Ernest sez, "Disneyland is fighting a California appeals court decision that its rollercoaster-like rides (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Matterhorn Bobsleds, etc.) must adhere to the same safety standards as public buses and actual railroads. The court decision would require rollercoaster operators in California to use 'utmost care and diligence' as opposed to merely 'reasonable care,' which is the current standard. I'm not quite sure how 'utmost care and diligence' is compatible with rollercoasters at all."
Disneyland's coasters have been falling to pieces, killing people, and going down for multi-year unscheduled maintenance ever since an ex-McKinsey consultant was put in charge of the park and heavily slashed the preventative maintenance regime while firing the park's most senior operators, many of whom had run the one-of-a-kind rides since the day they opened and were familiar with their many quirks.
This move is in marked contrast to the stuff that Disney got up to in Florida, where they essentially bought an entire township (actually, an "improvement district" which is like a town but more autonomous) so that they could write their own building code (among other reasons). The building code they wrote let them build things like fiberglass castles, which are not in the usual town codes — and the castles and other structures they built have stood the test of time.
But in Disneyland, it seems to me that they're pushing for the right to remain negligent, not the right to innovate beyond the imagination embodied in a construction code.
Richard Derevan, a lawyer for Disney, told the justices that under the higher standard of care, "something could always be safer. The ride could be slower, the curves less sharp, the hills less steep. The ride may lose its purpose for being."
The case involves a claim filed by the estate of Cristina Moreno, a tourist from Spain who visited Disneyland in Anaheim on her honeymoon in 2000. Her family says she suffered a brain hemorrhage after riding the Indiana Jones Adventure, which simulates an off-road jeep ride. She died a few months later.
(Thanks, Ernest!)
