Six Flags Ohio fined for safety violations

None of this surprises me since the day I was there a ride op fell off the loading station for Batman Knight Flight. The whole place had a poor attitude.

-------------
Two Words, "Millennium Force"

Cedar Point recruits people from a wide area. The posters go out at colleges in Ohio,Kentucky,Tennessee,West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan ,Indiana,etc. Do you get the picture? Out of every fifty people they interview, five, maybe ten, will be hired. They have a particular profile that they look for. Ride nazi's. It works though, doesn't it? Most if not all the other parks rely on the immediate area for their help. Let me tell you, what you have to accept these days to keep a ride running can be frightening. Especially considering that the good help is slinging burgers at IN n OUT for $7.00 or $8.00/hr. and corporate won't let you raise the stakes. The joys of the outdoor amusement industry.

SFO did seem to have a lot of employees that just didn't seem to care this year. I met a lot of nice ones though, but I agree with most said here -- they need to have a better understanding of how important their job is.

At least SOME of us ride ops care about our jobs and do them to the best of our abilities (Yes, even at a Six Flags park).

-------------
In the future, packages will be sent to distant worlds by BEAMS OF LIGHT! - Space Mountain WDW exit

For those who are applauding Disney, just take a look at the Amusement Ride Accidents Reports & News webpage. People have been getting hurt left and right at their parks recently. In the worst accident of late, one of their ride ops wasn't putting kids in the proper seating position on the Roger Rabbit ride and now a kid is brain damaged after falling out and being dragged under one of the cars.

To be honest about this whole thing, it is Six Flags problem. Here are a couple things I wonder about. Why would people work at SFO for 5.30 (what I was told it was from people there) or go across the lake to Sea World and get an easy 6.65 (what someone makes there after 1 year). It is not hard to figure out why it is not staffed well. Then you look at the fact people have to be in the sun when they could get 5.15 and be in the AC. That 15 cents dont mean much to me if it means roasting outside or staying cool inside.
Like someone else said, they can spend millions of dollars to get the rides but can't spend a couple thousand a person to hire decent help. It is very poor on there part! *** This post was edited by DragonCyrs on 1/10/2001. ***

I've never been to DisneyLand so I don't know what Roger Rabbit seats look like,but I would guess it was the kid's fault. They kid had to be older than 7 if he wasn't with a parent. Either the parent was dumb and didn't care that their kid was in like that or an 8 year old+ should know better. My knees were bent pretty low on Mantis at CP when I first got on and I asked the guy if I should go higher up(this is like my second stand-up ever so I didn't know). He said"Ah, you'll be alright." Now guess what the most painful riding experience ever was for me. I think Disney makes sure their parks are the safest, their employees are nicest, and that they have the best theme parks on the planet.

Plus Intamin Man, Disney gets like over 50 million people in their parks each year. Most other parks avg. like 2 or 3 million a year. So even though Disney gets more people, 1 in 50 million chances of getting hurt is definitely odds that I'm willing to take. :)

While this may be a problem at alot of amusement parks, we cant just stereotype all of Six Flags for this unfortunate story. SFGAm has been known to and I speak from experience since I worked there when I was in highschool that this park takes pride in its employees. They like to hire foreign people for certain parts of the park along with locals that take pride in thier work. SFGAm also has a program to house employees at an apartment complex off site which I guess is similiar to CPs program. They are also recognized as the employer with the largest seasonal employee base in the state of Illinois. If you visit this park you will see most employees with a positive attitude.

To SFO management, come to your sister park in Illinois and find out how a park should be run.

-------------
"DONT FIGHT IT, RIDE IT",,,,RAGING BULL

And that point is one I've made before. It seems that many of the Six Flags parks inherited the culture of their prior owners. SFGAm has the Marriot influence while SFO has the Funtime influence. Lots of shiny new rides, but the same operation as Drunka Lake.

-------------
Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

I don't know if the they changed things in the last couple of years, but in 1998 minimum wage was normally $5.15, but minimum wage for seasonal help was $4.75 so guess how much the park paid new-hires. Also if you think that people are working five 8 hour days then you are mistaken. There is no overtime for seasonal employment. If you were 16 or over then you were worked for about 50 hours a week to start. If you stayed a year or two then you would not work 5 days a week, you would work 5 1/2 days a week. These weren't 8 hour days either, they were 13 hours on the weekdays and 14 on the weekends.

The state has laws limiting the number of hours a 14-15 year old can work to 40 hours a week on a maximum of 5 days a week and 8 hours a day. So of course we had to schedule them to work those hours because nobody else wanted to work under those conditions, or they were getting fired left and right for stealing.

If you were not at least 16 then you were not allowed to operate rides. That is another law. I worked in the arcades and giftshops. At least if you work out in the sun then you got a breeze. In the arcades you did not get a breeze, there was no air-condition and you were surrounded by loud machines and people which generate a lot of heat. Needless to say it was not as boring as running a ride, but it was not at all pleasant.

Just like Jeff says in his previous post, make no mistakes about it, Marriott took great pride in this park(SFGAm). He hired individuals from Hollywood to create a park that had diverse sections and would make people fantasize about the worlds they were in. Six Flags realized this when they took over (Unlike Paramount at there park in California), and continued the tradition of having employees that would meet this expectation. Today, we have a park in Illinois that continues this great fantasy known as Great America and I am proud to call this place my homepark.

-------------
"DONT FIGHT IT, RIDE IT",,,,RAGING BULL

Red Garter Rob said...

---

I noticed on my trips to both SFO AND SFMM the young age of the ride op's. Now it really didn't cause much concern untill I saw multiple people, with video cams in hand (one on Superman at SFMM and one on Goliath really scared me) as the ride dispatched and the ops looked right at the people and just let them go. Imagine as that camera hits someone on the hill on the way down.

---

From first had experience, I think this is a California thing. When I was out there in April, I was able to take my video camera on GhostRider, Matterhorn, and Space Mountain in plain sight of all ride ops and didn't hear one word of protest. Heck, even one person in our party had a unipod on GhostRider. If I remember right (I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong), CA is one of the few states that doesn't have many state regulations on the amusement industry. Thank the Mouse for that.

-------------
Scott W. Short
scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

You are all partially correct about the wage scale etc. There is another real problem that does happen at 6 flags parks. Having worked at both SFGADV and SFGAM during my younger years.
My experience was for the first year you get minimum wage. For a first summer job that wasn't too bad until it was explained that 20% of my paycheck was going to the local entertainers union for union dues. Mind you I didn't get any union benefits, no medical coverage just a a 20% deduction from my already slim paycheck. The union also would not support any temporary employee in any way if there was a problem.
I can't speak to the rest of the chains or even to the rest of the Six Flags parks as these are the only two that I had worked for.
My point is that it seems a little unfair to hire temporary (seasonal help) and expect them to financially support the local unions without any of the local union benefits.
This may be one reason that help is so hard to find and keep for the parks.

BCDZoom please go to the webpage I mentioned and read the article before making such an ignorant statement as it must have been the kids fault, or the parent didn't care. Disney was clearly at fault. Put yourself in the parents shoes and say the same statement. Pretty arrogant isn't it?

But again.. he has a point.. When you look at the sheer numbers of people who float through a park owned by the House of Mouse, versus other parks. In a statistical standpoint, they are just as safe.

Granted it may have been Disney's fault, but remember that most accidents are caused by people not following set rules and doing things that a person with an ounce of common sense would never do. Anyone remember the guy who just got killed on Splash Mountain??

I'm not saying it's not Disney's fault, but statistics point that it's generally the guests fault.

I didn't see anything with the ride ops at SFO. I thought they were just doing there job. I did like CP when they said 'And have a good day at America's Roller Coast.". That was a nice touch.

Well Intamin Fan, I would have been smart enough to know to put the child on the safest side. I would have kept asking myself how stupid I was for not paying attention...but I'm not stupid so that's not a problem. Maybe the parent switched seats with the child. Maybe you should read those articles. That was the only one that said it might have been the operators fault. The rest were dumb riders. Go check there for yourself.

As an employee of Kings Island, I don't think that employees under 18 are untrustable or irresponsible. At PKI, our work force is well trained and well interviewed before even getting hired. Most everyone knows the reponsibility they have operating rides. Including myself. PKI isn't known for having the most energetic employees but at least when you get on a ride at PKI, you can bet that the op. knows what he is doing. I guess thats why we have very little injuries or deaths. Just wanted to put my 2-cents in.

I don't think that the age is too terribly important, but I don't think that the staff at SFO is very well trained.