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News: Big Thunder Mountain to reopen in March

Posted at 2:08 PM EST (1908 GMT)

Feb. 21st, 2004 -- Six months after an accident on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad claimed the life of a man and injured 10 others, the ride will be inspected and reopened.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health revealed that Disney allowed mechanics who did not work on the ride to sign maintenance logs. Experts found that no one worked on or tightened bolts holding the wheel that lead to the accident.

DOSH will inspect the ride on March 8 and 9. Disney was asked to perform the following changes in policy:

Retrain mechanics and managers who inspect the ride,
Draft a policy requiring ride operators to stop a train if a strange noise is heard,
Require that only mechanics working on the ride sign forms confirming the completed work.

A wheel fell off a train on the ride Sept. 5, causing the front car to derail.

For more information visit ktvotv3.com, Mickey News, and The Kansas City Star (requires subscription).

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Comments
Chip Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 7146 View Park/Ride Count	Wow. That sure took a really long time to get all this worked out. I hope Disney learned a lesson.
2/21/2004 8:47 PM
PANTSFREE Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 1339 View Park/Ride Count	Good to hear it's reopening. It's weird though, it wasn't a disney policy to close a ride if there was an odd noise? I know SFA has a policy like that because I can't tell you how many times Mind Eraser's been closed for "odd noises".
2/22/2004 11:12 AM
coasterphil Joined: Jun 2002 Posts: 9190 View Park/Ride Count	I didn't even realize it was still closed.
2/22/2004 11:35 AM
Kyle L Joined: Jun 2001 Posts: 6803 View Park/Ride Count	Awesome! Stupid me, I thought it was allready open! Oh well, good thing they spent a lot of time working on it. I'm sure a lot of people have allready forgotten about the accident.
2/22/2004 12:54 PM
Magnum Robert Joined: Sep 2003 Posts: 3196 View Park/Ride Count	"Disney allowed mechanics who did not work on the ride to sign maintenance logs." Geez!!! Sure has taken a long time to get back up and running. Perhaps the delay was intentional, so people would "forget" about the accident.
2/22/2004 2:49 PM
bgwfreak Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 10925 View Park/Ride Count	I can't believe that Disney of all parks would have allowed someone to sign off on a ride they didn't even inspect!
2/23/2004 1:58 PM

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