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"New questions have been raised about who actually is in charge of looking after the safety of theme park guests after a woman fell to her death from a ride at a Texas amusement park.The Orlando area is home to some of the nation\u2019s biggest theme parks, and a WESH 2 investigation uncovered that the three most popular -- Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando -- are exempt from any government inspection.In 2005 a 4-year-old boy died after riding the Mission Space ride at Walt Disney World, one of 17 deaths Disney has reported since 2001.While it's unclear exactly how many of those deaths stemmed from pre-existing conditions, under Florida law, the state's big theme parks are exempt from state oversight.The Department of Agriculture is tasked with inspecting amusement park rides and carnivals, but Disney, Universal and Sea World are not part of their inspections because those parks have more than 1,000 employees and full-time inspectors on staff.Critics said the rule is a conflict of interest for the parks to investigate themselves in the event of an accident.Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts told WESH 2 News that he is calling for a change to federal law to allow more government oversight.\"Roller coasters that hurtle riders at extreme speeds along precipitous drops should not be exempt from federal safety oversight,\u201D Markey said in a statement. \u201CA baby stroller is subject to tougher federal regulation than a roller coaster carrying a child in excess of 100 miles an hour. This is a mistake.\"Florida's theme parks do voluntarily report accidents to the state, but WESH 2 found that the data doesn't always provide a full picture. Injury descriptions are only a few words long and some data appears to be missing or incomplete.When a 39-year-old woman died after riding the Mummy at Universal Studios in 2004, officials just wrote \"fatality.\" In 2003, Universal also just marked \"fatality\" when a 34-year-old woman died after riding the Hulk.WESH\u2019s review found most accidents that were reported happened while guests were getting on or off a ride. Other factors like pre-existing conditions, health and age contributed to some of the injuries and deaths that occurred.\u00A0Spokespeople from Disney, Universal and SeaWorld did not return calls for comment.Related: Horrific amusement park accidents"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wesh.com/article/who-oversees-theme-park-safety-in-florida/4426369>