The death of Rosy Esparza on Friday on a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Texas has called attention to the state of industrial regulations in Texas. While Six Flags initially stated that it will be “working with authorities” to determine what happened, it was later revealed that Six Flags will be heading the investigation itself, as there are no federal or state authorities that can intercede in a Texas amusement park incident.

In 2012 alone, Six Flags Over Texas had 71 total significant injuries, with only 22 disproven as issues related to hydration or a rider’s pre-existing health problem. The remaining 49 injuries were the most for any Six Flags park in 2012.

For the ride in question — the Texas Giant, a steel-tracked roller coaster with a wooden frame that was recently retrofitted with banks and drops that reach 115 degrees — there were seven significant injuries in 2012, all of which were neck-related. Four significant injuries have been attributed to the ride so far this year.

In Texas, independent amusement park inspections are done by the Texas Department of Insurance. They are conducted only for new ride installation and then once a year by the insurance companies’ inspectors as a way of establishing and maintaining park insurance. The state is not involved in any way with the actual inspection of park rides.

Texas maintains an attitude that private companies and organizations should be able to “self-police” or correct noticeable flaws in their policies and actions. It is a philosophy that remains a cornerstone of national conservative politics. However, this results in Texas having the highest number of workplace injuries in the nation that result in lost workdays, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state is also 18th per capita for industrial deaths.

“To legally operate in Texas, an amusement ride owner/operator must file with TDI an insurance policy with certain minimum limits for bodily injury for persons using the ride and an annual amusement ride safety inspection certificate,” the state’s regulations notice reads. “The inspection is performed by an approved inspector of the insurance company. Rides meeting the requirements will be issued a TDI Amusement Ride Compliance Sticker (similar to an automobile safety inspection sticker), which will indicate the expiration date of the inspection certificate. The sticker should be affixed to a major component of each ride in a location visible to the ride participants.”

A trip to the amusement park

Esparza, a Dallas resident, was visiting the park with her two children Friday night. Witness Carmen Brown was waiting in line when Esparza was being secured to the ride. Brown indicated to the Dallas News that Esparza was vocally concerned that she was not secured properly, which the park employees disregarded.

“He was basically nonchalant,” Brown said, according to the Associated Press. “He was, like, ‘As long as you heard it click, you’re fine.’ Hers was the only one that went down once, and she didn’t feel safe. But they let her still get on the ride.”

Esparaza flipped out of the roller coaster’s car as the ride made a sharp embankment. John Putnam, another witness, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he heard who were presumably Esparza’s children scream out, “‘My mom! My mom! Let us out, we need to go get her!’” A third witness, Joshua Paul Fleak, posted on Twitter that he believed that the restraints came undone.

Six Flags closed down the ride after the death but kept the park open. A concert for the following night was canceled. The park has issued condolences via Twitter and press release, but an initial report of the incident from the park suggests possible spin — the park asserts that Esparza died on the ride, instead of being thrown from it.

Texas is one of 17 states that do not require government inspection of amusement rides. Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming require no inspections of park rides at all. Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota and Texas require private inspections paid by the insurer or the park itself. Parks that employ 1,000 or more full-time employees and maintain their own safety inspectors are exempt from government inspections in Florida, and Minnesota allows park-contracted inspections or inspections arranged through the State Agricultural Society.

Regulations and ‘self-policing’

Texas’ lax regulatory standards and government-based oversight have come under attack recently. In one example, Dr. Tariq Mahmood, who made his fortune buying and running financially strapped hospitals, has been accused of rampant malpractice, fraudulent billing to the government and substandard care in his chain of small-town hospitals. Unvetted physicians were allowed to treat patients, doctors were found falling asleep on duty after being forced to work 24-hour shifts, and nurses filled patient medication at the unattended pharmacy without training or supervision. Mahmood is also accused of billing the government and the insurance companies for fraudulent conditions to boost revenues.

Mahmood’s hospitals are also accused of violating the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act five times between April 2009 and February 2010 by refusing treatment to several critically ill patients and at least one woman in labor who was bleeding.

The Texas state government finally intervened after four years — not because of patient safety, but for failure to pay property taxes. This is despite at least three suspicious patient deaths, according to records from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and multiple whistleblowing attempts. Federal authorities charged Mahmood in April for $1.1 million in false Medicare and Medicaid billings. A trial has been set for August.

Mahmood was able to “slip through the cracks” due to a breakdown in the regulatory system. Federal regulators are not set up to proactively address hospital owners or problems in hospital networks.

“We just don’t have that authority,” said David Wright, deputy regional administrator for CMS, the federal agency that oversees state health departments’ inspections of federally funded hospitals. “We can only address problems in stand-alone facilities.”

On the state’s end, the regulatory system is designed to be reactive, with patient complaints triggering inspections. Internally triggered inspections are as much as eight years apart.

This creates a system in which the hospitals can “self-correct” themselves — initiating “corrective actions” to avoid sanctions and fines.

“We want to do what’s in the best interest of the patients, and our regulatory philosophy is to get hospitals into compliance,” said Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. “We’re not in the business of shutting down hospitals. We will give them some leeway and work with them.”

This attitude of allowing private companies to police themselves has led to Texas having the highest number of workplace accidents leading to lost days of work in the nation and being 18th per capita for industrial deaths. A combination of state-based de-regulation and reliance on federal regulation have led to a situation in which a disproportionate number of industrial accidents are allowed to persist.

Among the list of major industrial accidents in Texas is the April 17 fertilizer plant explosion in West that left at least 11 dead and more than 150 injured. In 2004 and 2005, BP oil refinery explosions killed at least 16, and a 2000 Phillips petroleum explosion injured 71.