Brutal Supidity

A woman is killed in an accident by a roller coaster at a Lego-Land amusement park.

This might be good enough for a Darwin award. It isn't that it was something not in her range to control. She wasn't a customer. She was the ride operator. A ride takes several operators. At least 2 people, if not usually 3 people. One to operate the controls, one to make sure the people are on the ride and give all clear and one to make sure everyone got off the ride and give the all-clear.

Well, this woman was probably one of the people helping people on or off the ride and giving all clear. I've been a ride operator at Six Flags Great Adventure. I remember the training. If her training was anything like what I received, they probably send something like 'Never get on the tracks. If someone losses something, you have to call maintenance and they may get it.'

So, some guy says to her (and this guy is the epitome of stupidity as well) that he lost his wallet and that it fell on the tracks. Who in their right mind would ask someone to get their wallet from the tracks of a running ride? At most, he should have said that please, I hope that when the ride isn't running there is a way to get my wallet back.

Certainly not go jump down there and get my wallet please.

Or maybe, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and he mentioned it to her and she took it in to her own head to go down there and get the wallet.

The net result of all of this is that this woman is dead. It is a sad thing when people die for stupid reasons. My heart goes out to her relatives, her parents and her friends.

Blame also goes to all of these people. You have to have appropriate decision making abilities to work a ride or do just about anything in life. Somebody didn't teach her those decision making skills well enough to be doing what she was doing.

She was 21 years old. So, she wasn't some little girl. She should have known and valued her life enough to tell this guy to bugger off.

I'm sure there will be major lawsuits against the park and the ride manufacturer and that everything about what a person does in the process over there will be reviewed by legal people.

Really, though, what it comes down to in this case is a person having the sense not to jump on tracks of an operating ride. The same kind of sense that involves not walking on railroad tracks of an operating railroad or not walking in front of moving cars.