SFMM employee struck and killed by coaster today

Agreed with Chitown. You can't hold SF responsible for these...they have lockout procedures and train the employees. Beyond that there's not a whole lot to do. Humans make mistakes. Sometimes deadly ones they don't deserve.

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Zero-G said:
"What was going through the Six Flags employee's head when she decided to enter a restricted area?"

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The Scream train, of course!

Condolences to the family and friends..:(

I do think parks should (will?) institute a no-tolerance policy for entering restricted areas without having the ride properly "locked down"...patrons can't enter those areas for a very good reason, and all employees MUST follow the same rules. Fast heavy machinery is completely unforgiving of human error.

As a ride op, it makes me sad to hear of this. Obviously those of us who work at the parks need to learn from this.

My thoughts are with the family.

.. if she was actually "on" the track. Then this is a clear violation of not only her not following low zone and lockout procedured but the crew who dispatched the train from the station.

When I'm working on a ride, even if it's just a quick run up the hill, you bet I lockout control power with a lock only I know the combo too. It's common sense.

When ride ops need to go into low zones to retrieve things, the ride keys should go with them so that no one can power up and dispatch.

This sounds like a case of alot of peopel not following what is basically an industry standard.

Dude, I'm so sorry for the family. My prayers are for them.

But...all of the ride op crew should have locked down the ride. The ride should have been stopped. Six Flags has now had way too many 'accidental' deaths and injuries. That is sad, when are they going to do anything? This needs to be stopped.

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coasterMNguy... said:
The Six Flags corporation should be held liable for these kind of incidents. I understand that it was through the employees own actions, but after a trend of these happenings, I think it is time for SF to do something. My thoughts are with the family.

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Six Flags, it seems like to me, should not be liable for these types of incidinces. The woman was standing on the track while the ride was in operation.

There's really no "trend" of these happening. A few every year. Also, monitoring so many employees would be hard, and kind of pointless. These people are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.

I remember the first year at SFNE, they were running Batman through cycles with no passengers, and an employee was trying to get a basketball that had gotten stuck under the tracks near the brake run, and as the train was coming in he jumps out of the way 10-15 feet to the ground, and all I could say was WOW.

Does anyone know how long the investigation may take? How long did the Goliath investigation take? *** Edited 4/10/2004 2:28:07 PM UTC by Goliath Freak***

If she was a ride op, she should not have been on the track in the first place. Only mechanics should be there. Also, She must have been around it and knew it was running...

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Goliath Freak said:
Does anyone know how long the investigation may take? How long did the Goliath investigation take?

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This Scream! incident is not the same as the Goliath one. The Goliath fatality involved the death of a rider, while Scream!'s fatality involved a ride's train hitting an employee in a restricted area. The two scenarios are completely different, and the procedures that go along with each is different as well. So you can't tell how long it will take. But most likely, Scream! will open up earlier than it took Goliath to.

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Fierce Pancake said:

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Zero-G said:
"What was going through the Six Flags employee's head when she decided to enter a restricted area?"

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The Scream train, of course!

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That was uncalled for. ;)

Eh yeah that is a rough comment - I can handle it but if the family or someone else read that they would be disturbed. My prayers are with them. This is just too sad.

If she truly did stand ON the tracks, I can think of no reason for doing so other than suicide. What could she possibly be looking for ON the tracks. As devestating of a thing as suicide is, it does happen all too often and oftentimes there are no signs of it coming, it's like an earthquake, undetectable. *** Edited 4/10/2004 9:56:26 PM UTC by SFGAMDie HARD***

Well, if Revolution can do a guy in (see "Rollercoaster! the movie), just imagine what kind of mess Scream would make.

Still, far-fetched that it was a suicide. Stranger things have happened.

anyone else disturbed by this guy's comments? Your outta line homey, simple as that. I'm not trying to be oversympathetic to the situation, just being respectable.

How can you hold the corporation responsible for one person's stupid actions? I'm sorry, but in the contest of human vs. multi-ton train, the train wins everytime. I agree that this is a possible suicide.

I've never been on a coaster's track while a train was running, but I'd assume there's some type of vibration that you could feel. If this is the case, the vibration combined with the noise of the ride seems like it'd be hard to not realize a train was coming or atleast running somewhere on the track...

It had to be suicide, I don't see two ways around it. But what a way to go...

Nice to see so many experts on an accident noone here witnessed. Perhaps it's best to wait for more details?