Boy hurt in 2000 Disneyland accident dies.

[the ghost]

www.ocregister.com/articles/changes-disneyland-orange-2291262-suffered-zucker

 

Now, before I come off sounding like a total ass, let me explain what I mean when saying is this necessary. I am very sorry for the family and am not saying that I don't feel bad for the kid. What made me angry was the fact that this was not mentioned in the article.

The 4-year-old Zucker was riding in the car with his mother, Victoria, when he leaned down to pick up an item and was swept under the car, where he remained trapped for 10 minutes. He suffered brain damage and has not been able to walk or talk since the accident. from hometown news.

 

The injury was not the parks fault as the article made it out to be, if I remember correctly the boy dropped a stuffed animal and tried to get it, resulting in him being pulled under the car. I am going to cut the kid some slack because he was 4 years old, but the mother did nothing. He was swept under the car for god's sake, how could that have happened if the mom was responsible, this ride reaches a top speed of like 6 miles per hour.

 

Again I'm not trying to be mean, and I feel terrible for the family and the kids friends, but in my mind the article was more bashing Disney and a perfectly safe ride. This would never have happened if the mom had paid more attention.

 

What do you guys think?

[ginzo]

The article seemed reasonably factual to me. How are they bashing Disney?

[cfc]

I've always felt that the mother and Disney shared the blame for this one. Yes, she should've been paying more attention to her son, but Disney was faulted for being very slow to react to the accident.

 

This led to new safety systems for Roger Rabblt and improved emergency response at DL, as I recall.

[jarmor]

As a person who doesnt have kids but has a "fake" son (who is 4) I know how kids work. Kids can get into something in the blink of an eye. And you are at a huge theme park where there are probably lots of people around also so yes you have to be more alert but for the ghost to try to make it seem like the mom wasnt responsible is a stretch. "she did nothing"...she probably freaked out and froze. When tramatic situations happen some people handle it differently. Some have the heroic reflex and some dont know what to do.

[Swimace]

I am going to cut the kid some slack because he was 4 years old, but the mother did nothing.

 

Haha, you don't spend much time around kids, do you? The kid is dead and you're nice enough to "cut him some slack"? Seriously?

 

I run two summer camps as a job, and the younger camp has had some close calls with kids on field trips. Children at that age don't have a thought process that is developed enough to sit back and always make a reasonable decision, they act impulsively. A four year old at Disney is in a different place with an overload of stimulation going on around them, parent's can't always control the overloaded instincts of a child. He probably reacted instinctively to loosing something on the ride, the judgment of a four year old isn't always predictable, especially at a place like Disney.

 

Usually I side with the parks on these sort of cases (i.e. SFOG's batman incident), but a park like Disney really should be more prepared when dealing with little kids. The mother probably didn't have time to react to her child leaving the vehicle, when you said she "did nothing" you're making it sound like the child leaving the vehicle was a 10 minute long process during which the mother just had a blank look on her face. If a kid quickly leaves a ride vehicle I doubt there was much she could do in such a short time.

 

 

Oh, and to answer your question about how a kid could possibly be trapped on such a slow moving ride, here's a link to an explanation with pictures that was on that article. The ride vehicles can spin pretty quickly from my understanding, so it's pretty easy to imagine a small child getting hit by one if he left the front car.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/util/map_popup.php?url=/newsimages/Graphics/2009/01/toontown.gif

[Rollerman87]

The thing that gets me is how the article kinda bashes the ride op. I'm not saying he was super responsive to the situation, but I know if that were ahppen on one of my rides at Knott's, I would have tried to reach first aid first, simply because I'm not sure if the in park phones reach outside the park. 911 might not do anything on a park line. Calling a supervisor, however, could get the whole park knowing what the problem is.

[Looty]

I used to be a ride operator at one time and I can say that you need to treat everyone as if they are completely unaware of their own safety. I have witnessed some rather dumb moves and completely unsafe procedures by both guests and employees so I feel that it is important for parks and manufacturers to make their rides as dumb-proof as possible. I am somewhat surprised that Disney didn't have some sort of safety/security procedure set in place for something like this especially considering that young children are in abundance at Disneyland.

[BeemerBoy]

The thing that gets me is how the article kinda bashes the ride op. I'm not saying he was super responsive to the situation, but I know if that were ahppen on one of my rides at Knott's, I would have tried to reach first aid first, simply because I'm not sure if the in park phones reach outside the park. 911 might not do anything on a park line. Calling a supervisor, however, could get the whole park knowing what the problem is.

 

And this is exactly why it's so easy to sue the park. You're saying right here that you really have no clue what your phone is capable of. If you ran over a loved one (causing serious injury) while backing out of the driveway, who would you call first? Your parents to notify them of the situation, or 911?

[AllenA07]

I think everybody was surprised a the the poor response by Disney, but if there is a good thing that came out of this it is that Disney has (hopefully) improved their policies.

 

Still it is a shame what that family had to endure because of this incident.

[Teacups Make Me Sick]

I used to be a ride operator at one time and I can say that you need to treat everyone as if they are completely unaware of their own safety. I have witnessed some rather dumb moves and completely unsafe procedures by both guests and employees so I feel that it is important for parks and manufacturers to make their rides as dumb-proof as possible. I am somewhat surprised that Disney didn't have some sort of safety/security procedure set in place for something like this especially considering that young children are in abundance at Disneyland.

 

I think that more importantly, machines will fail and accidents will happen...so it is more responsible for parks to train employees.

 

Not to say that you are...but sometimes I wonder whether or not the ride ops would know what to do if someone got hurt.

 

Its more of a maturity issue...most ride opps are rather young and if there is a true emergency, I couldn't imagine that they would know what to do. Unless the park trains them to do simple procedures and let a more senior member take it from there.

[arrowfanman]

www.ocregister.com/articles/changes-disneyland-orange-2291262-suffered-zucker

 

Now, before I come off sounding like a total a$$, let me explain what I mean when saying is this necessary. I am very sorry for the family and am not saying that I don't feel bad for the kid. What made me angry was the fact that this was not mentioned in the article.

The 4-year-old Zucker was riding in the car with his mother, Victoria, when he leaned down to pick up an item and was swept under the car, where he remained trapped for 10 minutes. He suffered brain damage and has not been able to walk or talk since the accident. from hometown news.

 

The injury was not the parks fault as the article made it out to be, if I remember correctly the boy dropped a stuffed animal and tried to get it, resulting in him being pulled under the car. I am going to cut the kid some slack because he was 4 years old, but the mother did nothing. He was swept under the car for god's sake, how could that have happened if the mom was responsible, this ride reaches a top speed of like 6 miles per hour.

 

Again I'm not trying to be mean, and I feel terrible for the family and the kids friends, but in my mind the article was more bashing Disney and a perfectly safe ride. This would never have happened if the mom had paid more attention.

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

The state investigation (the first of its kind) concluded that the boy was placed on the wrong side of the vehicle (on the open-door side, not the closed, as is the policy) and the lapbar wasn't securely fastened, which doesn't surprise me--somewhat typical when the CMs have to hit a certain dispatch interval. There wasn't any mechanical failure, but Disney is faulted for both operation error and their poor response.

 

With accidents like this, it takes a lot of things going wrong to make something like this happen. Believe it or not, a lot of safety IS engineered into the attraction and the operation policy. My point is, yes this would have never happened if the mom paid more attention--but it also wouldn't have happened if Disney changed one of many things on their end.

 

 

 

-Jahan