Woman released from hospital after Six Flags Ohio accident

Jmstuckman, I wouldnt compare these recent accidents at SFO to the free fall accident you are talking about. The boy undid his safety belt and squeezed out from under the OTSR. Accidents like that one are totally nothing the park could do.

Being at SFO a few times this year it is for sure the worst run park I have been at. And I also back jeff. What he said in his editoral and posts is dead on accurate. Alot of ride ops that were unsure as to how to operate the rides (BKF). When I was there. Stacking on BKF (God only knows how). Oh yeah poor ops. Ride ops and employees that could really care less. Looks like they are seeing the results.

-------------
Closing Time: 5:30
CP Arrival Time: 5:50

Whose Line is it Anyway?

I have not been to SFO this year. However when I was there last year. I was on the Calypso type ride with my little brother. Now granted this is not a terribly dangerous ride, BUT while the ride was in motion I looked at the ride op and he had his head down on the control panel like he was sleeping. I am not sure how you feel, but I think the rides ops should at least be paying attention to the ride.

While I am on my soapbox, this year on Father's Day we went to SFKK and the ride ops on Chang were not making people stand up correctly. I witnessed 2 trains go out with the riders in a "squatting" position. I was under the impression that you were to be standing on the ride.

Maybe the problem with SFO is that all of the good employees are lured away to CP. Maybe not. However this type of behavior is going on at other Six Flag parks.

NOW, before all of the SFMM people jump my case. I will admit that I have not heard of any major problems with that park. Maybe it is because that park gets national attention and they know about the damage that negative publicity will cause to them. So the are more strict on the rules there. Overall Jeff is right "Safety is not accident"

-------------
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?

Like I said, this is a management problem. I have heard rumors of the exodus of key personell from parks shortly after Premier purchased them. The threads of this site seem to reinforce that. With Six Flags entering the European market, they have to be starting to spread themselves a little thin.

Here's my little diddy on the whole affair. The ride ops at SFO are on the whole probably no worse than the ops any where else. Yes I know we can all point to isolated incidents where they have GREAT OPERATORS but on the average I have been unimpressed with most park personell in general. I have found that most people doing a people job shold not be or should be doing it less. I previously worked in one of these entertainment type jobs and after a while people will get on your nerves. You always get some idiot who thinks you will be amused by his doing something stupid to annoy you. I usally was not amused. Therefore I do not do this work any longer and it is in a business which I enjoy. Secondly, most parks are understaffed. Why? When was the last time you enjoyed working a fourteen hour day in the heat dealing with stupidity all for near minimum wage. Sounds like a great time to me and I like amusement parks more than the average Joe. I would be willing to bet that most people do not however share my enthusiasm. Therefore the parks are typically left with a less than top notch crew. The employees with motivation have probably moved onto bigger and better employment. This is not to say that some of the employees are great, it's just that the few bad ones seem to rise to the top. Where do we place blame for all this? I would agree that management at THE TOP is where the blame should be placed. They are the ones who are payed the big dollars to have the big responsibility. They should earn that money. And for any one that is in management and reading this don't feel like I'm picking on you, this is just the way the rest of the world operates too. My suggestions: Pay a little more. This tends to attract better and more employees thus allowing you to weed out the ones you don't want. This would probably even allow for enough employees to choose from so that a ride op does not have to work 14 hours. This may even improve the bottom line. Happier employees usally carries over to make happier customers which usally means they come back and spend more. Which means you make more. On a different note. As far as Six Flags raising prices. Bad move guys. Why do I think this? They tried doing the same thing in the bowling industry years ago. Make the few customers who stay pay for the ones who have left so that we can still make our money. The customer base to this day continues to drop and the prices still keep climbing. Be aware you are an entertainment, not a requirement. The industry should really look at itself before it's to late. Like a little more to chew on. SF is still spending big bucks on new rides. Great. But the people are not coming like they should. Do some surveys, find out why. I could go on and on but that's enough for now. *** This post was edited by phil on 7/12/2000. ***

AMEN, PHIL

I have been to sfo more than once this year the people who work there could care less what you do. The ride ops do not tell to leave all loose article with a non-rider. That is one problem the other is if you think these employees get payed nothing you should see what Kennywood park employees get payed they make less than minimum wage. The park would rather pay the fine then pay the employees minimum wage. I think the location has a large part to do with it teh park is in a small town with not a lot of local employees mostly form surronding areas. Just my opinion I could be wrong.

Does PA have a seasonal employee wage law on the books? Otherwise you can't be paid less than the prevailing minimum wage in that state. I know for a fact that at one time Ohio had such a law. One of the quirks of these seasonal wage laws was that there was no provision for overtime. You could work a 60-80 hr week and it was all straight time.

The minimum wage law is federal. It applies to all states and that includes PA. The one exception is if you are under 16 or if you work for tips.

Very true. They can get away from paying overtime in Ohio, as seasonals aren't entitled to overtime pay.

-------------
Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

I AM NOT SURE BUT MY SISTER WORKED THERE LAST YEAR AND SHE MAD SOME THING LIKE 4$ AN HOUR AND I KNOW A FEW PEOPLE WHO WOKED THERE AND THEY HAVE SAID THE SAME BUT KENNYWOOD WOULD RATHER PAY THE FINE THEN PAY THE EMPLOYEES IT IS MORE COST EFFECTIVE.

PLEASE STOP SHOUTING.

If that were true, they'd be shut down, pure and simple. Not only that, but some greedy lawyer would likely file a class-action suit on the behalf of the employees. It didn't happen.

-------------
Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

What your pay scale is and what you take home are two different things. After they take out SSI,state and federal taxes,yes you would probably net about $4.00/hr. Check your pay stub.

Accident or NO accident, SAFTEY IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IN AMOUSEMENT PARKS!

and spelling should be your number one priority valleyfair, it's AMUSEMENT! =D and i'd like to say that i loved CP and the only things i thought could be better were that there could be a lot more shaded areas, i got major sunburn (i know that's my fault but still). and i also thought that most of the employees working the food stalls/stands were from different countries, and spoke/understood english poorly. not that i am against aboriginals or anything, they just made for more problems. I felt the rides couldnt be more safe, i never felt like my life was in danger.

btw, did the handicapped boy who slipped out of a freefall ride die?

-----------------------------

63-Time Millenium Force rider