks
