WDW castmember death

Al Marcano · Post by **Al Marcano** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 10:45 am

I heard a CM was killed wednesday at WDW. Does anyone have any info?

Zazu · Post by **Zazu** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:33 pm

Javiar Cruz, who was assisting Pluto at the time, tripped and fell in front
of one of the floats in Wednesday's afternoon parades and was run over,
dying from massive internal injuries before paramedics could evacuate
him.

Javiar was eight year vetaran who worked his way from Custodial to
Entertainment with experience at numerous characters, including
performances in the Festival of the Lion King and Share a Dream Come
True Parade.

A divorced father of two, he was described by friends as a "true Disney
character, in and out of costume," and a generous soul in the true spirit
of Walt. His absence will be strongly felt by both family and cast.

Additional details from the Orlando Sentinel online at
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business ... -headlines.

Freak · Post by **Freak** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 12:40 am

Dude that sucks bigtime....To work all the way up from custodial to that
and then have your life come to a premature end... Man, that sucks, and
he sounded like a really nice guy. Thats a shame. :(

nitro-junkie · Post by **nitro-junkie** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 5:13 pm

This story is a warning to EVERYBODY out there that comes near parade
floats. These things are serious machines, and just because they're slow
moving (most of the time), they're still heavy. Between your soft,
squishy little frame and their steel frames...YOU LOSE!

For every person that ever gave me crap for yelling at them to get out of
the way of a parade float at DLR: THIS IS WHY YOU IDIOTS!

Believe it or not, most of these things weigh in at close to the same
weight at a loaded eighteen wheel truck. During Light Magic, we could
drive those b@stards at 35mph, and used to shear off the poles for the
queue (sp?) at Matterhorn and not even know it.

Keep your eyes open. Disney isn't worth dying for.

:(

pixiedust · Post by **pixiedust** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 12:09 am

Ok... the thing that bothers me.

I heard that it happened backstage. Here in DL/DCA, isn't it true that for
the last 15 years, if a parade float is driving around backstage (esp. with
the music on) they have to have another CM on the front or walking in
front of it for safety? Ever since the birthday cake ran down an
entertainment tram back in the 80s.

They need to do this again if they stopped, and start doing it at WDW.

Zazu · Post by **Zazu** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 11:38 am

pixiedust wrote:Ok... the thing that bothers me.

I heard that it happened backstage. Here in DL/DCA, isn't it true that for
the last 15 years, if a parade float is driving around backstage (esp. with
the music on) they have to have another CM on the front or walking in
front of it for safety? Ever since the birthday cake ran down an
entertainment tram back in the 80s.

Additional information now suggests that he was walking alongside the
float, as per procedure for that part of the route. He tripped and fell
between the second and third sections of a 3-section float, which is why
the coordinator in front of the float and the driver were unable to stop it
in time.

While it's way too early to assign blame, it does at first appear that the
float was in the right place, he was walking too close to the float, and he
was ahead of where he should have been, as his character walks with the
following float.

Bad location, bad timing, bad footwork, bad vision, and bad results.

Add to your prayers the character performers inside the
snowglobes who watched it happen right in front of them, but couldn't
reach an e-stop switch because they are outside the snoglobes.

Tim Gaines · Post by **Tim Gaines** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 10:49 pm

Those slow movers are just as dangerous as the out-of-control Autopia
cars when operated by a little kid. Sure they're lighter, only a couple
hundred pounds, but theyre running at 6 or 7 mph, that can put a serious
hurtin' on. Be careful, and God Bless his children.

SpaceRanger · Post by **SpaceRanger** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:17 am

WOW.... Shame something like that has to happen to CMs instead of
people like one of the guests I had the "pleasure" of coming in contact
with last week who shoved me because I would not let him cut across
infront of the parade floats even tho he insisted that he could make
it :roll:

nitro-junkie · Post by **nitro-junkie** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:02 am

"Mind if I ask how one discovers that a LM stage can go that fast?"

Oh, that's easy: We were told on day 1 when the tugs were delivered.
The front of those things were built on the same kinds of low slung
electric tugs you see on aircraft carriers hauling ordnance (aka bombs
and missles) or pulling F-14 Tomcats around. Flip one switch to get into
high gear, and it was @$$-haulin' time. At the end of the night, let's just
say that from SW gate to the float warehouse, we wasted no time getting
back on the straights. After all, we were usually in a hurry to get to our
cars and fall asleep at red lights while "driving" home.

The LM floats were dreadnaughts, in every sense of the word. Thank God
I'm a high rigger nowadays. I feel safer 90 ft off the ground.

Stay safe kids. EVERYbody needs to go home at the end of the day.
That's where "LIFE" really starts to happen.
:D

VonSeegs · Post by **VonSeegs** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 12:46 pm

^You used to drive the LM floats? I used to dance on one of those things.
Pulled a groin muscle on one of those things. Fell off one of those things.
Got lost on one of those things (don't ask). Those floats were georgeous
but death traps.