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Six Flags La Ronde: Maintenance Worker Killed


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My prayers are with the victims family/ friends & co-workers.

A terrible tragedy that could have easily been prevented.

To our younger members: whenever you enter the workforce and are around machinery, pay attention to LOTO (lock out/ tag out). Accidents like this can be prevented if proper procedures are strictly followed. TAKE NO SHORTCUTS!

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My prayers are with the victims family/ friends & co-workers.

A terrible tragedy that could have easily been prevented.

To our younger members: whenever you enter the workforce and are around machinery, pay attention to LOTO (lock out/ tag out). Accidents like this can be prevented if proper procedures are strictly followed. TAKE NO SHORTCUTS!

When I was around 22, I worked at a meat dept. cleaning the dangerous equipment. I was sort of in a hurry, because I had a date for the evening. My boss'es friend came in to see the meat department and saw me kind of in a hurry.

He explained the danger of a meat department with all the sharp and dangerous equipment. He went on to say "be careful, and take your time."

He had a date too, when he was my age, got in a rush, and lost two fingers. Needless to say he told me "I spent the evening in the Emergency Room, instead on that date" Please young people, take you time, be care, and be aware of your surroundings.

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I have to actually agree with the post browntggrr made! We now have a pretty much across-the-board "no hot" policy when it comes to equipment we are working on, including changing of receptacles and switches. When we HAVE to work a hot panelboard (Hospital, server room, life-safety/fire alarm panel) we are now bound by Policy to wear an NFPA 70 compliant arc-flash suit. If you think 120v AC wont kill you, or blind you in an arc-flash.... you are "dead" wrong.

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The report is early, and it did not have too many details. The maintenence worker was in a zone that was supposed to be a "lock-out" area?

I am to assume, that the ride was not locked out, and a worker was struck by a coaster train??

That's crazy, how in the world does this happen? Prayers are with the families and all envolved. I sure the co-workers and patrons that witnessed this accident will be shaken for some time.

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A simple understanding of LOTO: every employee working on a device needs to have a lock on a power/ servo so that it cannot be turned on/ operated until every lock has been removed. It is the responsibility of every employee to have their lock out applied.

It is very possible this was a suicide, although, I am not surprised that the suicide report came out this fast. The last thing a park wants is to have their safety procedures questioned followed by a lengthy investigation. A non-suicide fatality leaves a dark cloud over any company.

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Suicide? Interesting.

A manintenence worker was in a "lock-out" zone? No one knows what he was doing there? Did he get a call from ride-ops to attend to this coaster?

I usually do not see workers anywhere near rides, unless they are shut down (locked out) or they are going thru their daily safety inspection, which usually happens before the ride opens.

My uncle lost his cell phone on Firehawk, we could clearly see it under the final break run. Ride ops told us we would have to come back after the ride closes, then the crew would do a sweep of the grounds

We waited until after the fireworks, then the crew had a meeting, we told a gentleman that we saw the phone just feet from the fence. The ride supervisor had to come over and with his "manager" keys and unlock the gate. He retrieved the phone (undamaged) and thanked him and went home.

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The mechanics that I worked with at retail distribution center whenever they worked on the tow line or were working on the over head conveyor system would always lock out the machines until they were through working on it. Only they had the keys to the lock that prevented anybody from starting up the machines. We had a shipping/receiving manager that was always in a huge hurry to get the trucks unloaded and loaded that he had a habit of turning on the conveyer systems before they were ready to release it. This was around 1980 and it was changed after he was told off by the maintenance manager. But this guy seemed to had been doing it for a while and with today's safety priorities would seem to know better. But it is just speculation as to one of the causes of this tragic accident.

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Preface: This is written in the case that this was indeed a suicide and NOT an accident.

Not to be rude but suicide is one of the most selfish things a person can do. Not only do you end your life and leave people who love and depend on you behind without answers (I have had first hand experience with this as one of my friends killed herself in HS). This guy took it one step further. Not only does he just kill himself this worker does it with a train full of people on a rollercoaster. Who knows who was on that ride (kids,parents, etc). What about the innocent people on that train or around the ride watching it run? They now have to live with fact that they came to the park to have fun and now they are witnesses/hapless participants to the death of a man and could do nothing about it... I just don't understand... if you are going to be that selfish and kill yourself why not do it on your own and not involve innocent people that have nothing to do with your life...

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