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[JJH]

I guess I am surprised that there was not more of a change in the operational leadership at the park.  Maybe there is and we don't know.  2022 had some serious leadership issues.  Fire during operations, the train derailment with people on board, and the death of an employee.  All of these were preventable, and each of them was not prevented.    We like to talk about the theme going to heck and destroying the park, but a history of unsafe practices will end the park.  I hope that the management has made operational changes and does not believe that these were one-off accidents. 

[legoerosion]

I guess I am surprised that there was not more of a change in the operational leadership at the park.  Maybe there is and we don't know.  2022 had some serious leadership issues.  Fire during operations, the train derailment with people on board, and the death of an employee.  All of these were preventable, and each of them was not prevented.    We like to talk about the theme going to heck and destroying the park, but a history of unsafe practices will end the park.  I hope that the management has made operational changes and does not believe that these were one-off accidents.

These were one-off accidents, speaking as an employee during those incidents.

[mg]

2022 had some serious leadership issues.  Fire during operations...

The fire was in 2021, not 2022 and it happened before the full park was open to guests.

[JJH]

I stand corrected 2021, park not fully open.  Thank you.

[sdcfan88]

Regardless it's still concerning to see all these mishaps over the past three years. This park was once known for its stellar safety record and operations. Can't help but think corner cutting has been involved lately. The only other notable incidents at the park that I can recall is the guy who was killed in FITH and the incidents where people fell into Lake Silver.

[shavethewhales]

Are you guys aware of how understaffed the park has been the last few years? They have a skeleton crew everywhere. According to the rumor mill they barely had anyone to run the train around the time of the incident and many of them were new to the job. Lot of quick cross training going on around the park as they scramble to have enough people to keep basic things open.

You talk about making management/staff changes... well, who do you change to?

[palallin]

Shave is dead on:  ya gotta operate with who you have or close down.

Would that I were retired!  I move there and take a sunset job.

[JJH]

It might be true that understaffing and quick training is the cause of the incidents.  It does make sense. Staffing and training are the responsibility of management/leadership.  If they can not perform these jobs effectively there is no reason to believe that further "one-off" incidences will not keep occurring.

[Trevlyn]

While the cause of the train incident is undisclosed, it has been confirmed that it is at the fault of no SDC employee. I am close with the train crew, and they are so passionate in their job that they wouldn't have let any of this happen. The maintenance foreman also declared it is nobody in the train maintenance crew's fault. It is extremely hard to wreck SDC's train unless you are going extremely fast, and considering the train settled on the inside of the curve, speed was not a factor.
I believe it had to do with a kingpin connecting a truck to the frame of Car no. 3. In an on-ride POV filmed 4 hours prior to the wreck, you can see the car is riding a lot rougher than the others, especially on the curve it derailed.

[legoerosion]

While the cause of the train incident is undisclosed, it has been confirmed that it is at the fault of no SDC employee. I am close with the train crew, and they are so passionate in their job that they wouldn't have let any of this happen. The maintenance foreman also declared it is nobody in the train maintenance crew's fault. It is extremely hard to wreck SDC's train unless you are going extremely fast, and considering the train settled on the inside of the curve, speed was not a factor.
I believe it had to do with a kingpin connecting a truck to the frame of Car no. 3. In an on-ride POV filmed 4 hours prior to the wreck, you can see the car is riding a lot rougher than the others, especially on the curve it derailed.

They won't listen, it doesn't fit their narrative of "SDC is going downhill and they don't care!"

Freak accidents happen, and can happen more than once in a span of a year. The fire was a simple grease fire that got out of control too quickly for anyone to even do anything. The worker on TNT, bless his soul, died because of his own error, not the parks or any other employees. And like you said just said with the train. But hey, SDC bad!

[Duelist]

^ I and my family feel perfectly safe at SDC and will continue to do so.

[JJH]

Well since I am the OP, I will assume that I am the "They will not listen".  I do not feel that this is an accurate description of my responses.  When corrected about the dates and details of the fire I acknowledged and thanked the poster.  When given information that short staffing and quick training may have been the cause or partial cause of the incidents I agreed and added my perspective.  I do not agree that these were freak accidents.  I believe that each could have been prevented.  I believe that the root cause of the incidents is a failure of the management/ leadership to provide adequate training, proper procedures, and continuous supervision if needed. 
I will add my perspective on each incidence since this seems to be a cause of concern.  In many cases, it does not differ too much from what has already been discussed.  The source of the fire was reported to be grease.  Commercial restaurants have procedures in place to use grease in a safe manner.  If these procedures are followed, I do not understand how a grease fire could have immediately become so out of control as to destroy three structures.  Either the procedures were not in place, or they were not followed. 
The train: it has been reported that the train was being operated in a safe manner, and it has been reported that maintenance personnel were not responsible and performed their jobs correctly.  There has been no report of any "act of god", so I believe that leaves us only with a lack of correct inspection procedures. 
TNT: The employee was struck by the roller coaster and died of head trauma.  It has been put forth that this was entirely the cause of the employee.  I disagree.  The employee did obviously choose to be in the situation that cause the accident, but I do not believe the employee wanted to die.  There should have been training to tell the employee that this action could cause death, there could have been remote sensing for train speed, and there could have been physical barriers to entry.  SDC agreed to make changes to prevent these occurrences.  This death could have been prevented with proper training, physical barriers, and procedures.
I have brought up training and procedures several times.  These only work if enforced by management and leadership.
If this is interpreted as "SDC is going downhill" that is because these incidences caused a loss of three structures, the loss of the train for the rest of a season, with no specific date for return, and most importantly a loss of life.  Although I did not use the downhill language, I can see why someone would.
As for the "and they don't care", well again not my language.  I thought that considering the seriousness of each of the incidences and their relative closeness in time, there may have been some talk of management or leadership shake-up in operations.  I also would have expected to hear more about improvements or changes in operations. 
I have tried to be respectful in my responses and posts.  My stance is that these incidences were preventable and this stance will not change until additional information is made available.  If this forum is not the proper place for discussions on serious incidents that occur at SDC, or if the moderator does not want this level of discussion I will refrain from commenting. 

[Okiebenz]

At the end of the day, the buck stops with management.  I would assume more specifically Brad Thomas. 

[Lampie]

JJH my thoughts are similar to yours, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

There is not a labor shortage as much as their is a shortage of people willing to work at the rates SDC is paying, if they had significantly raised their hourly rates, they could have filled the open positions and been very selective about who was hired.

The 2022 season,I noticed several rides where pre-ride safety instructions weren't given. I'm assuming that's was related to short staffing and maybe they had people filling in from other areas of the park, but that should be written down in an operating manual for each attraction and someone operating the ride should know they have to read it. It raises questions of if the operator is skipping that step what other steps are they skipping, do they know how to respond if x happens? X being an abnormal condition but one that happens and needs to be responded to correctly for safe operations.

If you're disciplined and making safety a top priority it's very rare to have 3 freak accidents in a couple years. It's not impossible but it's rare.

[sdcfan88]

I have tried to be respectful in my responses and posts.  My stance is that these incidences were preventable and this stance will not change until additional information is made available.  If this forum is not the proper place for discussions on serious incidents that occur at SDC, or if the moderator does not want this level of discussion I will refrain from commenting.

I wouldn't think too much of it. Never let a minority voice trying to stir the pot and being OTT inhibit you from speaking your mind. You offered valid insights and concerns. A person or place cannot grow and improve without taking insight or criticism. This isn't TPR where they berate and ban you for making critical comments and not being a yes-man. (talking from personal experience)