Each day from April to October as many as 10 city Department of Buildings elevator inspectors examine amusement park rides. Roughly 20 of the 44 elevator inspectors are qualified to clear rides for use.
"It's a machine," John Mingoia told NY1 while looking at a ride, "It doesn’t have a mind of its own. If it fails it can hurt you."
The Department of Buildings recently allowed NY1 to watch as Mingoia and two other inspectors found problems and had the operators repair them at the Academy of St. Dorothy Carnival before Memorial Day Weekend.
According to the DOB, these were the results (Source: DOB):
There were 10 rides total inspected:
- Expo Wheel
- Ali Babba
- Samba Balloon
- Bumper Cars
- Taxi Jet
- Jumpin Star
- Kite Flyer
- Carousel
- Jitterbug
- Tea Cup
Of those 10 rides the following issues were found:
- Blocking on the tracks of the Ali Baba ride was found to be insecure. Blocking is used to ensure that all tracks are in place and the ride is level. This blocking has now been properly secured on the track and the ride has been cleared to operate.
- Jitterbug had three loose seats. These seats have all been fixed and the ride has been cleared to operate.
- Seat 9 of the Kite Flyer ride had an improperly secured bracket. This bracket has been fixed.
The Academy of St. Dorothy Carnival is a temporary event and each ride has to pass inspection before the city clears it for use. These inspections are good for 14 days at a time and there were 700 such approvals in each of the last two years.
The inspectors work in teams of three to nine, depending on the size of the event and follow a checklist.
Mingoia said they, "just keep doing the same repetitive thing over and over again," checking each other's work. They flag the problems that need repairs. If they don't get fixed, they don’t get approved for use.
The roughly 120 permanent rides in the city, like the 17 at Luna Park in Coney Island are inspected twice a year.
"Plus, we do spot checks on all the rides when they're running, especially on weekends," said Donald Franklin, the Deputy Director of the Elevator Division.
He says he has as many as nine undercover inspectors running spot checks on busy weekends and they look primarily on the ride’s operation.
"You got two operators," he explains, "one is on the cell phone we shut that ride down. The owner is notified. He gets another operator or the ride can’t run."
The DOB says it increased the number of spot checks from 6,890 in 2016 to 9,265 in 2017 in order to increase safety.
Inspectors say ride operators follow their instructions and citations are usually only issued after an accident or when someone is breaking the law.
In fact, the DOB's records show there have been only 14 citations issued in the last 20 years.
Compliance is the preference, knowing there's nothing amusing about an accident.
Franklin adds, "We put our own kids on it."