Disneyland Patrons Keep the Faith Despite Fault-Finding State Report

On the way down from Fresno for a trip to Disneyland, Mark Holland’s family chatted about traffic, where to stop for food, and something else: the death in September of Marcelo Torres on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Holland, his wife and two teenagers learned from the radio news about a report released by state safety regulators Wednesday that blamed the death on a series of errors by operators, maintenance workers and supervisors on the popular Frontierland ride. Ten other riders were injured in the crash.

“We discussed it on the way down,” said Holland, a project manager for a construction company. “It really didn’t deter us from coming. But it was in the back of our minds.”

On one of the park’s busiest days of the year, many visitors said they were aware that Disney’s maintenance policies had been faulted and that the company accepted blame. But many said they expect the park to redouble its efforts, adding that they still trust Disneyland to keep them safe.

Holland, like several others, characterized the death as a tragic accident for a company known for having the highest safety standards in the industry.

Holland said he and his wife and teenaged children visit Disneyland twice a year and assume that their visit will be safe. That hasn’t changed.

“We’ve traveled the country and done every amusement park similar to Disneyland, and we hold Disney in such high regard,” he explained. “As far as we’re concerned, we feel very confident that Disney will do what they need to do.”

Timothy Buxton, an employee at the Port of Los Angeles whose family drives 120 miles each way to visit the park about eight times a month, agreed, but with a caveat: The accident should trigger a reevaluation of Disneyland’s maintenance procedures, he said.

“Somebody dropped the ball,” he said, referring to findings by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health that employees were allowed to sign for work they didn’t perform and that managers cleared rides without inspecting them. The state ordered Disneyland to retrain ride maintenance workers, managers and operators, and to test-run all cars before loading passengers.

Some employees link the sloppy maintenance practices to the park’s introduction in 1997 of “reliability-centered maintenance,” a system that relies on repair histories and failure rates, rather than the intuition of seasoned workers, to determine when safety procedures should be performed. Since then, there have been three major accidents in which maintenance was a factor.

“Maintenance is a visual thing, and inspection is the first thing they teach you,” said Buxton, who has work experience in maintenance. “This will make them go back and redo everything.”

The company did the right thing by accepting responsibility and should pay the Torres family, said Margie Buxton as she waited with the couple’s son and daughter, ages 13 and 15. “They have a reputation to maintain. It’s a family park and they want to keep it good for families. To me, these kind of tragedies can happen even to the best.”

The state report also has been a focus of discussion for roller coaster enthusiasts on the Web site coasterbuzz.com. Contributors expressed concern about the state report, but some were sympathetic to statements by Disney officials that certain employees, and not the park’s procedures, were to blame for the accident.

“If that is true, then the griping by bitter former employees about a reduction in maintenance standards is just that: griping by bitter former employees,” one forum participant wrote.

Others were skeptical.

“It sounds to me like they are trying to find a scapegoat for a horrible accident that should have never happened,” wrote another participant. “You can have all the procedures and checklists in the world, but you also have to have a paid, qualified staff that is not overextended to follow those procedures.”

Several visitors were more sanguine about the accident, saying risk is unavoidable. The drive to the park was probably more dangerous than the ride, one mom said.

“I still get on the rides and I let my kids get on the rides,” said Ingrid McLaughlin, a pediatric nurse from Mukilteo, Wash., visiting with husband, Bobby, and children Hailey, 5, and Brandon, 3. “I hate living in fear.”