A tragic ride

The collapse of a ride at the Askari Amusement Park in Karachi on Sunday – which caused the death of a 16-year-old girl and injured 15 others – has once again shown how little attention is paid to safety and building regulations. The amusement park had only recently opened, which makes the negligence by the owners even worse since this shows that they did not even bother carrying out safety checks on their brand-new rides. The government too is at fault since it should have ensured that all regulations were being followed before allowing the amusement park to open. It took the death of a young girl for the provincial government to swing into action by closing all amusement parks for three days, and the caretaker chief minister demanding an immediate inspection of all rides. The initial report into the incident found that the bolts of the ride were broken. This is how safety inspections – be it at an amusement park or a factory – are carried out in Pakistan. Rather than saving lives by ensuring all safety regulations have been followed before issuing no-objection certificates and then carrying out regular spot checks, the government waits for tragedy to strike and only then takes cosmetic action to appease an angry public.

The incident at the Askari Amusement Park is far from the first time there has been a disaster at an amusement park in Karachi. After a boy was killed at the Aladin Amusement Park in 2004, the city government formed a safety committee to look at all amusement parks in the city. It found that rides were powered by uncovered electric cables, there were no qualified engineers or doctors on site at most parks and safety mechanisms like belts and gates on rides were non-functional. A similar investigation needs to be carried out at Askari Amusement Park. If it is found that corners were cut to save money, there should not just be a large fine but also criminal charges. Running an amusement park is not a trivial venture. It requires highly-trained staff, extensive safety procedures and the provision of emergency equipment like fire extinguishers. If the full inquiry into Askari Amusement Park finds violations of multiple regulations, it would be better to shut down a potential death trap than to risk any more lives.