Worker struck by Flight Deck train at California's Great America, rider also injured

Shakes head. How does this ever happen?

There are a lot of reasons why the incident could have happened on The Smiler, only one reason why stuff like that this happens.

STOP ENTERING LOW ZONES WITHOUT A LOCKOUT/TAGOUT.

Is it just me or does this seem to happen every year? Hopefully everyone is ok, but smarten up, people!

I'm sure most, if not all, parks drill the importance of the lockout/tagout procedure into their employee's heads. I suspect that some employees do not think that that rule applies to them, for whatever reason.

All for a damn cell phone.

Simple solution to this problem... Key the locks to the low zones the same as the key that runs the ride, and only allow the one key. Then you HAVE TO shut down the ride before you can enter the low zone.

If I recall it's supposed to be set up that way to begin with in according to DOSH regulations. I'll be talking to a DOSH inspector in few weeks I ask for clarification from him,

Here goes another avoidable injury!

The "restricted" in restricted areas applies to guests AND employees.

To borrow from Dave - the machine does not care about you or your well-being, it is a machine. I think there is a strong tendency for employees to become accustomed to the rides and to gradually disregard the awesome power behind all those moving parts. You have to be careful EVERY time to stay uninjured, but you only need to make one careless mistake for a tragedy to happen.

This just seems really strange to me. Someone that was familiar enough to have access to keys to a restricted or "hot" zone on the ride would know they were going into a dangerous area. They would also likely be familiar with the B&M roar so not sure how the train could really sneak up on you.

They were likely breaking rules as well. I worked on a BTR in the late '90s. It was definitely lock out tag out to go into the low zones on the ride. Pretty sure it was even lock out tag out to go anywhere in the infield period.

These incidents seem to happen most frequently with B&M inverts, right? In the case of a standard coaster I would think an intruder would likely have the good sense to stay away from the track. But since the track on an invert is above and the ground below is clear, someone searching the ground may not realize how close they're getting to the actual path of the coaster train until its too late. That, (and the fact that they're dumasses), is all I can think of to explain this recurring phenominum.

^It would happen with the Vekoma inverts as well, but even people oblivious enough to go under an inverted coaster are too smart to ride Vekoma....

Seriously though, between employees and guests....why is it so hard to STAY OUT of danger zones when rides are operational!

Aside from common sense, ride operators are trained and are tested on safety procedures.