Knott’s Employee Says He Was Trying to Help When Hurt

A Knott’s Berry Farm employee injured in a weekend accident at the park told police he stepped in front of the 250-ton Calico Railroad train to shoo another employee from the tracks.

Carlos Garcia, 62, said it was “purely an accident” and that he did not realize the slow-paced steam engine had started moving even though he had given the engineer the go-ahead, according to a Buena Park Police Department report released Monday afternoon.

Garcia’s legs were trapped beneath the train’s “cowcatcher” Saturday evening and he was dragged about 52 feet. Orange County firefighters freed him with the Jaws of Life, but Garcia suffered multiple fractures and dislocations to both legs and feet, the police report said.

He remains at UCI Medical Center in Orange in fair condition. The ride is closed while the park, Cal/OSHA and the National Transportation Safety Board investigate the accident.

Police interviews with Garcia and five other park employees yielded the same story.

Garcia, who is responsible for getting guests on and off the train, had stepped from the west side of the train to stop people from passing in front. When the coast was clear, he told police, he gave the engineer the signal to start moving. Another employee said he might also have given a signal.

But after Garcia gave his signal, he noticed that a 17-year-old park attendant who sweeps up debris was standing too close to the tracks.

The teenage girl already had been stopped from crossing the tracks by a safety officer, but still was not behind the yellow line, Garcia said.

Seeing that she was in danger, Garcia said, he stepped toward her to get her to move, not realizing that the train was approaching. The girl told police she never heard Garcia yelling at her.

The train hit the back of Garcia’s right leg first, knocking him to the ground.

Gary Wahlenmailer, 40, a park employee who does a train-robbery act as part of the ride, was the first worker to see Garcia was in trouble. He told police he heard Garcia’s panicked cries of “Stop! Stop the train! Ouch!” Wahlenmailer said his job also entails making sure the coast is clear for the train.

But Wahlenmailer said he wasn’t sure whether he gave the signal in this case.

“I never gave the clear sign for the engineer to come, and I don’t know why the train was there so quickly,” Wahlenmailer told police. “I don’t know, maybe I did do it. I can’t remember.”

The train engineer, Don Conner, told police he got an all-clear sign from Wahlenmailer and blew the steam whistle about two times. When he heard muffled yelling, he immediately began emergency procedures.

“The train weighs approximately 250 tons and does not stop like a car,” the police report said. “Don attempted to stop the train as fast as he could, and during this entire process, kept hearing the sounds of screaming, ‘Stop. Ouch, ouch. Stop.’ Other employees were also yelling for him to stop the train.

Garcia later told police he was embarrassed by the incident.

Buena Park Police Lt. Ken Coovert said police hope to interview one more park patron, but they are not investigating the accident because no crime was involved.

Officials from Cal/OSHA launched their investigation Monday, agency spokesman Dean Fryer said.

“We will interview employees, look at training logs and maintenance issues to see if there were any problems involved with the operation of [the train],” Fryer said. “Basically, we’ll try to piece together what may have occurred.”

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board could not be reached for comment. The Calico Railroad is an authentic steam engine and runs on tracks through the west side of the park. It has been operated since 1952.

Knott’s Berry Farm spokeswoman Susan Tierney declined to comment about the accident’s details.

In another recent amusement-park case, Disneyland officials said Monday that Fort Wilderness on Tom Sawyer Island remains closed pending an investigation into a Jan. 21 incident in which a 6-year-old girl slipped while playing with a toy rifle and lost most of her index finger.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said it would investigate but had not yet contacted Disneyland, a park spokesman said. That accident is not being investigated by the state agency that regulates amusement parks because it was not a ride-related injury.