Man falls from scaffolding at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure

If you've ever been up on scaffolding, you know there's not a lot of margain of error when moving around. He could've tripped on something, lost his balance, fainted, whatever. It happens.
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2002, the year the Six Flags America bashing stops.

Absolutely - I spent a year laboring for bricklayers before I went to med school and even some of the seasoned veterans I was on the job with had accidents. You can issue one guideline and one procedure right after the other, but that still won't stop bad things from happening to people. I think it's naive to think they will....

While we will never completely eliminate accidents we can do a great deal to minimize them. Accidents don't just happen. Every Accident Has A Cause Or Causes. When you take this approach to accidents, you can eliminate the vast majority of them. I've spent 30 years involved in construction and industrial operations, and I've seen how well this can work.

If the accident is oops I slipped, then you have to go the next steps in analysing the accident. First, why did someone slip? Bad shoes? Cluttered work area? Slick surface? Etc. Second, why did the slip result in a serious fall instead of a bobo? No handrail? No toe plate? Not wearing safety harness? Lanyard not tied off?

Right, but I think you've once again missed the point - sometimes bad things happen when we are prepared. You were obviously very lucky to have never had an accident in thirty years, Jim! I'll have to take you to my next poker game. P.S. What's a "bobo?" I thought it was some kind of bird......oh, no, that's a "booby." Sorry.

*** This post was edited by ophthodoc on 5/28/2002. *** *** This post was edited by ophthodoc on 5/28/2002. ***

According to an earlier post, he fell 15ft. In rock climbing, that's really nothing more than a "walk it off and take a bit of a break".

However, this is industrial work, if you don't send them to hospital and get them thoroughly checked over, the employer will find himself in court because of all the various neck and back injuries, and find themselves paying a worker more than he used to get, and not actually doing anything. Doesn't mean to say he won't still sue whoever he's employed by.

It does sound like its a bit worse than a 15ft fall in which he reacted well and landed in a safer way. Still, he might have a broken rib or two, some internal bleeding and some bruised organs. Nothing terribly bad on the scope of things. It'll all cure itself in time without a great deal of medical aid.

I'm surprised this made the news. I may get called impassionate, but I'll go on. Not only is it really not a big deal, but they provided a pretty low amount of information. They make it sound like he fell 30m or something.

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So what if the best coaster in Australia is a second hand Arrow?