Six Flags Over Georgia employee killed by passing coaster train in restricted area

This kind of accident should never happen. Lock-out procedures are crystal clear on these kinds of rides, and I don't doubt that Six Flags as a company has very strict protocol in place. What a shame.

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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"

Maybe he forgot?!

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Im the #1 Canobie Lake Park Fan!!!These are my top 3 coasters:
1. S:RoS @ SFNE 2. Yankee Cannonball 3. Cyclone

Do you forget to put on a parachute when you jump out of a plane? It's really not that different.

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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"

Have you ever been to SFoG? The park is a mess over by Batman... a person standing in line could easily get into the "restricted" coaster area... so it can't be too hard for an employee to do the same.

Today at WoA I saw a ride mantinance employee walking near the loop on X-Flight when the traink was cycling.

As the traink came near him he got as far away as he could and knelt down, but I still don't think he should have been in there...too many things could go wrong.

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"Tea & Cake Or Death?-Eddie Izzard"~My No Limits Designs...http://coastergames.net/author.php?author=BKF%20Master

Parks never enforce the rules, until the unspeakeable happens.

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Track Record: 110 and counting.....

SF strictly enforces going into ride infields. The ride power must be cut off and a lock out tagout placed on the key switch. At Xflight I believe maintenance is allowed to go into the yard only to the trailer(basically the 'brains' of the ride) during operation. It's sad this happened and I hope it never happens again.

That is sad. Parks should be more careful in making sure that no one goes where they do not belong.

^ Employees should use common sense. This kind of action was obviously not approved by the park.

As much as I feel bad, the rules for employees are very clear regarding these situations.

I think at this point in time woulda coulda shoulda's do little to help the situation.

My heart and prayers go out to the friends and family of the worker, the park who now has to deal with the loss of a coworker and a big PR mess, as well as the young lady that accidentally struck him.

Such a shame.

Shaggy

Parks cant be blamed if their employee's act in a irresponsible manner!!

...perhaps not, but they can still be held reponsible.

I guess this explains the helicopters that were flying around SFoG on sunday

I worked at PKI for five years and every year we had to go through lock-out training. There should of been no reason at all for the employee to be in lock out in the first place.

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If you like what you ride now, just wait until its my time to Design!!

While I feel bad for the family who lost their loved one in this unfortunate accident, I have to ask, what was this person doing in such close proximity to that roller coaster in the first place? The only thing I can possibly think of, would be to retreive an object that was lost by someone on the ride and that is just no justification to be in that area untill after the ride is closed for the day. I have to put in the common sence issue here. Anyone in their right mind knows not to go in an area like that. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is not a safe place to be during operation.

Now Six Flags is gonna be held responsible and the have a major blemish on their safety record. And throughout the course of events to come, the pricetag for this will eventually be dealt with by consumers. Oh the humanity of it all....

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Pearl Jam + Roller Coasters = Heaven on Earth. :)

I think your theory may be right, Joey Stewart. That's why every ride I've ever been on at any SF park has an announcer that says "lost articles cannot be retrieved during park operating hours." It's sad to think that the employee was trying to be helpful, but still you'd have to have some brazen ones to run under a moving coaster train. I've been there, and yeah i guess it would be fairly easy to get into that restricted area, but it would involve jumping a fence or two, and blatently ignoring signs that say "don't go here, it's dangerous." It's akin to opening your car door and jumping out onto the highway at 80 MPH to get something that fell out the window. Sure, you could, but is it really worth it? Hopefully, this won't put too much of a dent in SF's record, as it's clearly not their fault unless they encouraged this sort of behavior.

It's tragic when something like this happens - but even sadder that these situations happen at all. The fact that coasters and other amusement attractions are first and foremost major pieces of mechanical machinery are forgotten in view of the fun environment that surrounds a park. It seems like every year something like this happens to wrench that reality back into perspective.

I think this is the first SFOG employee-ride related accident in 35 years. OSHA will come in and do an investigation and it should be cleared up rather quickly. There was a violation of safety procedures and OSHA shouldn't hold the park responsible.

I know that Batman moves fast, but at the same time, how could you NOT know it was coming at you, considering the noise it makes ? Not only did he ignore printed warnings, and trained safety proceedures, but also sensory input. Strange... Intentional, perhaps ? My thoughts go out to the family and friends & the park...I hope he's in Airtime Heaven right now, and not DeJa Vu que line hell.

Looks like it's time to install motion detectors tied into the ride system's brakes, or something !

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Current favorite coasters:
Wooden: 1) Beast 2) Raven 3) Son of Beast 4) The Boss 5) Timber Wolf
Steel: 1) Raging Bull 2) Millennium Force 3) V2 4) Wild Thing 5) Mr. Freeze
Visit: http://www.dynamicgroove.com

As I posted earlier, I was there, in the Batman station when this happened. It was very confusing. All I really heard and saw was some screaming, a girl crying on the ground, and a ton of employees running up to the ride. It was scary.

This is really bad, such a unfortunate accident this early in the season. Hopefully his death will prompt SF and other parks to do more training with their employees.

I hate to say this, but isn't it common sense not to go into a restricted area such as this when a train is in operation. And even if you have to go into the restricted area to concentrate on where the train is. Don't get me wrong, I feel horrible for the family and anybody who had to witness this accident, but I don't think that anyone should be blamed for this but the guy himself.

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