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Ride Safety: Regulation At Kennywood, Carnivals And More

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Kennywood, fairs, carnivals are all part of summer. But some may wonder how safe they are.

KDKA learned Thursday that every single ride, all 10,000 of them in the state, must be inspected and registered.

You can hear the laughter and screams through Kennywood, the only agenda here is to have fun. But behind the scenes, it's a little different.

14 million people visit amusement and water parks, fairs and carnivals every year in Pennsylvania -- and for the folks who run all of those parks, they must meet state safety requirements.

KDKA was able to see what an inspection looks like at Kennywood at the Kangaroo Ride.

Inspections here are done daily, weekly, monthly and annually by state certified inspectors. Kennywood has 17 of them on staff.

"They're credentialed. They go through a fairly extensive training program," said Secretary Russell Redding with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

But what about traveling carnivals that move across the state or even across the country?

"When you move from fair to fair or from carnival to carnival, that doesn't negate the need to have the inspection done," said Secretary Redding. "Then they've got to be inspected when they're reset. So, it's a more active area of course when they're moving around."

All rides, even traveling amusements, must be registered with the state every year and inspected. At Kennywood, the Kangaroo is torn down completely for it's annual inspection. And some of the older rides, aren't as old as you think.

"Every year, we replace about 10 percent of the wood on each coaster so in 10 years time, we have completely rebuilt each rollar coaster," said Andy Quinn with Kennywood.

Concerns were raised several years ago, after some records were found to be missing, but there's now an online database of inspection records, which anyone can search.

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