Disneyland Paris contractor dies working on Small World

First off, this is very sad and tragic and I'm sorry for the man's family. It's made even worse realizing that in the victim's last moments he had to listen to that annoying song being played over and over. "It's a small world afterall, it's a small world...."

Perhaps he threw himself under the boat to escape the soundtrack.

Isn't there a safeguard to prevent this from happening?

Most parks have lock-out procedures in which employees place a lock or tag over the main power, which should only be removed by the same employed when they have finished their work.

sws said:
First off, this is very sad and tragic and I'm sorry for the man's family. It's made even worse realizing that in the victim's last moments he had to listen to that annoying song being played over and over. "It's a small world afterall, it's a small world...."

I've never been to Disneyland Paris, and likely never will. But the question in my mind: Is the song played in English?

The song is played in like 6 languages over the ride.

Doesn't surprise me one bit. In a cost cutting measure ages ago, pretty much all cleaning except day sweeping was given to this french company that hires questionable labors at the lowest wages possible. Those employees simply don't give a.. and in the case of Space Mountain, to avoid getting a ride sign getting ripped out again by the street sweeper truck, we had to tie ropes and trash cans around it or else, those guys would only stop when the truck is stuck! Also, when the 3rd shift of that company would finish and would return to the locker room, make sure you grabbed breakfast before them, because they came in masse and cleaned out the restaurant!

That's what you get for using the lowest bidder...

Yeah, I know Disney World's LOTO (lock out tag out) procedures have just recently been updated. Something like this should never happen.

If the ride moves like the Orlando version, I'm not sure how this can happen. For one, it's not like you can't see the boat coming, and for another, I would think one could simply push against it to stop it. Is there some other propulsion device beyond the current?

What exactly would he be cleaning that would require him to stand where he could be run over by a boat?

The US models are both current driven except in the loading area, where there are conveyors. I think they also use weir brakes and gates to control boat movement, similar to a log flume. Do these rides have reservoirs to drain the trough when not running? I kind of assume they don't.

But it doesn't matter how the ride system works. The ride mechanicals should have been locked out long before this guy started working on it. Just as a matter of turning the ride off.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.