Worker Struck and Killed by Michigan Coaster

Submitted to news as well...

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm13318_20030301.htm

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Jonathan Hawkins
Starcoasters.com
"There is a cluster of bees at the top of the lift. Sorry for the inconvenience."

How crazy do you have to be to stand on the track of an operating rollercoaster? Some people are just weird....

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« adix@nedesigns.com »

I hope his family and friends get through that, man that would be hard.

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CCI Lives On!
-Patrick

I'm personally suprised that this kind of stuff doesn't happen more often. For some reason, mechanics seems to think they are invincible, and will make really stupid descisions some times. I'm not going to even start with the number of saftey violations I've seen at my park with mechanics.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure Ride-Ops Crew 2002-2003(Have Fun Trying To Find Me!)

A Jeepers rollercoaster? That sounds like a pretty small ride that killed him.

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Please visit the small parks. We don't know what's happening behind the scenes
Woodencoaster.com

That's exactly what I was thinking. While everyone shouldn't be so quick to blame the worker, I do have to wonder how he didn't notice that it was coming since the whole layout would be right there. Then there is the fact that those things make a very loud noise when going up the lift. If Jeepers was open at the time of the accident, anyone in the area could have seen what was going to happen and yelled at him to move (or the person who had started the ride...). Then again, I wasn't there and don't know the specifics.

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Jonathan Hawkins
Starcoasters.com
"There is a cluster of bees at the top of the lift. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Sad, but I just don't get how it happened (how he couldn't have known).

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- "I used to be in the audio/visual club, but I was kicked out because of my views on Vietnam........and I was stealing projectors" - Homer Simpson

I agree with Zero-G. I've seen mechs. all over the place during ride operation. At KW I saw a mech. fixing/inspecting the station while the ride was in operation. He was below the track and stuck his head up into the track to do whatever he was doing and he'd duck back down when a train would come by and load. Then he'd pop right back up.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It was like that when I got here."
"faster, cheaper, and more often" that's somebody's new sig -UpsideDawnGrrrl

Ouch...I feel bad for the family and friends, but come on now...logic dictates that if a roller coaster is operating, we don't stand in the track, right children? :)

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"Enjoy your record-breaking ride on Millennium Force"

It seems that maybe some mechanics should be sitting down with the rest of us seasonal employees when they tell us what lockout/ tagouts are for.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure Ride-Ops Crew 2002-2003(Have Fun Trying To Find Me!)

Man this is really bad,the season hasn't even begun & we've already got 2 employee fatalites,the first one being the BGW mishap with the painter on BBW & now this.

Let's just hope no one else gets hurt or killed before or during the season,it certainly won't reflect well on the industry as a whole.

Sometimes the pressure to keep things running makes you forget safety. Its no excuese I know, but you work with the machine in question so much that you think you "know" it like the back of your hand, that is usually when the back of your hand gets bitten!! Working in Clinical Engineering, I have seen this happen to great experienced techs.

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Dave

Beware of Kiddie Coasters

That would be weird if he was trying to fix something while the ride was operating. It does sounds strange he could die from Python Pit.

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Sean Newman

Apollo Andy- I've seen that too. They were looking at the brakes on PR and checking the wheels on the train when it arrived.

I have witness a mechanic almost fall off the MCB on Medusa West. It was very scary and needless to asy he was shook up about it.

This is very sad to hear. It will be interesting to know more details as to how it happend.

At Lagoon, The First Thing You Do Before Completing Daily Ride Safety Checks and Cleaning Duties, Is Place The "Do Not Operate" Tag (Lock Out/Tag Out) In In The Keyswitch. If You Don't, It's A Termination Offense; Effective Immediately. I Send My Condolences To This Guy's Family, But Is A Lock Out/Tag Out System That Difficult? It Seems Like Common Sense To Me.

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Lagoon Park
New For 2003 - The Spider and the Fly

Was there anyone on the ride when it happened?

Could you imagine being a little kid in the front seat and hitting someone. I think it would be very tramatic for them.

You know what amazes me? I live 15 minutes from Wonderland Mall, and I had no clue there was a roller coaster in it!

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

According to channel 7 news last night he was inspecting the track from below. He was "almost decapitated" as the ride went by. It was suspected that his clothes got caught or something like that. I believe it said that there were people on it.

Starcoasters: I was going to submit it to news this morning but couldn't find anything on the internet about it.

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-Dan
If you don't like the ride shut up and get out of line.

This sort of thing is why OSHA has lock out, tag out rules. Obviously they were not followed here. This type of thing kills many workers in many businesses. I was once visiting a nursing home when the maintenance man was killed by an elevator that he failed to lock out. If you have to look at what is happening with something, then you need to set up a physical barrier. I suspect that the victem in this case thought that he was clear of the train though obviously he wasn't.

THat person happened to be my friends uncle and my soon to be boss and manager. He was helping me get the job at Jeepers in wonderland, but guess I won't be having it for quite a while. My friend hasn't talked to me at all since it happened, in fact I never had a chance to talk to him about it. Anyway, it's weird because in my interview with him on Tuesday he told me "when you work like me, you'll never get a break in life". Scary stuff...of course my condolences go out to my friend Andrew and the rest of the Marzuoq family.