White Paper: Acceleration on Amusement Rides

(eap) At this year’s ASTM safety standards meeting on February 14, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky, the head of the “Acceleration Task Group”, Prof. em. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Rohde, presented his publication on the topic of “Limit acceleration on humans”. Approx. 25 years ago, the first “acceleration effects on passengers” were included in the American and European amusement ride safety standards. Since then, many studies and the experience with the existing limits lead to more detailed standards. Most of the acceleration limits were defined so that engineers can understand and design their amusement rides accordingly, although all limits were derived by biomedical restrictions. The Acceleration Task Group has presented a white paper now explaining the state of art and most of the biomedical background information from which the limits were derived. The white paper aims at explaining the biomedical background for engineers, owners and operators.

“The limits of acceleration on amusement rides in particular require background knowledge that is not contained in the standards. The aim of this publication is to pass this knowledge on to future generations of engineers,” says Matthias Rohde. As a member of the German Association of Amusement Machinery & Accessory Manufacturers (VDV), Rohde will also inform the representatives and engineers of the trade association about the results of the task group’s work at their annual general meeting at the beginning of May. For all interested parties, the VDV is already making the acceleration white paper available for download on its website www.vdv-freizeittechnologie.de. ■