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HIDDEN CAMERA INVESTIGATION UNCOVERS CARNIVAL RIDE OPERATORS HIGH ON DRUGS

"People's lives are at stake here...That really alarms me that we have people out there that are impaired in that way and operating heavy equipment and my kids lives are at stake..."

- John Henshaw, Safety Expert   

Airdate: Friday, September 12, 2008

Check local listings for times  

New York, NY - September 11, 2008 - INSIDE EDITION sent a producer with a hidden camera to work at several traveling carnivals where he uncovered drug use by some of the carnival ride operators.

A government report estimates that more than 3,000 people a year are injured on traveling carnival rides. Some of those accidents occur because some of the operators have no idea what they're doing.

INSIDE EDITION's undercover producer took a job with a company called Amusements of America at a county fair in upstate New York. He was assigned to the bumper car ride, where he was trained by an employee named Bob who told him marijuana was easy to find on their midway.

BOB: "We're all a bunch of drunks and potheads."

After work, Bob invited the producer back to his trailer, where hidden cameras caught Bob using a pipe to smoke marijuana.

Bob told the producer that he usually gets stoned before going to work. The next morning while performing important safety checks on the bumper cars Bob informed the producer that he was already high.

BOB: "I'm already high."

IE: "You're already high?"

BOB: "Yeah."

Just minutes later, while dozens of kids were using the ride, INSIDE EDITION cameras caught Bob repeatedly dozing off at the controls.

When asked where Bob got the drugs, he told the INSIDE EDITION producer that an employee at a nearby funnel cake stand sells $20 bags of marijuana. The producer watched as Bob went over to the food stand and returned with a bag of marijuana, which he tried to sell to the producer who declined.

INSIDE EDITION showed the hidden camera footage to John Henshaw, a safety expert and former OSHA administrator who says it is extremely dangerous for ride operators to be high on drugs.

HENSHAW: "People's lives are at stake here...That really alarms me that we have people out there that are impaired in that way and operating heavy equipment and my kids lives are at stake..."

INSIDE EDITION caught up with one owner of Amusements of America, Morris Viviano.

IE: "Do you have a drug problem with your ride operators?"

VIVIANO: "Not that I know of."

IE: "And have you detected a drug problem before?"

VIVIANO: "Well from time to time people come along. We try to vet them out as best we can and when we find there's a problem we let them go. Like Bob won't be working here tomorrow."

At another carnival owned by a company called All County Amusements on Long Island, New York, , our producer discovered several employees smoking marijuana minutes before they went to operate rides where they were the only ones responsible for the safety of dozens of children.

INSIDE EDITION questioned Bob Gauer, one of the owners of All County Amusements, about whether he was aware of drug use among employees.

IE: "A number of operators were on drugs when they were operating the rides. Were you aware of that?"

GAUER: "I'm really not talking to you...Sir, I asked you to leave please."

INSIDE EDITION also witnessed other problems on a ride at All County Amusements. When something went wrong on a ride called "the paratrooper," a frantic employee in charge of operating the ride screamed at INSIDE EDITION'S producer to run and get help. A patron was stranded high in the air until the ride was fixed.

At both All County Amusements and Amusements of America, INSIDE EDITION's producer was hired off the street without ever showing an ID or filling out an application. Viviano's company didn't even ask the producer for his last name.

VIVIANO: "Background checks are difficult. I have to be honest with you. It's not an easy thing to keep up with. We do our best. Sometimes they fall through the cracks."

Henshaw tells INSIDE EDITION these safety checks are critical in helping to prevent potentially dangerous employees from operating carnival rides.

HENSHAW: "It scares me to have my children go to these carnivals."

INSIDE EDITION is produced daily at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City and produced and distributed by CBS Television Distribution, a unit of CBS Corp.  

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