SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) - July 13, 2008 -- A Bulgarian man who took a summer job on a New Jersey amusement pier was being kept alive Monday on life support after being accidentally struck by a roller coaster car while trying to retrieve a child's hat that fell from the ride.
Stanislav Dragnev, 21, was one of two workers at the Star Jet roller coaster Sunday night on the Casino Pier. At about 6:50 p.m., he entered a restricted area of the roller coaster to try to fetch a child's hat while the roller coaster was still in motion.
"He was trying to do something nice for a child," said Marilou Halvorsen, a spokeswoman for the Casino Pier, one of two amusement ride areas on the Seaside Heights boardwalk.
Details of the accident remained sketchy, and police referred all inquiries to the Casino Pier spokeswoman. She said it appeared that Dragnev was walking underneath or alongside the roller coaster tracks when one of the cars struck him in the head, grievously injuring him.
Well, wouldn't you think someone who works at the park knew better? People these days.
EDIT : It was on the news this morning that the man died. My prayers go out to him and his family, but still, you should know better.
coasterguy618 wrote:Well, wouldn't you think someone who works at the park knew better? People these days.
I think in most cases they just underestimate the clearance on these rides.
If you work on a ride every day, you probably become desensitized to the noises of the ride. So walking close to the ride probably wouldn't phase him.
Probably just went to get the hat, and got too close, not thinking about how far to the side of the track that the car might extend.
Still, most parks have procedures for when hats etc. fall off the rides. I'm a ride op at Seabreeze, and when we have a "rover" (hat falling off, etc.), we have to call for our manager to come and get it. Once they come to get the hat, we don't run the ride until they retrieve it.
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