What Do You Think Of Ed Markey

[MRHSfalcon]

I was watching Good morning america and they had a segment on rollercoasters where they talked about TTD, KK, and some other extreme coaster. Basically it was about the saftey of rollercoasters, they also talked about the recent death on Rockin Roller Coaster. They had an interveiw with a couple of saftey experts, whicht they didnt say that coaster were dangerous, but they had congressman Ed Markey. As many of you know he dosn't think coasters are safe. My question to all of you is what do you think of Ed Markey, and his thoughts on rollercoasters?

My thoughts of this is that ihe is incorrect on some of his idea.

-MRHSF

[GADVwow]

Ed Markey is a publicity hound and a firm adherent of junk science.

The country would be better off if he became a muffin salesman.

[Cyclonic]

Ed Markey is a loser.  If there is a camera to be seen, he somehow works his way in front of it, doens't matter if anything he says has a grain of truth to it.  He is nothing more then a liberal, big government control freak.

[Bubba Z]

[/quote]

The country would be better off if he became a muffin salesman.

 I'm using that line come monday at work. That's to funny !!

[overlord]

Ed Markey reminds me of the political guy from xXx in the beginning. If roller coasters weren't safe, why would they still keep building them? Besides, the death on RnR Coaster wasn't because of the coaster itself. This is pathetic.

[PcMan]

Another Idiot congressman  that wants to dictate how we lives our lives.
Here is the Idiots webpage http://markey.house.gov
The child that died had pre existing heart condition he could have passed on a airplane ride to the park.Does he relize more people die everyday from just walkng across the street and any other activity.
He should push for other things. Millions of people die from other causes everyday. THis is one case not caused by the ride.
WHen 10 + people start dying in one season then there is time for action but one out of 280 million people in this country.

 June 29, 2006 - MARKEY RENEWS CALL FOR PASSAGE OF FEDERAL LEGISLATION TO PROTECT CHILDREN ON ROLLER COASTERS AT AMUSEMENT PARKS
Washington, DC -- Today another child tragically died after riding a roller coaster at Disney?s MGM Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida, and U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) renewed his call on the Congress to immediately pass federal legislation to end a massive loophole in safety regulation of theme park rides.  Rep. Markey?s bill, the National Amusement Park Ride Safety Act, was introduced in the spring of 2005, and would extend federal oversight over amusement park rides, which now enjoy an exemption from current consumer product safety laws and regulations.

?This is another tragic wake up call for the amusement park industry,? said Markey.  ?When families visit our amusement parks, they expect fundamental safety measures to already be in place.  Instead, the industry keeps stonewalling these common-sense safety protections, leaving the prosecution of responsible parties as the only deterrent left, and by then, it is often too late.?

The nation?s leading safety agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), oversees the safety of carnival (?mobile?) rides, but a loophole prohibits the CPSC from overseeing the safety of park (?permanent?) rides.  Markey?s legislation would allow the CPSC to perform its intended mission ? preventing accidents before they occur by ensuring that safety corrections found necessary on one ride in one state are implemented on all similar rides in all states.

?Most people don?t realize that the number of fatalities per passenger mile on roller coasters is higher than on passenger trains, passenger buses, and passenger planes.  We cannot wait until the next accident happens, we need to address these loopholes in amusement ride safety now and stop playing roller-coaster-roulette with the lives of Americas families,? said Rep. Markey.

The National Amusement Park Ride Safety Act has the support of the Consumer Federation of America, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, Saferparks.org, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Kids in Danger.  It will close the special-interest loophole that prevents effective federal safety oversight of amusement park rides.  It would restore to the CPSC the standard safety jurisdiction over ?fixed-site? amusement park rides that it used to have before the Roller Coaster Loophole was adopted.  Markey?s bill also authorizes appropriations of $500 thousand annually to the CPSC.  It would restore CPSC?s authority to:

1. Investigate accidents;
2. Develop and enforce action plans to correct defects; and
3. Act as a national clearinghouse for accident and defect data.

For further information, visit http://markey.house.gov.

[rjholla2003]

I don't think too highly of Ed Markey because of the fact that he likes to mislead the public. The idea is a noble one, but things like NJ's G-Force limit show that the government doesn't necessarily know what they are doing. If it got to the point where accidents were a monthly occurance and it was the fault of the park, then I would see the need for federal oversight

[Robert T Ackerman]

^ Another thing that leads me to believe that this law makes no sense it, the G forces are RARELY involved with the accidents. It's usaually rider error, a freak accident, or careless ops, hardly ever the ride itself, let alone the forces it produces..

[overlord]

The one guy on the history channel pulled 40 g's the one time and he survived that. And how do they know where to draw the limit? Everyone is different and there should be no set standard.

[David Jr]

Unfortunatly, everything Ed says looks good on the surface. I feel his legislation will be passed no matter what we think.