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Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008

State shuts down Kiddieland rides

After 51 years in business, park's operators say they didn't know inspections were required

The roller coaster is still. The choo-choo train has stopped. The rocket ship is grounded. The carousel can't spin.

Kiwanis Kiddieland was shut down Friday after state officials discovered the decades-old Merced landmark has never submitted to a legally required California safety inspection.

Kiddieland, a six-ride, nonprofit children's amusement park located in Merced's Applegate Park, was founded in 1957 by the Kiwanis Club of Greater Merced, the local chapter of an international community service organization.

An inspector with the state's Department of Industrial Relations ordered the attraction to close its gates Friday afternoon. Kiddieland will stay closed, state officials said, until it passes a safety inspection and obtains a certificate to prove it.

"This is a big requirement that they just seem to have missed," said Erika Monterroza, a Department of Industrial Relations spokeswoman. "We're taking it seriously. They can't operate until it's remedied."

Before last week, the state apparently didn't know Kiddieland existed. Safety officials discovered the amusement park -- and its failure to submit to yearly safety inspections -- after another amusement park brought the matter to the state's attention, Monterroza said. She declined to name the amusement park that reported Kiddieland.

Kiwanis Club officials said Monday that they didn't know they needed a state safety certificate to operate Kiddieland lawfully.

"We have the right building permits and that kind of thing from the city, but we weren't aware we needed something else," Kiwanis vice president Mike Wegley said. "Now we're just trying to figure out what we have to do to get in compliance."

At a chapter meeting Monday, Kiwanis members expressed outrage that Kiddieland has been shut down in the middle of its open season, which runs March to October. "How can they just spring this on us?" one member yelled. Many members seemed to regard the state as the negligent party.

Not so, Monterroza said. "It's the responsibility of the operator to know the law and follow it," she said. "When you're operating amusement park rides, there obviously needs to be some sort of safety inspection, and inspectors have apparently never been there."

Though she acknowledged that Kiddieland has never undergone an official safety inspection, Kiwanis president Karen Adams said the club takes steps on its own to ensure its rides are safe.

"All of our rides are real gentle in the first place because they're for little kids," she said. "And we're constantly making repairs and improvements. Anytime we see anything unsafe, we fix it."

She said the club has made several "common sense" safety upgrades over the years, including the addition of seat belts to its rides. It's also made safety improvements to satisfy requirements imposed by its insurance company, Wegley said.

No one has ever been seriously injured at the park, he said.

Kiddieland's rides include a merry-go-round, a train ride, a "Go-Gator" roller coaster, a helicopter ride, a car ride and a rocket ship ride -- all geared toward small children.

Before it was shut down, the amusement park operated weekends from March to October and regularly hosted children's birthday parties. In March it was vandalized by graffiti scribblers; last year, vandals egged some of the rides and structures.

"It sent us scrambling on Friday because we had birthday parties lined up for the weekend," said John Sykes, who has volunteered at Kiddieland for nearly 40 years. "We had to call everybody and refund their money. I feel real bad about that."

Wegley said he has begun making arrangements for a safety inspection at Kiddieland and hopes the park can reopen within a month. If inspectors find anything that doesn't meet state safety standards, he acknowledged, Kiddieland will probably stay closed longer.

Besides ensuring its rides are in safe working order, by state law Kiwanis must show that it properly keeps repair logs and other records, maintains manuals on its rides, and trains its ride operators. In addition to yearly scheduled inspections, the state may also inspect amusement parks without notice.

The state can't offer any estimate of when the park might be allowed to reopen, Monterroza said.

Reporter Corinne Reilly can be reached at (209) 385-2477 or creilly@mercedsun-star.com.