Stupid Guest Tricks

From the local news here in Sweden:
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A 24-year-old attraction operator at "Parken Zoo" in Eskilstuna, Sweden, died in hospital wednesday night after having been hit by a roller coaster train early tuesday morning. The operator suffered massive trauma to the head and neck and did not survive the surgery that was attempted to save his life.
About fifty guests and employees of the park witnessed the accident and a number of them has been taken care of by trauma psychologists due to the violent and disturbing circumnstances of the accident.
The police issued a statement this afternoon saying that no mechanical fault nor any operating procedure was to blame for the accident. No crime is suspected, and the case is labelled as an accident. The park manager went on TV in tears stating that "The attraction operating procedures are designed to make this sort of accident impossible and that nobody can explain why and how the otherwise very experienced and hard-working operator suddenly entered the tracks area and was hit by the train.".
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Sad day - I know a lot of the people who work at that park, and though I never met this poor fellow I am taken aback at what happened. Having worked at BTM in Paris I know the risks involved in running a big roller coaster, and this is an absolute nightmare for anyone working with it.
:(

This is one of my worst fears that I will witness this someday. Lack of sufficient training in some areas. Many amusement/theme parks disregard of safety protocol/proceedures worries me. Ten or more hour days with bare minimum breaks/or not enough breaks. My heart goes out to his family and coworkers it had to be so hard to witness :(

Crossed the track? Whoa. Even we aren't allowed to do that except in load where we have to unless the ride is e-stopped. O_O

This sucks,a moment of distraction,or lack of training, DAMN. :(

A similar accident happened at Opryland USA back in the 80s. A CM was working at the Rock'n'Roller coaster down at the bottom of where the coaster goes down in a spiral. He was killed and I'll never forget the news coverage of it here in Nashville. Guests had witnessed the accident and were quite traumatized by it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opryland_USA

By the way, I stumbled across this board late one night and I am really enjoying it. My sister used to work in Guest Relations at Opryland in the 1970s and she said they used to have a bulletin board in the back room where they would post the dumb questions they'd get from guests.

I told her about the "Here's your Sign" thread and she got a huge kick out of it. Interestingly enough, she told me that the most common stupid question they would get was:

"What time is the 2:00 show?"

i just want to say that when people ask that question its not like they dont know its 'supposed' to start at 2:00, but maybe they mean when will it pass by this particular area im standing within, or maybe they mean yo its 2@00 so what time does the 2:00 show 'actually' start. Its not a dumb question in that sense. and personally i dont like that thread, most of the questions and answers are ridiculous. anyway have fun.

kalozois wrote:i just want to say that when people ask that question its not like they dont know its 'supposed' to start at 2:00, but maybe they mean when will it pass by this particular area im standing within, or maybe they mean yo its 2@00 so what time does the 2:00 show 'actually' start. Its not a dumb question in that sense.

Nicely put (although I do like the thread).

Whenever I work NightPAC (Spectromagic Parade Activities) the common question is, "When will the Parade get here?" ("Around 9:20 or so.")

During peak seasons, I've been asked "What time is the 3:00 parade?" and had to answer, "Well, today, at 3:30."