War Hero Dead in Roller Coaster Tragedy. How Should We Respond?

Nobody knows yet why U.S. Army Sgt. James Hackemer was thrown to his death from a roller coaster at Darien Lake Theme Park in New York. Speculation centers on the role his disability played. He had lost one leg above the knee, and another at the hip, to a roadside bomb in Iraq. His shocking death came shortly after he completed three years of grueling rehabilitation to return to life with his wife and young children.

As devastating as one person's death is, life is never without risk. Colleen Mangone of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions notes that visitors in American amusement parks climb on rides 1.7 billion times per year, with three of those rides resulting in a fatal injury. That's one death per 567 million rides. For comparison, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counts 1.13 motor vehicle deaths per 100 million miles.

Riders are so safe because the rides are designed to restrain passengers. When a limb is missing, however, it shifts the center of gravity, and might deprive the person of a vital contact point for the restraint system, with tragic results.

When calamity strikes, two equally beloved flocks start circling: lawyers and politicians. The first politician has already swooped in. U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) is calling for federal regulation of fixed-site amusement parks. Though no lawyers have emerged from their aeries yet, the fear of them, coupled with the looming threat of regulation by bureaucrats who don't know a g-force from a g-string, might move park operators to avoid headaches by relegating people with disabilities to the kiddie trains.

There is a better option. People with severe disabilities can play murderball, climb mountains, and swim the English Channel. There is no reason to ban them from amusement park rides in the name of safety.

Engineers have designed supplemental restraint systems to keep the smaller bodies of children safe in cars. In a partnership with makers of adaptive equipment, they could also design supplemental restraint systems to keep people with disabilities safe on theme park rides.

When Sgt. Hackemer went home from rehabilitation, he told reporters, "I want to live my life to the fullest from here on out." Together, safety and adaptive experts could make that dream more achievable for people with disabilities.