STATE OF MICHIGAN

FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Opinion No. 5880

April 20, 1981

AMUSEMENTS:

Jurisdiction of carnival-amusement safety board over motorized tractors in parks or hospital grounds

CARNIVALS:

Jurisdiction of carnival-amusement safety board over motorized tractors in parks or hospital grounds

Motorized tractors which pull cars containing passengers over the roads or trails in public or private parks or hospital grounds are not carnival or amusement rides subject to the jurisdiction of the carnival-amusement safety board.

C. Patrick Babcock

Director

Michigan Department of Labor

309 N. Washington

Box 30015

Lansing, Michigan

You have requested my opinion on a question which may be stated as follows:

The Carnival-Amusement Safety Act of 1966, 1966 PA 225, as amended; MCLA 408.651 et seq; MSA 18.484(1) et seq, hereinafter sometimes referred to as the act, in Section 2(a), defines a carnival or amusement ride as follows:

In order to determine legislative intent where there is uncertainty as to the breadth or coverage of a statute, it is a fundamental rule of statutory construction that one must look to the entire act to ascertain the legislative intent in enacting it and to give effect to that intent if it may be done without doing violence to the act. Liquor Control Commission v Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie No. 629, 286 Mich 32, 40; 281 NW 427 (1938).

Other sections of the act reflect a legislative intention to limit its application to the types of rides usually found at carnivals and in amusement parks. 1966 PA 225, supra, Sec. 3 provides for representation on the carnival-amusement safety board of a carnival ride operator and an amusement park operator. 1966 PA 225, supra, Sec. 10 requires inspection of the ride before it is originally put into operation and thereafter at least once every year, and further provides that carnival-amusement rides may also be inspected each time they are disassembled and reassembled. 1966 PA 225, supra, Sec. 12 regulates the erection of, additions to, or alterations of carnival-amusement rides which change their structure, mechanism, classification or capacity.

These provisions are consistent with the types of rides usually found at carnivals or amusement parks, but are inconsistent with the type of ride to which you have made reference, namely, a motorized tractor on wheels or endless track (continuous roller belt over cogged wheels) which pulls cars containing passengers on roads or trails in such places as public or private parks or hospital grounds. If the act were applicable to the motorized tractor ride, it would seem that canoe rentals along rivers and bicycles rented for use on park trails should be included, since each involves a device which travels a more or less fixed or restricted course for amusement purposes. In this connection, it is to be noted that, except for the language in 1966 PA 225, supra, Sec. 2(a), which refers to 'carnival or amusement ride,' subject matter reference throughout the act is to 'carnival-amusement rides.' The hyphenation of the words carnival and amusement is significant in that it suggests a legislative intention to deal specifically with 'rides' which share a common characteristic of the types normally associated with carnivals and amusement parks, including but not limited to, merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels, auto speedway, loop plane, chairoplane, or other riding devices. Lone Star Shows, Inc v Commissioner of Sinking Fund of City of Louisville, 294 Ky 114; 171 SW2d 28 (1943).

A further reason for excluding the type of ride you have described from coverage under the act is that 1966 PA 225, supra, Sec. 2(a) does not include a ride unless 'it conveys passengers along, around or over a fixed or restricted route or course.' Once the operator commences the described ride along a road or trail, the operator of said tractor is capable of varying the route in any direction on any road or trail at any given time, as if driving an automobile. Contrariwise, the course for rides typically found at carnivals or amusement parks is fixed either by a track or cable, or is controlled within or restricted to a limited area beyond which the ride is unable to travel, such as dodgem cars or go-karts. Roads and trails of public or private parks or hospital grounds are not limited to such ride equipment as you have described, but, rather, are also utilized for pedestrian and vehicular traffic purposes.

It is, therefore, my opinion that morotized tractors which pull cars containing passengers on roads or trails in such places as public or private parks or hospital grounds is not subject to regulation pursuant to 1966 PA 225, supra, Sec. 2(a).

Frank J. Kelley