IAHA News and Updates from IAHAweb.com

This past March, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the agency responsible for overseeing the safe operation of rides and attractions in Pennsylvania, required, for the first time, all haunted attraction owners (or their authorized representatives) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to become certified and trained to do regular inspections of their attractions. Over 50 owners and operators, including about a dozen from outside of Pennsylvania, completed the course and received certification credentials.

The International Association of Haunted Attractions (I.A.H.A.) is proud to announce it will debut a voluntary national safety certification program in 2008. I.A.H.A. together with Mobile Midway Safety Institute (MMSI), the company that produced the PA Department of Agriculture Haunted Attraction Safety Seminar Series, has created the first national safety certification program for the haunted attraction industry. The Certified Haunted Attraction Operator program (C.H.A.O.S.) will consist of eight hours of safety training provided by professional speakers with a background in amusement safety and loss control inspection. At the conclusion of the training program, attendees will have the opportunity to take a certification test. Upon successful completion of the training & test, attendees will be issued a certification certificate as a Certified Haunted Attraction Operator (C.H.A.O.S.).

Although this is the first national safety certification program for the haunted attraction industry, it is not the first program of its kind. I.A.H.A.'s C.H.A.O.S. certification program is modeled on the inflatable amusement ride certification program M.M.S.I. created for the Responsible Operators of Amusement Rentals (R.O.A.R.) who are members of the Outdoor amusement Business Association (O.A.B.A.).

Since the debut of the R.O.A.R. Certified Inflatable Safety Inspector training and certification program in 2005, members have reported a significant decrease in reportable accidents. In most cases this has resulted in lower insurance rates for ROAR Member Companies that participate in the training and certification program. "The importance of good loss control practices can not be overstated when it comes to haunted attractions. " Said MMSI President Phil Slaggert, " an insurance underwriters best friend is an insured who is trained on the current standards of care for their industry, has good documentation of inspections and maintenance, and has good programs in place to reduce risk.”

The Certified Haunted Attraction Operator (C.H.A.O.S.) program is a significant step in realizing IAHA's mission of promoting the highest safety standards in the haunted attraction industry.

The C.H.A.O.S. program will be held in conjunction with several haunted attraction industry tradeshows in 2008. Additional details, including exact dates and times and locations of the seminars, will be announced on the I.A.H.A. website (www.IAHAweb.com) later this summer.

By Christine Schopf, IAHA Member

For the 6th year in a row, the staff at Field of Screams will be heading up a group order of ChromaDepth® 3-D glasses from American Paper Optics (APO), the only company licensed to sell ChromaDepth® 3-D glasses. APO has discontinued all joint runs of this type, so don’t miss your only opportunity to join this order and receive the best prices on your 3-D glasses!

This group order is not limited only to haunted attractions; theme parks, FEC and other attractions utilizing 3-D glasses are encouraged to participate. APO allows each attraction to have their individual, full color artwork with an order of 10,000 pieces or more. If you don’t need that many glasses, you can still join our order. You can be included with any order quantity. For orders less than 10,000, we have created a design that is non-specific to any haunt or theme park. You may also choose to have a side panel coupon (great to sell as advertising to sponsors).

The non-group price for 5,000 3-D glasses from APO is $.85 each for a full color print. Our group price will be significantly lower than $.85 each. The exact price is determined by the total number of glasses ordered by the group, and the larger the group order, the cheaper the price. If the total group order is 100,000 glasses, the price would be $.36 each. However, if the total group order is 250,000 glasses, the price would be only $.33 each. If the total group order is one million glasses the price would be $.25 each!

The deadline for the 2007 order is Wednesday, August 1, 2007. For additional information, design specifications and payment details, please call Field of Screams at (717) 285-7748 x113 or email Christine at Christine@fieldofscreams.com.

By Brett Bertolino, IAHA Director

(June, 2007) IAHA Member, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, considered by many to be America’s most historic prison, will host an unprecedented seven hour live and interactive broadcast on the Travel Channel, Most Haunted Live USA on Friday, June 1st, 2007.
Travel Channel Brings the UK’s Most Popular Paranormal Investigation Team to the US with Seven-Hour Live Broadcast from Eastern State Penitentiary.

Most Haunted Live, is a spinoff of the popular paranormal investigation show Most Haunted which airs on the Travel Channel in the US and on LivingTV in the United Kingdom. The June 1 program is the first broadcast from the United States and is expected to generate a wide national audience. The Most Haunted panel of paranormal investigation experts--including presenter Yvette Fielding and spiritual medium David Wells--will be armed with night vision cameras, thermal-imaging devices and other paranormal investigation tools to detect supernatural findings from within the prison walls.

Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through "confinement in solitude with labor." Some of America's most notorious criminals were held in the Penitentiary's vaulted, sky-lit cells, including bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone. After 142 years of consecutive use, Eastern State Penitentiary was completely abandoned in 1971, and now stands, a lost world of crumbling cell blocks and empty guard towers. The prison hosts one of America’s largest and most acclaimed Halloween events each fall, Terror Behind the Walls.