Cornball accident

Listen, We don't know if he slipped and fell or whatnot.

True, Theres a lot of unsafe acts out there by employees thinking they are perfectly safe or so comfortable in their job, They overlook the little things that can be deadly.

We are not sure at this time exactly what happened.

Chuck, who in 2001 seen ops on ST stand on the track as the train was entering the station yelling stop at it!

I am sure that I am like everyone else on here. I look to coasterbuzz to keep up with what is going on in the amusement industry, and when I see a post about any accident that has occured I feel sorry for anyone that was involved. I don't care whether it is someone acting responsible or irresponsible. To me it is just sad to read.

I work in the trucking industry, and I see accidents happen all the time(I am in charge of 125 drivers, and 6 dispatchers). Most of the time they are usually minor mishaps not involving injuries to people(physical damage to a dock and or other real property), but every now and then there are fatalities.

One of our drivers at another company I worked at fell asleep at the wheel, drove through a guardrail, and killed himself. I felt really sad because he was a great person, and very responsible driver. He just wanted to get home so he could go on vacation with his family.

With all the rules in place to prevent accidents they are still going occur. It is best not to rush to judgement as to why or how the accident occured just that its sad that it occured at all. Sometimes I think people lose sight of that(like Kamakaze).

I think that we as enthusiests should try to show the parks and their emplyees that we care and support them just as they support us by having events etc. It works both ways. I am hoping that the ride op has a speedy recovery and is able to live a normal life after recovering.

*** Edited 9/6/2005 1:22:38 PM UTC by Coasterfantom2***

Any coaster accident of any kind is always cause for concern and I hope that, for everyone involved, it has not been too excruciating an ordeal. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the ride op and with any other affected Indiana Beach personnel.

BJW

working on the comet at MFI, i cross the tracks just about every cycle provided i'm at the button... whether it's to snag sombody's height, let the rope open for people into the station, talk to a guest, or to talk to the op up at the panel (not always "chit chat" mind you).

There's pretty much 4 things we have to do, and when there's only 2 of us (well at least when i'm up there) we kind of get an efficent flow of things to get everything done quickly and safely.

-- alan j

We've been there a few times, including this year earlier in the season. I've personally observed a young female ride attendant (maybe 16-18) repeatedly attempt to hop ONTO the side ledges of the train (Cornball) as it came in to unload. She thought it was rather funny, we thought that was pretty bad at the time. That was in 04', but there was much lax ride op behavior including flirting/horseplay among them even this year.

I'd say of all the parks we've been to now, they seemed to have the most relaxed ride ops around.

While sad that this happened and I hope the guy ends up being ok, I'm surprised that this hasn't happened before. It seems like walking across that tracks is a common thing at a lot of the smaller parks (such at Holiday World, Indiana Beach, the Dells and Knoebels) and when ever a ride op does this it makes me worry that something bad will happen. I just hope that some good can come out of this, and many of these parks will increase their safety efforts to keep things like this from happening ever again.

I work at the Thunderbolt roller coaster at Kennywood, we must give a "crossing" sign to the op and get permission before crossing the tracks. There are certain times it is ok to cross and certain times it is not ok to cross. Thunderbolt has a very well designed computer control system which virtually eleminates any possibility of an accident. Not sure how much everyone knows about controls but we use Allen Bradley controls, which are known for some of the best in the industry.

I would suspect that there is a high percentage of accidents involving ride ops or mechanics walking the tracks of coasters (of the yearly "accidents" that occur at parks). We rarely see a season where there isn't at least 3-4 of these kinds of accidents.

There was a particularly horrific one that occurred at Lake Compounce a few years back when BOULDER DASH came around the mountain and hit a park worker who was working on the back side of the track.

Tragic, to be sure.

BJW

I'm with razore on this...there are certain times to cross and certain times not to cross. If you need to cross the tracks to talk to the op up at the panel, install phones on both sides of the tracks so that they can call up to the op instead of having to cross over. Or just wait until the train is in the station and cross through one of the cars instead of as it's coming in, or when it's not in the station at all.

Again, I don't know what happened, but all we know is that he was crossing the tracks, got stuck, the train came and hit him. That could have been avoided...

Without trying to speculate on the accident, I do have a few general concerns about the way parks handle track crossings. While all parks do employ some sort of universal signal to indicate that a worker wishes to cross the track of a coaster, I've yet to see many that actually force employees to wait until the proper time to cross, which is 1) waiting for acknowledgement from the operator, then 2) waiting until there is a block separating the next train from the employee, ensuring that there is a way to stop the train in the event that the employee gets stuck on the track.

I forgot to mention that the comet only has one train, and that the brake run is always closed before the station. All advancing is done manually. Not sure if cornball runs more than one train, and if the brakes are automatic or what.

I got a call a couple of days ago from a friend who was at IB that night. He said the guy lost his foot. He saw the foot fall onto the roof of the restroom below the station. It turns out that it was just the guys shoe that fell and he did not lose his foot. Here is a story with some more details.
http://www.thehj.com/main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=32&ArticleID=11939

Wonder how the person is doing. Hopefully improving.

Word from sources says Ride op doing pretty good now. Staying in hospital for observation.

Wishes to return next season.
Chuck, Happy to hear a happy ending.

That's really good news to hear the ops is doing well!

I worked in rides at a Six Flags park and they were really strict about track crossing on any sort of ride. Always had to cross through a seat and on the inverted coasters had to cross through one of the first two seats once given clearance from panel operator. Apprently this was the response of some sort of OSHA investigation after an accident with a ride op on Reveloution at SFMM in late 80s (if I remember correctly). The policy was that improper track crossing was an instantly terminable offense. Also other crew members that witnessed this could be terminated for not reporting it. Actually remember an entire shift at a ride crew getting terminated for that. At the time it seemed kinda harsh but safety would be the priority here.

"Also other crew members that witnessed this could be terminated for not reporting it."

Followed by...

"A kid who tells on another kid is a dead kid."

What would YOU do? ;)