If you liked learning about poor Debbie Stone, then this chapter is for you! If not, then this chapter is not for you! You have been warned!
Are there reasons for safety guidelines and mechanisms on rides? Of course. But do people always listen to them? Of course not.
And that's how these people died gruesome deaths.
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Date: October 2010- Disneyland Paris
Ride: It's a Small World
What Happened?
The year was 2010, the month was October, and a cleaner was working on a boat in Disneyland Paris when the ride suddenly (and accidentally) turned on. The fifty-three year old man was dragged beneath the fun multicolored boat and suffered multiple life-threatening injuries. He was airlifted to a hospital where he died shortly afterwards.
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Date: Summer 2009- Disney World (Particularly the Park: MGM Studios/Hollywood Studios)
Ride: Multiple rides,mostly being that of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (of which my mom once volunteered to be an 'extra' in)
What Happened?
Disney was having a rough year in 2009. There was one particularly brutal seven-week-long stretch in the summer, where three different employees lost their lives. One of them being thirty year old Anislav Varbanov. Mr. Varbanov was a performer in the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular". During the rehearsal of the show, he injured is head which trying out a tumble. Multiple injuries caused by malfunctioning equipment had caused the show troubles in the past.
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Date: February 11, 2004- Disney Frontierland
Ride: Afternoon Frontierland Parade (Not a ride, obviously)
What Happened?
The streets are lined up with happy awaiting kids, weary parents, and the kids at heart eating their overpriced fruity funnel cakes or turkey legs, and then the music is heard. And this happens daily. What doesn't happen daily is that a beloved dog gets run over by a beast. What's being referred to here is the incident that happened on February 11, 2004. A thirty-eight year old named Javier Cruz was gearing up for a daily afternoon parade in Disney's Frontierland. Dressed as the dog Pluto, he walked around giving high-fives and waving at adoring crowds. That is until he apparently caught his foot and tripped, falling in front of the Beauty and the Beast float. He was not able to move out of the way in time and was struck then killed. Forced to lift the float off Cruz's lifeless body using forklifts, Disney was then fined by the OSHA ($6,500) for a violation of employee safety. Cruz had two children. (I am not 100% sure if this incident happened during a private practice for an upcoming parade or during an actual parade, though most accounts and evidence suggest the latter.)
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Date: September 5, 2003- Disneyland (Anaheim), California
Ride: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
What Happened?
In the fall of 2003, during a fun ride on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a man from Gardena, California named Marcelo Torres died. Several others (approximately 10) were injured, but the twenty-two year old was killed when an improperly maintained train car derailed, striking the top of a tunnel and then landing on top of another car. To top that off, Torres received blunt force trauma in the chest and died soon afterwards after bleeding all over the damn place. (The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is one of the most dangerous rides owned by Disney and is in three of the Disney parks. In 2005, the family of Marcelo Torres reached a substantial out-of-court settlement with Disney on the matter.)
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Creepy, Unknown, and Abandoned Disney
Non-FictionWhat has Disney kept from us..? What has Disney abandoned? Find out here... All the creepy, unnerving secrets that Disney hasn't let past its hushed castle doors....
