Abstract
The Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) provides the best available national estimates of injuries associated with more than 800 consumer products. The statistically based sample of hospital emergency rooms is very well designed to allow extrapolation of national estimates for products and activities that are distributed relatively evenly across the country. However, the system is not designed to generate accurate estimates of national injuries for “products” that are geographically fixed and not evenly distributed across the country. This paper discusses the problems associated with using NEISS data to extrapolate national estimates of injuries for amusement parks and rides. Data from first aide stations at a sample of Six Flags' largest theme parks are presented. These data describe the distribution and type of injuries treated at first aide stations within the parks.
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