BOSTON, May 3 (UPI) -- A weekend roller coaster death near Boston has renewed calls for federal regulations for the thrill rides, the Boston Globe reported Monday.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., told the newspaper he would step up efforts to get a hearing on the safety of amusement park rides that has been stalled on Capitol Hill for five years.
"We have federal standards for automobiles, for baby carriages, for safety caps on medicine, but not on rides that go 60-to-80 miles per hour that result in death and injury every summer," he told the newspaper.
Stanley Mordarsky, 55, who had cerebral palsy, was hurled to his death about 3 p.m. Saturday at Six Flags New England as the Superman Ride of Steel roller coaster rounded a bend at the end of a run.
Amusement park safety has been a longstanding concern for Markey, who has had a bill before Congress since 1999 that would require parks to share the results of investigations so that faulty equipment elsewhere will be fixed.
The amusement park industry was exempted from the Consumer Product Safety Act in 1981, allowing individual owners to keep safety reports to themselves.
