No one thinks about amusement-park safety until an accident happens.

Well, almost no one. At Paramount's Kings Island near Cincinnati, Dave Fokey's job is to ensure that the park is safe as well as fun.

In an interview with Children's Express at Kings Island, Fokey, the vice president of operations, said he does a complete survey of the park every day to make sure there are no obvious safety problems.

He also monitors park operations. If a ride breaks down, he makes sure that riders are safe and the equipment gets fixed. He also watches to make sure that park guests are having a safe and enjoyable experience.

"We have a motto here at the park: Anyone can shut down a ride," he said. "If I don't feel something sounds right or looks right, if a seasonal employee doesn't feel something sounds right . . . (he or she) can call and say, `Shut that ride down.' "

Rides break down every week, says Rob Dixon, a trainee area manager at the park. Mostly, they just need routine maintenance.

Constant inspections

Occasionally, there's a bigger problem and the ride has to be shut down with people on it.

Kings Island constantly inspects its rides. Every morning between 5 and 5:30, two carpenters begin to walk the entire track of the Beast - a wooden roller coaster - backward to make sure that there are no problems. They finish just in time for the park opening at 9 a.m.

"These roller coasters are set up with safety systems that are redundant. . . . so if one fails, another one will catch it," said park employee Tom Dillingham.

When looking for a new ride, Fokey says he looks at how expensive it is to maintain and how many riders it can accommodate in an hour.

"The most exciting ride in the world wouldn't be very popular if we could only ride 200 or 300 riders an hour," he said. "Lines would be long."

Fokey says a new Class A ride, like the Vortex or the Beast, can cost $6 million to $10 million, depending on the length of the ride and its "theming" - the facade that surrounds the ride to make it seem realistic.

Ice represented people

When a new ride opens, the park inspects every aspect of it.

"We just recently opened Sky Lab, and (park inspectors) put hundreds and hundreds of pounds, actually 6,000 pounds of ice (on the ride), to be equivalent of a full load of people," says Dixon, who has worked four years on the rides.

In addition to the inspections by Kings Island, there are weeklong inspections by the state - one before the park opens and one during midseason. Also, insurance inspectors examine the rides throughout the year.

And after there's been a problem, the park takes additional precautions.

"When the problem has been repaired, then we always cycle (the ride) a minimum of three or four times, just to make sure that everything is right," Dillingham said. "But we always know that the problem is fixed before we put it back out there."

Fun on their minds

When they're whipping around on the Beast or gliding down the Amazon Falls water ride, most kids are thinking more about fun than safety.

Those that think about safety aren't worried, especially with the safety bars that are on the rides.

Kings Island guest Cindy Hunt, 16, didn't feel safe, even with the harness on the King Cobra. "I about slipped right out of it," she said. However, she still wasn't scared, she said.

Even when a ride breaks down, kids don't worry.

Leslie Meaderanson was riding the Vortex roller coaster when a mechanical failure caused the ride to stop. She was stuck on the ride until a mechanic could release her.

Although scared at first, Leslie still thought the ride was fun and couldn't wait to ride it again.

Some kids even think that getting stopped in the middle of a ride is fun. "It was the best part," said David Bery, 15. "It was cool."

EDITED BY: Aaron Shackelford, 15, and Ilene Potasnik, 15