Disneyland shuts down Alice in Wonderland ride on worker safety concerns

The ride has been operating for over 50 years, and now there is a "possible" problem?

Sounds like someone at osha is really bored.

crazy horse said:
The ride has been operating for over 50 years, and now there is a "possible" problem?

Sounds like someone at osha is really bored.

Current buzz is that OSHA's been needling Disney about adding a railing to that part of the ride, which is elevated and very exposed, for a long while now. So far Disney had gotten by with statements that they were working on it, but it seems they finally received enough pressure to have to act.

I've seen first person shots of the area in question, and it does seem somewhat precarious without some kind of railing. Of course, Disneyland fanatics are in uproar and already starting conspiracy theories, like that it's just an excuse to add Johnny Depp to the ride.

Well, with OSHA being the way that it is, its either add a railing to the track or put in an overhead trolley and make the workers tie off to it when they're up there. Either solution is going to make somebody mad. But what can you do? Maybe Disney was claiming that workers never had to walk that track, but obviously someone was up there and someone who works for the AHJ happened to see it.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

RideMan said:
Maybe Disney was claiming that workers never had to walk that track, but obviously someone was up there and someone who works for the AHJ happened to see it.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Well somebody in the past did a photo essay on what it takes to keep Disneyland going, and a pic of a maintenance person sweeping that track down was shown (currently it's posted on a Disney fan site). So I'd say that excuse didn't work.

Sagretti said:

crazy horse said:
The ride has been operating for over 50 years, and now there is a "possible" problem?

Sounds like someone at osha is really bored.

Current buzz is that OSHA's been needling Disney about adding a railing to that part of the ride, which is elevated and very exposed, for a long while now. So far Disney had gotten by with statements that they were working on it, but it seems they finally received enough pressure to have to act.

I've seen first person shots of the area in question, and it does seem somewhat precarious without some kind of railing. Of course, Disneyland fanatics are in uproar and already starting conspiracy theories, like that it's just an excuse to add Johnny Depp to the ride.

I understand all of that, but the fact is, the ride has been operating for 50 plus years and has never had an issue. Why now? And for them to shut the ride down completly is just silly.

It raises the question "does OSHA have too much power"?

I know osha does some great things, but it just seems like they are nit picking everything now. I have a friend that works at cedar point. Before the park opend for the season, they had employies wiping down the lights in the coaster stations. They were up on ladders with a wet rag. OSHA came in and said that they have to wear eye goggles to wipe down the lights now.

I have heard several stories about OSHA stepping in. Again, I think they do good things in a lot of casses. But I also think it has gotton to the point where they ran out of things to enforce, so now they have to prove there exsistance by making up silly new violations.

It's probably more a question of OSHA being handed a pile of silly and not-so-silly regulations by Congress that OSHA has to go forth and enforce.

Having people wear safety goggles while wiping glass bulbs may seem like a silly regulation, but put yourself in the shoes of a mother who's child ended up with eyes filled with shards of glass while performing just that task at their job.

Okay this is not THE OSHA. this is Cal OSHA, Dept of Occupational Safety & Health, Permament Amusement Ride Divison. Having delt with DOSH in the past, I won't go into what my opinion of this state agency are as it has already been expressed previously on this board.

Dutchman won't say it, so I will:

CalDOSH is a net-revenue-generating department.

--Dave Althoff, jr.

^Exactly. Now they can charge Disney for DOSH to come back to inspect the new barriers.