Here it is, the 4th of July, and once again America’s nanny culture raises its ugly head:
from http://www.thestate.com/local/story/452020.html
[i]Six Flags Over Georgia must increase the size and number of warning signs near a popular roller coaster that decapitated a Columbia teen, regulators say.
Asia LeeShawn Ferguson IV, 17, scaled two fences and wandered into a restricted area, where he was struck by the roller coaster in Austell, Ga. The Batman ride reopened Wednesday following the Saturday accident.
But State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said the park must make signs bigger, post more of them and add the words ?extreme danger? within 10 days. Thurmond says the park met all other safety standards.[/i]
This idiot climbed two fences and ignored all warning signs to put himself in danger and now the [u]park[/u] has to put up more and larger signs even though they already met ?all other? safety standards? With the inspections required at amusement parks these days, how was this ?safety standard? not previously met? Why do I get the feeling that even though the whole thing would never have happened had the kid applied a neuron or two, somebody had to be seen to be doing something in the face of the kid’s stupidity?
I feel for his family, but what the hell happened to good sense?
Edit: Apparently the kid was returning to the park after lunch and decided not to go through the gate, according to this story: http://tinyurl.com/3khcpf. He had climbed the park perimeter fence, then the chain link safety fence to get where he was.