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A False Sense of Security?

By Theresa Camoriano

In Louisville, there have been several recent incidents that have shaken people’s sense of security.  First, a teenage girl had both her feet cut off by a cable that came loose from a ride at Six Flags.  Then, a four-year-old boy who had been playing near his home was abducted and murdered, and an 18-month-old girl was attacked by a neighbor’s pit bull that came into her house though an open door.  The community feels great sympathy for the victims in these cases and wants to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future, but what can be done?

Six Flags Injury -  The ride at Six Flags had been inspected by government authorities and declared safe.  Obviously, it wasn’t.  Did the government inspections give customers a false sense of security?

Now, Six Flags probably will have to pay large damages to the girl and her family, and it probably will suffer a substantial loss in business from people who are afraid to go on its rides.  One would think this financial loss would be a great enough incentive to the company to make its rides safer in the future.  However, many people are calling for more government regulations over amusement park rides. 

Would more regulations improve safety, or would they simply create an even greater false sense of security and reduce the likelihood that the company would initiate its own safety improvements?  Also, would government regulations require businesses to invest in old solutions and tend to prevent technology upgrades that could improve safety?  Perhaps a better solution would be to create an independent organization, like Underwriters’ Labs, that would inspect and rate the safety of amusement park rides. Amusement park owners would hire this organization to check out their rides and rate their safety.  Then, people who were considering attending an amusement park could check out the safety rating of a particular ride or facility and decide for themselves which rides they wanted to use.  Presumably, the businesses that had the best safety ratings while still having interesting rides at reasonable prices would have the greatest success.

Murder  -- In the case of the little boy who was murdered, if he was murdered by a convicted sex offender who lived nearby, it might be an opportunity to suggest that such offenses be taken very seriously and sex offenders be put in jail for longer periods of time to keep them away from the public, as these types of offenders seem to be at high risk of committing similar or worse crimes in the future.  In addition, parents and other caregivers should watch young children very closely.  They should not assume that their neighborhoods are safe, as sex offenders and other evil people can be anywhere.

Dog attack – Louisville already had enacted a very strict dog ordinance, but that had no effect on the owner of the pit bull, who was busy operating a meth lab and probably was not very concerned about breaking a dog ordinance.  This is a perfect example of the fact that passing feel-good laws to “do something” about a problem often has little or no effect or even a negative effect.  The only real solution is for neighbors to be attentive and take action to stop dogs from running loose in their neighborhood. 

While government certainly has a role to play in all these situations, it does not have the dominant role.  We can pass as many laws as we like, but that will not make the world safe.  The first line of defense always is to be careful, use our own common sense, and take an interest in our neighborhoods and communities to try to make them safer places for our own benefit and for the benefit of others. 

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