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racccoon
10-09-2012, 09:09 AM
A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to enjoy some rides at DL. We decided to ride the new Matterhorn that night, since we haven't rode that in a while. We were next to get on the vehicles, the gates opened up for us, I went through and the gate closed very quickly. The gate actually hit my elbow and I heard my wife yell out in pain as the gate closed on her; knocking her back. I looked back and she had a look of shock that the gate actually closed so quickly. I looked to the ride operator to tell her that the gate closed, but she was busy talking to another cast member and the one near the entrance gate looked oblivious to the situation. Needless to say, I went to City Hall to complain about the safety concern and how the cast members were not focused.

Has anyone else encountered a safety issue while in the parks?

Shortpix77
10-09-2012, 10:02 AM
I've gotten hit by one of the gates at Space Mountain, but it wasn't hard... like in your case, the CM just didn't see that I was still coming through.

candles71
10-09-2012, 10:42 AM
The ones at space are more of a plastic material (Plexiglass,iirc), the ones at the Matterhorn are Wrought Iron, I could see one hurting more than the other.

Teddi
10-10-2012, 09:06 PM
Yeah actually I have. Last spring @ Dumbo, this silly lady and her family were in line to board and they had their "feathers". So she thinks it's a good idea to take pics of the other dumbos containing her family and she managed to be on the complete opposite side from the ride operator (who's inside a booth) and the ride operator not could see her via the center pole in the way. Well the other CM who was supposed to do a head count and specifically is supposed to collect and count all the feathers after each ride rotation didn't notice silly lady. So the ride is now started and silly lady gets spooked and steps back and tries to exit, (where I was waiting in wheelchair access) but I knew already (i heard it) that the exit door was locked. So here she was on the side of the completely running Dumbo, hugging the gate. I started waving my hands and caught the eye of the booth CM and pointed to Silly Lady and the CM immediately had to stop the ride and then let Silly get on. Silly should have been paying more attention.

PTGeoffie
10-10-2012, 09:32 PM
I had this happen on Space Mountain. Completely inattentive cast member was chatting up another cast member and closed the gate as soon as my partner walked through, catching my arm between the two. Luckily I was able to pull my arm out without any real harm. I tried telling the loading cast member next to me that I was supposed to be with my partner, but all I got was a blank, disinterested stare. My partner and I aren't slow and we don't require any special loading assistance, the gate operator was just not paying attention and the other cast members were bored and disinterested.

The best part is that my partner's train left and I got on the next one and, wouldn't you guess, the ride broke down. We each sat there, in separate trains for over 20 minutes waiting to be evac'd. His was at the top of the first hill and mine was in the "light corridor" before the hill.

Exciting times.

rph13
10-11-2012, 03:04 AM
Raccoon, what kind of response did you get from city hall? This has not happened to me before but I am just curious as to how city hall handled the situation.

racccoon
10-11-2012, 07:00 AM
Raccoon, what kind of response did you get from city hall? This has not happened to me before but I am just curious as to how city hall handled the situation.

We went to city hall to report it immediately, and I told them of the safety issue. She took my report and offered to take us to the first aid station. We opted to walk there ourselves and the nurses stationed there gave my wife an ice bag and a front of the line pass for any ride in the park. Since it was the end of the day, it wasn't the best compensation.

Drince88
10-11-2012, 07:11 AM
Since it was the end of the day, it wasn't the best compensation.
What sort of compensation did you expect?

racccoon
10-11-2012, 02:29 PM
What sort of compensation did you expect?

The end of the day has shorter lines, so the front of the line pass with not that great. But I wasn't expecting anything more, that's what they usually give out.

bombardon3
10-13-2012, 05:00 AM
I could be completely wrong, but I don't think the Matterhorn has a dedicated gate operator. I'm not sure if the gates are just timed to open and close when a bobsled enters the station or if the loading CM is doing double duty. They do close very fast though, possibly because only one person is entering per gate.