Worker dies from heat at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure

Ouch, This sounds very painful. I feel sorry for his family.

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Matt Rydzik
Quiz and Web Links ~ COASTERnet.Coasterbuzz.com
E-mail Coasterbgw@coasterbuzz.com

WOW I feel really sorry for this person. I personally was there yesterday. I didn't think anything of the helicopters and news there. I knew nothing of what was going on and most of the guests didn't either. Park went on as normal. It was VERY VERY hot there yesterday I can assure you of that.

"The Future of Roller Coasters"

-RollerCoasterGod

http://OhioThemeParks.com

Give the man some water!

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Just out of curiosity, how many deaths have there been at this park since it received the Six Flags name? Seems like a lot of bad luck to me.

This park has no drinking fountains anywhere. Ok it may have a few but its no where to be found.

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Chris Knight
CP Sea Gull population 1,000,000
CP Mufflehead population 1,000,000,000

APC11,

I do believe this is the first fatality in the park since 1997 when the girl had the asthma attack on Double Loop.

Why would you call it bad luck? It's called heat stroke. One of my co-workers got hospitilized with it last year and it's nothing to play around with. I also wouldn't blame it on drinking fountains. If he worked in operations, I'm sure he had plenty of access to water.
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If coasters are your life, than maybe you need to re-examine your life.

This park along with many other Six Flags parks seem to have very few water fountains around the park. There should be at least one fountain near the restroom facilities, yet there isn't any. Six Flags should put more in at all the restrooms that way when guests also need water when it's hot as it were yesterday they don't have to walk around dying of thirst halfway across the park. Of course there's those bottled water that the park charges $3 each for or something outragous like that.

This is a very very unfortunate incident..my heart goes out to his family and friends, as well as the park and its employees. Unfortunately, in the case of heat stroke(assuming of course at this point that heat stroke was the cause of death) unless the illness is caught early on, drinking water only worsens the person's condition. Having just learned about this in a college anatomy and physiology class, I'll try to explain heat stroke the best I can.

Once the body reaches a certain temperature, it stops sweating and retains water, which increases blood volume, and therefore the person's blood pressure also increases. Adding more fluids to the body at this point would only make things worse. Once the body reaches a certain temperature (usually around 103-106 degrees), the body loses its ability to regulate internal temperatures and damage to the vital organs occurs. In most cases, the situation becomes fatal.

Considering the extreme heat this time of year and the lack of shade in many places at various amusement parks, I think it would be a good idea for parks to implement some public warnings about heat exhaustion (which leads to heat stroke) and its warning signs. Putting up warning signs in long, hot ride queues or in employee break areas could increase public awareness, and they should also work on making water fountains easier to find (and in some cases, like Six Flags, installing more of them). It's like the saying goes..."an ounce of prevention..."

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BuzzCon '02 Frequent Flyer: Having fun on the flyers is a snap! *** This post was edited by KicksTheSky on 6/26/2002. ***

Public awareness sounds good. Most parks need to have more drinking fountains, not just Six Flags. It seems as though they try to hide the few that they have so that you will purchase refreshments. My prayers go out to his family, friends and coworkers.

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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.

From past experience, I noticed that both Six Flags America and Six Flags Darien Lake seem to have a shortage of trees and shade.

Of course, I suppose this is because of recent expansions etc and the trees are not yet mature. After all, parks like Kennywood and Hershey have been around a while and the trees are mature (except for Hershey's Midway America... new trees, little shade). Then you have BGW... built in the middle of the woods.

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"I wasn't always this cynical, but then I started kindergarden..."

I am sorry to see this happen. I agree with the shortage of fountains and shade at certain parks. Of course Knoebels doesn't have that problem!
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Brad Sherman
"I'm not paying that much for a free water from Drink Stall 1!"
Model coasters and rides

I was at the park yesterday, and it must have happened shortly after I left. I left at around 5:30 and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. This was a shock to me, as when i got back home to West Virginia, my friend who i went with from Cleveland called me and told me... very sad.

I am very sorry to hear that this accident occured... but it could have been prevented. Water is an essential part of working outdoors... If he didn't have any with him... well, that was a mistake that he made. But if he did have adequate water with him, well than, this certainly was a freak accident.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes MCS Please, Feel Free To Call Me Jes!
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew

Most people have said they should have more water fountains and shade and such. I agree it can't hurt but only help. My feeling go out to the worker and his family as it's a very unfortunate incident. As an employee for the park, we are actually trained to always drink plenty of water as you do work out in the sun all day. It's on our safety checklist in rides that team members are provided with water. I don't know how it goes for park serviced though. Like I said before, it's sad this happened.

I was at the park yesterday, the day after this happened. I would have to agree that at SFWoA, I found the water fountains far and few between. I was shocked that there were no water fountains at each and every restroom. When they were at the restrooms, they were hidden from view of the main midway. Now at PKI, each and every restroom has about three or four water fountains, and you caqn get a glass of free ice water from any open restaurant.

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I`ve ridden Son of Beast 67 times!

I'd like to know exactly how this man's body temperature could possibly get that high without something else involved besides extreme outdoor temperatures. It doesn't seem to me that the sun alone could make someone that hot. I've read about drugs like PMA that have killed people with body temperatures of 108, but it just doesn't seem possible that the sun alone could cook someone from the inside out in a similar manner to PMA unless there were other factors involved. Was he on some sort of medication that made him hypersensitive to sunlight, or what? I'm well aware that the sun can cause heat strokes, but not fevers of 107 degrees!