Carolina Amusement Park Fined After Maintenance Worker Injured

York County, S.C. (WorkersCompensation.com) - The parent company of an amusement park is facing a $42,000 fine following a maintenance worker’s injury. Authorities said the injury occurred at Carowinds Amusement Park, located on the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

The maintenance contract worker was inspecting a ride 200 feet above the ground last March when he suffered an injury to an extremity. Other workers were able to lower him to the ground before emergency personnel arrived.

Officials from the S.C. OSHA issued the fine, since the accident occurred in that state. The parent company, Cedar Fair was cited for six serious violations following the incident.

An investigation by the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Registration resulted in the following serious violations against Cedar Fair: 

• Failure to evaluate the workplace to determine if there were any permit-required confined spaces.
• Failure to develop and implement a written permit space entry program for employees required to enter the Mondial Windseeker ride.
• Failure to inform contractors of a permit-required confined space, the elements that made the space a permit space, precautions, or procedures implemented to protect contract employees in or near permit spaces. Also, entry operations were not coordinated with contractors, and contractors were not debriefed at the conclusion of entry operations for employees entering permit-required confined spaces, such as the Mondial Windseeker ride.
• Failure to require an entry permit for employees entering permit-required confined spaces such as, but not limited to, the Mondial Windseeker ride.
• Failure to develop and utilize written energy control procedures for equipment such as, but not limited to, the Mondial Windseeker.
• Failure to inform a contractor of the lockout/tagout procedures to be used while performing maintenance, such as, but not limited to, performing inspections on the cable wires on the Mondial Windseeker ride.

“At Carowinds, nothing is more important than safety, as it is at the core of everything we do,” said Lisa Stryker, Communications manager of Carowinds, in a statement to WorkersCompensation.com. “We take these citations seriously and are responding accordingly to OSHA.”

Cedar Fair has the right to challenge the citations by filing a Request for a Contested Case Hearing within 30 calendar days of receipt of the Citation and Notification Penalty.

OSHA could not be reached for comment by press time.

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