Man Found Lying Hurt on Ride Catwalk : Disneyland: Victim says he doesn’t know how he got there. The roller coaster was operating properly, according to park officials, who are mystified by the incident.

A 40-year-old Romanian man remained hospitalized Sunday after he was found lying injured alongside the tracks of Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster.

Paramedics said Grigore Grigorean may have suddenly tried to exit the twisting, curving train that speeds through the mountain. But a Disney spokesman said no witnesses were able to say that they actually saw him on the ride, or fall.

A ride operator found Grigorean at 9 p.m. Saturday on a catwalk next to a straight portion of the track, where the mine car-train passes through a dinosaur skeleton just before the ride ends, according to Disneyland spokesman John McClintock.

“Quite frankly, we don’t know how he ended up where he was found,” McClintock said.

Grigorean was in stable condition at UCI Medical Center. Disneyland officials said he suffered a cut on his leg, but paramedics described it as a break. The hospital would not comment on his injury.

Grigorean declined to be interviewed, according to Beth Callahan, the hospital’s clinic coordinator. She said a relative from Fullerton visited Grigorean on Sunday.

After Grigorean was discovered by the ride operator, Disneyland officials found a park mechanic who speaks Romanian. Grigorean told the mechanic that the last thing he remembered was feeling faint during the ride and that he may have passed out, McClintock said.

More than 30 people who were on the ride were interviewed by park personnel, as were 15 ride operators, but the incident remains a mystery to both Disney officials and Anaheim paramedics.

The Frontierland attraction was shut down for the night and was thoroughly inspected before it was reopened Sunday morning, park officials said.

“The inspection found nothing,” McClintock said. “There has never been a failure of that (safety) system on that ride.”

McClintock said the cars have safety bars that cannot be lifted once they are locked in place. All of the safety bars are checked before each train’s departure from the station, he added. To exit one of the mine cars during the ride, McClintock said, passengers would have to somehow wiggle out from under the bar.

The last safety-related incident at Disneyland occurred in March, 1989, when the park’s “Sky Way” aerial bucket ride broke down, stranding about 150 people 40 feet in the air for about four hours. The problem, Disneyland officials said, was traced to a cable that slipped off a support tower.