Amusement Parks Rides

It is hard work, Kathy Fackler says, to be at odds with Mickey Mouse. To walk into the Happiest Place on Earth and be in enemy territory. That's what it feels like when you're a La Jolla mom turned amusement park safety crusader. Since her son David's foot was mangled on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad three years ago, Fackler has become the nation's most vocal advocate for safer theme parks.

Steve Wicke is "just big into space. " The Westminster man took four months off his warehouse job last year to visit every NASA site in the United States. On Saturday, he joined an estimated 20,000 people who swarmed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's leafy campus for its annual open house weekend. Buses and SUVs clogged Oak Grove Drive near the La Cañada Flintridge boundary with Pasadena and filled JPL parking lots to disgorge passengers of all ages, who descended on the exhibits and activities as if they were new amusement park rides.

Three investigations were launched Monday into the death of a Knott's Berry Farm train operator who was crushed between two passenger cars of the Calico Railroad ride, officials of the theme park said. Park officials said they do not know what caused the 6 p.m. Sunday accident that killed George Berecz, a 55-year-old fireman-engineer from Anaheim who had worked at the park for three years. His death was the park's first employee fatality in its 76-year history.

Michael Jackson was never a fixture on the county fair circuit, but his Neverland rides now are on a never-ending tour. The attractions he set up in his estate's private amusement park have been auctioned off and are being trucked from carnival to carnival, pitched as a chance to take a spin on a piece of history. At the far end of the midway at the Tulare County Fair in the Central Valley this month, signs announced: "Michael ride here! This is one of Michael Jackson's rides from Neverland Ranch!"

Expect a new look--and a new name--soon for Tomorrowland, the futuristic but somewhat dated theme area at Disneyland. Starting in March, much of Tomorrowland will vanish behind construction walls for its most thorough renovation ever and its first serious revamping since 1967. When Tomorrowland opened amid the orange groves 40 years ago, it celebrated the idea that opportunity seemed limitless.

A state safety panel met Thursday in Los Angeles to iron out regulations for amusement park rides. The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board said it will consider comments made at the meeting and in writing by theme park officials, their lawyers and consumer advocates. Legislation passed in 1999 requires theme parks to report ride injuries and sets up a state inspection and investigation system.

A woman died at a New Orleans amusement park when she was struck by one of the rides, officials said. Rosa Donaldson, 52, was killed in an accident on a teacup-style "circular family ride" called the Joker's Jukebox, said Ann Wills, spokeswoman for Six Flags New Orleans amusement park. Local news reports said Donaldson apparently was standing near one of the cars trying to strap in her 4-year-old grandson when the ride started up.

Of all the businesses west of the Los Angeles River, none is more incongruous than Bradley & Kaye Amusements. Where body shops and junkyards are the norm, this small building on West 15th Street seems out of place with its wood siding and its equestrian logo painted beside the front door. Open that door, and for a moment you might half expect to smell popcorn or hear a pipe organ, instead of fiberglass, sanders and drills.

Introduce a friend from New Zealand to the waterfront in Southern California and you'll probably get a puzzled look, and maybe another of those peculiar questions about our culture. "Why are all these sailboats boats here?" By "here," your visitor means here at the dock. Why, when the sky is fair, the winds light and steady, the sea gentle, are all these boats idle and unattended at their moorings? Why is the seascape from Malibu to Dana Point, or from Ventura to San Diego, so, well, empty?

Steve Wicke is "just big into space. " The Westminster man took four months off his warehouse job last year to visit every NASA site in the United States. On Saturday, he joined an estimated 20,000 people who swarmed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's leafy campus for its annual open house weekend. Buses and SUVs clogged Oak Grove Drive near the La Cañada Flintridge boundary with Pasadena and filled JPL parking lots to disgorge passengers of all ages, who descended on the exhibits and activities as if they were new amusement park rides.

Introduce a friend from New Zealand to the waterfront in Southern California and you'll probably get a puzzled look, and maybe another of those peculiar questions about our culture. "Why are all these sailboats boats here?" By "here," your visitor means here at the dock. Why, when the sky is fair, the winds light and steady, the sea gentle, are all these boats idle and unattended at their moorings? Why is the seascape from Malibu to Dana Point, or from Ventura to San Diego, so, well, empty?

A woman died at a New Orleans amusement park when she was struck by one of the rides, officials said. Rosa Donaldson, 52, was killed in an accident on a teacup-style "circular family ride" called the Joker's Jukebox, said Ann Wills, spokeswoman for Six Flags New Orleans amusement park. Local news reports said Donaldson apparently was standing near one of the cars trying to strap in her 4-year-old grandson when the ride started up.

It is hard work, Kathy Fackler says, to be at odds with Mickey Mouse. To walk into the Happiest Place on Earth and be in enemy territory. That's what it feels like when you're a La Jolla mom turned amusement park safety crusader. Since her son David's foot was mangled on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad three years ago, Fackler has become the nation's most vocal advocate for safer theme parks.

A state safety panel met Thursday in Los Angeles to iron out regulations for amusement park rides. The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board said it will consider comments made at the meeting and in writing by theme park officials, their lawyers and consumer advocates. Legislation passed in 1999 requires theme parks to report ride injuries and sets up a state inspection and investigation system.

There's no business like show business when it comes to attracting teenage workers in Southern California. But even the ever-popular entertainment venues admit to feeling the pinch in today's super-tight job market. With Los Angeles County's unemployment rate at 5.3%--and even lower in certain booming areas within the region--employers who rely on teenage workers are redoubling efforts to recruit and hold onto the entry-level employees on whom they depend.

Three investigations were launched Monday into the death of a Knott's Berry Farm train operator who was crushed between two passenger cars of the Calico Railroad ride, officials of the theme park said. Park officials said they do not know what caused the 6 p.m. Sunday accident that killed George Berecz, a 55-year-old fireman-engineer from Anaheim who had worked at the park for three years. His death was the park's first employee fatality in its 76-year history.

There's no business like show business when it comes to attracting teenage workers in Southern California. But even the ever-popular entertainment venues admit to feeling the pinch in today's super-tight job market. With Los Angeles County's unemployment rate at 5.3%--and even lower in certain booming areas within the region--employers who rely on teenage workers are redoubling efforts to recruit and hold onto the entry-level employees on whom they depend.

Michael Jackson was never a fixture on the county fair circuit, but his Neverland rides now are on a never-ending tour. The attractions he set up in his estate's private amusement park have been auctioned off and are being trucked from carnival to carnival, pitched as a chance to take a spin on a piece of history. At the far end of the midway at the Tulare County Fair in the Central Valley this month, signs announced: "Michael ride here! This is one of Michael Jackson's rides from Neverland Ranch!"

Expect a new look--and a new name--soon for Tomorrowland, the futuristic but somewhat dated theme area at Disneyland. Starting in March, much of Tomorrowland will vanish behind construction walls for its most thorough renovation ever and its first serious revamping since 1967. When Tomorrowland opened amid the orange groves 40 years ago, it celebrated the idea that opportunity seemed limitless.

Of all the businesses west of the Los Angeles River, none is more incongruous than Bradley & Kaye Amusements. Where body shops and junkyards are the norm, this small building on West 15th Street seems out of place with its wood siding and its equestrian logo painted beside the front door. Open that door, and for a moment you might half expect to smell popcorn or hear a pipe organ, instead of fiberglass, sanders and drills.