OSHA fines Lake Compounce after worker's death

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration has fined Lake Compounce $14,500 for safety violations surrounding the death last summer of a groundskeeper who was struck by the Boulder Dash roller coaster while working beneath it. OSHA originally intended to cite the park for twice the amount, but agreed to reduce the fine pending changes in safety procedures.

Read more from The New Haven Register.

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Lake Compounce

Did we ever find out how it happened? Was he wearing the ear protection and didn't hear the train?
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I hate to say this, but even if he was wearing ear protection, it was still totally avoidable. Because I know at SFGAm, maintenace (which is what this guy falls under) has to lock the ride out or tag it out. Either one is saying there is a person in the ride area dont send a train. So either he forgot to do those, or the ride ops could care less. But truth is it would had to be tagged out, since locked out cuts all the power.

Avoidable yes......employee stupidity yes

Wait, you're saying the employee was stupid because someone else didn't know he was out there working and sent the train?

It isn't a matter of stupidity, it's a matter of the park not having the proper lockout procedures they should've had.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I agree. By law (OSHA) the park is responsible for having a lockout procedure to protect their workers. This means that the park must not only create the procedure, but also enforce its use. Everything that I have seen on this incident indicates that this was not the case.

But there are things you havn't seen

And what is that? Impress us with your vast experience so we can all learn something that OSHA didn't. If not, save the conspiracies for the X-Files.

What this boils down to is a lapse in basic safety procedures. Different depts. need to know what the other one is doing. Locking out an attraction when someone is working within the ride envelope is a MUST!

The ride must have had some sort of lockout procedure, but I dont know, maybe the now dead guy forgot to do it. Or maybe he didnt think he would be in the way of the train. I dont know at all what happened so I am not going to try to say I know everything about what happened.

this death was a failure of what is called "lock out tag out" the "team member" as they refer to us, failed to lock and tag the machine, the ride operator started running it. head gear had NOTHING to do with it. sadly this was a human error, ultimately the operator is at fault...it really shows the impact of our actions...god rest his soul.

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