DOSH report for BTMRR is out

[tabacco]

The official report is out (using the MiceAge mirror, because the document was replaced on the DOSH homepage by a blank html document):
http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al112603a.htm

Looks like it all came down to a couple of bolts not being tightened enough by maintenence crews.

[Weeble]

I just started reading it, two paragraphs in and I notice this line:
during these cycles several cast members noticed a noise coming from train #2

OSHA calls them cast members? LOL! Talk about being brainwashed by the mouse.

[BirdMom]

:? the thing that I find disturbing for current c.m.'s is the implication that the attractions c.m.'s either did nothing or were untrained to do anything about the situation, i.e. hearing funny sounds coming from the loco.

According to the newspaper, the loco had been tagged to be taken out of service. According to what I've seen on the t.v. news, they reported the above slant with c.m.'s doing nothing. The stations obviously don't realize or know about what it takes to get a conveyance out of service on an attraction...getting people out of rotation who are trained to get the vehicle onto the spur track, along with those in the tower knowing how to leave a space infront of and behind the tagged conveyance without causing a breakdown of the ride system. The newswriters seem to think that r.o.'s can just get trains in and out of the ride system the way valets can move cars in and out of a parking lot. I'm sure that the r.o.'s who were working when the accident happenned feel bad enough as it is - those who were aware of having to get the loco out of service probably feel somewhat responsible for that poor soul who lost his life. The dang t.v. writers are making things worse for the r.o.'s by not having/reporting all the details of what it takes to operate a roller coaster. The only good thing about this is that the budget cuts that led to maintenance cut backs are being exposed. As a publicly traded company in the business of operating heavy machinery that people ride on for a diversion from the ordinary, perhaps Disney needs to make the maintenance cycle more transparant for their stockholders and most importantly customers.

Quite frankly as a 30-something aged ride operator, I realized that I was responsible for people's lives especially in a position in the tower or where I had to keep a hand over an enable or e-stop. How many of the teens that the company hires at minimum wage are truly aware of that responsibility? I have too many memories of high school kids who were more interested in enhancing their social lives than following the proper protocol for minding the guests safety in the year or two before I quit. Maybe the standards for r.o.'s need to be raised to the level that they were at in the 50's through 80's. Maybe the pay rates for r.o.'s need to be raised back up so that the company retains people who are concientious and experienced and serious about doing a good job for the guest's sake. They definitely need to get rid of that penny pinching mentality that profits come before everything else because it's costing more lives. I still think there's more to come in this sad story.

[BirdMom]

One other thing...

back in my day, the r.o.'s were not allowed to load a boat/car/whatever that was tagged for maintenance reasons, especially one to be taken out of service. If the loco was tagged, why didn't the crew deadhead the train (or was it one of those miserable high capacity days where the r.o.'s were being told to stuff all the guests in like sardines?)

[Weeble]

Yeah that seemed a little wierd to me too. From the report it's pretty obvious that the problem all boiled down to two bolts not tightened and no safety wire in them. It's a shame that the news is slanting it towards the RO's.

[Anonymous]

Since Thunders accident all the rides at DLR have been under going new updates, about hearing strange noises etc. . .now at Mansion little things in the past in which we were just able to cycle the ride out, we have to stop and evac. :cry: But there are some things since the update that we should be following we don't because certain leads won't close it to my understanding ( from what I've heard, not known if it's factual ) and other CM's had to contact a manager to let them know to finally get us to stop and evac. Grrr... if this is true from what other CM's have told me. It' pisses me off. We have rules to follow and we don't GRR! :evil:

[Freak]

...why didn't the crew deadhead the train...

Sorry, I'm not familiar with that term, is a deadhead just an empty maintenece cycle on an attraction or something??

[CujoSR]

pretty much. send out an empty train because they get pulled off the track at the end of the ride not the beginning. see you learn something new everyday.

[Dante101]

...why didn't the crew deadhead the train...

Sorry, I'm not familiar with that term, is a deadhead just an empty maintenece cycle on an attraction or something??

Yes, basically that's it. It generally means the vehicle is being cycled empty and will be taken offline when it gets back, but not always. On Monorail, the train is called on a deadhead even though it has passengers on board (who will all be disembarking at the Downtown Disney station). On Subs it was called a deadhead if you cycled around the track without passengers.

[Weeble]

Same thing on Jungle. Deadheads were also given if it was very slow so that you wouldn't have a bunch of boats backed up. It was fun deadheading a boat at night. You would stop at the backside of the falls and lay on the bow with the gun in your hand in an empty boat as if you were dead while another boat passed you by full of guests.

[IndyBob]

I worked Inny and Space and whenever we heard a unusual sound coming from the Jeep or Rocket, we removed the guests an either cycled it empty till we could remove it or facilities could check it out, or removed it immediatly.

In March of 02 I was doing Space Pen testing, (Penetration testing for the breaks. It is required to re calibrate every single break after the attraction has under gone a major rehab, or there has been break failures. As RO, we just cycle rockets and ran the tower for 12 to 18 hours and facilities acctually calibrated the brakes and we assisted in moving the rockets out on the track.) but back to the story, we were just getting ready to close up for the night, running the last of the rockets through when there was this REALLY loud hissing sound comming from inside the mountain. So we stopped cycling and walk the track to see if we could figure out what had happened. Apparently, one of the rockets sound box had a cable hanging off, which mind you it wasn't uncommon for them to be disconnected becasuse they didnt all work, and the cable had cought some equipment facilities has left out on the side of the track for the next day. This then got cought on a high pressure air pipe valve that supplied all the air to TL attraction and snaped off the valve and part of the pipe. It took facilities almost an hour to shut it off because none, I repeat, none of them knew where the freakin main shut off valve was.

We didn't know at first what had caused it. It wasn't till about an hour after it happened when I was walling into the pit did I notice all the wires hagging off the back of the rocket and we put it all together.

Isn't that quit reasurring to know. I am really timid to ride space after the rocket 8 accident and after the zone 14 and 15 failure that caused 2 rockets to smash into each other. And that just put the icing on the cake. I really hope the "new space" will be better.

We did test a new rocket while I was atill working there, but we never got all new ones. I hope the new ones will be there when it reopens.

Despite all that, it was still my absolute favorite ride to work. Best day ever was 11 downtimes in an 8 hour shift. YEEEEH HAAAAH, and most it them I was at belts!