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View Full Version : Suit Faulting Disney Safety Due for Trial - LA Times, 11/29/03



Darkbeer
11-29-2003, 01:52 AM
Suit Faulting Disney Safety Due for Trial (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-disney29nov29,1,5199439.story?coll=la-editions-orange) - Los Angeles Times, 11/29/03

QuikQuote: During depositions, a Disney project engineer told Heber's attorneys that they decided not to lubricate the restraint system even though manufacturer's guidelines and their own maintenance policies required it.
The engineer told attorneys he made "a unilateral decision not to lubricate the restraint system because access to lubrication points was somewhat problematic," Feldman said. Despite that decision, the park's maintenance slips indicated the work was being done even when it wasn't, Feldman alleged.

justagrrl
11-29-2003, 06:07 AM
Not surprising. Alarming, yes. But I am not surprised.

What I am curious about is all of the people who said, the day after the Big Thunder accident, that one was more likely to be injured on the way to the park, instead of while in it.

Do you still feel the same way? Has your viewpoint changed at all? Do you feel any hesitation about riding any of the rides based on facts now coming to light?

newhdplayer
11-29-2003, 07:26 AM
As a matter of fact, until T. Irby is gone; I will not subject myself or my family to the risks inherent while riding any attraction with moving parts or machinery.

I guess that leaves us sitting on benches watching everyone else risk their lives.

hazlnut
11-29-2003, 08:06 AM
Disneyland Resort spokeswoman Sondra Haley said it was unfair to draw similarities between the two cases.

"This is a shameful attempt to try to capitalize on a very unfortunate tragedy in a completely unrelated matter," Haley said.

For the next year or so, no one at DLR shall be allowed to use the word SHAMEFUL.

Get your own house in order before you start pointing the finger at others.

blusilva
11-29-2003, 11:41 AM
Feldman filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of David Heber, a Milwaukee surgeon who said he was injured on the California Screamin' roller coaster in August 2001.

(snip)

After the incident, Heber did not complain to ride operators or guest services, nor did he file a claim with the park when his condition did not improve.

Actually, it sounds pretty shameless to me. The guy didn't bother to file a complaint at the ride itself, at the Park that day or even to the Company until months - maybe up to an entire year - after the supposed incident. Sounds to me like a total scam.

DL4EVER
11-29-2003, 12:39 PM
justagrrl, the weirdest thing is, they can do all the maintenance in the world, with employees that they trained the living daylights out of, and even go as far as to not open the park till 12 so they can do maintenance checks and runs daily, but that CANNOT guarantee safety. I am not condoning the actions taken by Disney that led to the accident, but I am simply stating that so much more can go wrong besides maitenance error. I don't fear for my safety on a Disney ride any more than I fear my safety on an airplane, in my school classroom, or walking into Blockbuster, simply because in this world and this day and age, ANYTHING can happen. That's just how this world is unfortunately.

The most unexpected things can happen out of no where. I can honestly say that I've feared for my safety more while in the car than while on Pirates of the Carribean, or the Matterhorn. There are so many greater things to fear for my safety or fear at all than fear for my safety at a theme park. Yes, I realize that person could have been me, but if it's my time to go riding a ride at Disneyland, or anywhere else for that matter, so be it. I don't want anyone to be offset by this.

Another point, although weak it is, is the fact that if you go look at past updates from a site like CoasterForce.com, and go look at ride accidents and those assorted pages, so many have happened this year. I am in no way saying this makes what happened with Disney justified, because it doesn't, but I am merely trying to say that it is not like Disney maintenance is the only maintenance out there that has messed up, resulting in injuries and death.

As for the article, it is rather fishy as to the fact that he made no complaint of it to the park or the company in any way. I wonder if the situation was even how he made it out to be anyways.

newhdplayer
11-29-2003, 06:48 PM
Originally posted by blusilva
Actually, it sounds pretty shameless to me. The guy didn't bother to file a complaint at the ride itself, at the Park that day or even to the Company until months - maybe up to an entire year - after the supposed incident. Sounds to me like a total scam.

Not a total derailment, but if this guy can sue, so can I. We were riding GRR September 28th, approx 5:45PM, and we got wet, and cold. Due to the exposure and minimal hypothermia suffered, we both (better half and I) got the flu in November. I think I've got a case. Let me call Larry H. Parker.

CoasterMatt
11-29-2003, 06:57 PM
Originally posted by newhdplayer
As a matter of fact, until T. Irby is gone; I will not subject myself or my family to the risks inherent while riding any attraction with moving parts or machinery.

I guess that leaves us sitting on benches watching everyone else risk their lives.

Don't forget that one of the biggest injury causing accidents at Disneyland happened when a tree fell over on people sitting on a bench :p

Disneyfreak
11-29-2003, 06:58 PM
LOL.. Call Larry H Parker:)

No wonder I was always hearing the restraint system on BTM squeel like crazy when people moved them.:eek:
I even said myself: do they ever lubricate these restraints.:rolleyes:
The last time I rode BTM was 5 days before this happened and I was in the front row, and the ride was very poorly kept up and the paint was peeling everywhere, which was a sign of lack of upkeep. I was so mad at the fact it was so poorly maintained.

Darkbeer
11-30-2003, 02:07 AM
Ok, let's go back and look at the articles in this thread, and see what the DOSH spokesperson, and other "experts" have said....



First from the original article in the Orange County Register from 11/26/03


Quote:
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Len Welsh, the state's acting chief of DOSH, confirmed that investigators are looking at the consequences of the missing wire – as well as the broader questions that arise from it.

"(The missing safety wire) is one subject of a much larger investigation," Welsh said.

The report will also address maintenance and training problems that led to the error and require the park to make safety improvements, officials involved said.


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Here is the head of DOSH stating that the report is part of a much larger investigation....

Quote:
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The Big Thunder maintenance foreman told investigators after the crash that his crew was overworked.

"They are running one person short on their crew and as such they have to work a little bit faster and harder to get things done. They tend to run behind," Anaheim police detective J. Clapper wrote after interviewing foreman Ivan "Casey" White.


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Working with 6, instead of 7, made the man in charge (the foreman) claim that the staff was overworked.

And now from the second LA Times article (11/27/03)...

Quote:
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A series of human errors resulted in September's fatal crash on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, state investigators said Wednesday. Among those blamed were a mechanic who didn't tighten bolts on a wheel assembly and managers who declared the ride safe without inspecting it.


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Wow, MANAGERS!!!

And now, the official DOSH spokesperson...

Quote:
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While state investigators found that the team assigned to Big Thunder Mountain also didn't follow safety procedures on other high-speed rides, which they did not name. DOSH didn't examine whether there were systematic problems in maintenance throughout the park.

"We did not take the scope of the investigation that far," DOSH spokesman Dean Fryer said. "That's outside the realm of what our investigation is looking at. Hopefully, they will review the procedures in other rides also."

But given the findings in this investigation, Fryer added, inspectors may decide to more closely monitor procedures and record-keeping at Disneyland.


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So the report is limited to what it looked at, and there is the possibility of problems elsewhere in the park, per DOSH itself!

Next we have a DOSH employee (works for the Cal-OSHA division reporting how he, and a fellow employee read the report...

Quote:
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Anyway, it is obvious to me, and another person in my office who read the report that there was a failure to properly train the maintenance employees in procedure.


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And whose responsibility is it to train the employees correctly, but Management????

And lets look at what a couple of "experts" said in the Orange County Register from 11/27.

Quote:
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"To have an inconsistent understanding of green and yellow tags, to have an operator who doesn't understand if there's an unusual noise that you should shut it down, and not requiring that the ride go through a test cycle, those make me feel extremely uncomfortable," said Bill Avery, a ride-safety consultant from Orlando, Fla.

"Any time you hear an unusual noise, you shut it down, that's Safety 101 in our industry," said Avery, who teaches training classes for amusement parks. "I was surprised it wasn't in their policy."

Ed Pribonic, former manager of engineering at Disneyland Resort, said the report's findings will damage Disney's otherwise excellent reputation for safety. He said Disney employees work hard to ensure that rides are safe.

"The folks on the line and mechanics have always made safety their utmost concern," said Pribonic, now a ride- safety consultant based in Seal Beach.

"But over the years, people and policies change. You need the support of the corporation, in attitude and resources, to do all the things that you write down. It takes people and money to pull if off."


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That last paragraph is a very interesting quote, and does bring up a good point, no matter who many manuals and procedures you draw up, if the staff is overworked, how can they do everything they are expected to do during their shift