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Employee Dies at La Ronde, Montreal

P

Pierre

Strata Poster
A 35-year-old maintenance worker at Montreal's La Ronde amusement park was killed Friday afternoon after he was struck by a ride he was working on.

"They forgot to stop the ride" and it hit the man, said emergency health spokesperson David Sasson. He couldn't specify where the man was fatally struck or the name of the ride.

The man was declared dead at the scene. Another person was transported to hospital to be treated for shock, Sasson said.

Health officials received the call at about 1:30 p.m.

A La Ronde employee emerged from the park and handed assembled media a release, but offered no further comment before returning inside.

"One of our esteemed colleagues lost his life after he entered a restricted zone and was struck by the train of a rollercoaster. His identity will be kept confidential until his family has been notified of his death," the release said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."

Inspectors from the province's workplace safety board, were en route to La Ronde mid-afternoon.

They will start their investigation gathering facts and eye-witness accounts, said Emilie Pelletier, a spokesperson. A report on an accident can take months, Pelletier said, depending on the gravity and complexity of the incident.

The ride has been closed until further notice but La Ronde remains open.

La Ronde did not specify the ride involved, but an eyewitness on the scene who spoke to The Montreal Gazette said the victim was working on the Vampire, a 32-metre ride that travels up to 80.5 kilometres per hour.

The witness said people were panicking and running around. She said she helped security, who seemed overwhelmed, clear the scene of bystanders. She also saw staff members being taken away in golf carts.

"A lot of them were upset and crying," she said.

The Vampire is listed as one of La Ronde's more extreme thrill rides.

According to La Ronde's website, the roller coaster is 32 metres high at its peak and travels 80.5 km/h along a 823-metre track.

The Vampire has five hills and can handle 1,400 riders an hour.

It was designed by the Swiss coaster firm Bolliger & Mabillard.
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Surprised this hasn't been posted yet, it came up on my Twitter on 'Discover'. The line "they forgot to stop the ride" makes me question the credibility of the article and what actually happened.
 
Yeah I agree Pierre. The line "they forgot to stop the ride" seems a bit strange to me. I don't quite know what that means and how he could have been killed. I guess we'll find out in the long run, but it seems a little odd - even if it's just the way it's worded.

Shame about the death though...
 
That does seem like very sketchy information, but I'm really not surprised if they did "forget to stop the ride." That park has the worst operations I have ever seen at any amusement park ever, and the staff were just so hung up with talking amongst themselves that they were hardly ever paying attention. So I could definitely see it being a staff error of some sort. That must have been horrific to witness though, I think seeing something like that would stay with you forever.
 
As we all know, it wouldn't go unless someone asked it to. I suspect they either didn't know he was in the ride area (his fault for not informing) or staff forgot he was in the ride area (operators fault). Mistakes happen either way, but there are things the park could set in place to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen.
 
Ethan said:
^ But it was a maintenance worker? I have no idea...
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Could be an engineer or maintainance person, which we don't actually know - it just said "working on the ride" which could mean just an attendant checking the ride area for say, a lost phone. But it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it was an engineer. They seem to think they are above H&S rules and it always seems to be them who get struck by coaster trains whenever an incident like this occurs. Everyone else has to follow such strict rules and they do not.
 
You're all so heartless.

Why aren't your "thoughts and prayers with his family at this difficult time".
 
gavin said:
You're all so heartless.

Why aren't your "thoughts and prayers with his family at this difficult time".
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How many people from here got a new "Death Cred"?
 
The sound of a B&M is CLEARLY audible. I REALLY don't understand why there'd be someone in the area whilst the ride was in a live operation.
 
^Or how you manage to get hit by it. I'd just lie on the floor when it was anywhere near me. I just don't understand how people get hit like this...

Then again, maybe that's how people do get hit - by being complacent.
 
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