Federal Workplace Safety Organization Investigating Injury Accident at Universal Orlando Theme Park
Federal investigators are looking into an accident at an Orlando theme park that hospitalized a worker with serious injuries, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported July 14. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it would look into the July 1 incident after receiving a “referral” from an unnamed informer. The referral did not come from the theme park itself, the newspaper said; it is not required to report accidents that resulted in no deaths and fewer than three hospitalizations.
According to the newspaper, the accident happened at around 7:30 a.m., before the Islands of Adventure theme park opened for the day. Under circumstances the paper did not report, the employee was hit by one of the cars of the Dueling Dragons roller coaster ride. The employee suffered serious injuries, but the newspaper did not go into detail. Universal said it was already involved in the investigation, would continue to cooperate and did not believe the accident showed the ride’s safety was compromised.
Most people think of theme park injuries as a danger to the public -- not to employees. But theme park workers may actually be more likely to be hurt than their visitors, because they spend so much more time there. Most theme parks are safe, but as a Boca Raton workplace injury attorney, I know that accidents do happen -- and they can be extremely serious. A report from the Orlando Sentinel shows that Islands of Adventure alone has seen 42 reported South Florida theme park injury lawsuits since 2001, including cases of neck injury and broken bones as well as unspecified “serious injuries.” While some of these injuries were simple slip and falls, others involved the rides -- and one report said a stunt man fell on a woman, suggesting that the employee may have been injured as well.
