Sandusky police investigating accident at Cedar Point near Raptor

To me Tosh sums it up pretty much, starts a little after a minute in. Praying for his family, the workers, and anyone who witnessed it

It sadly seems too easy for some people to coldly judge and ridicule. People make mistakes all the time, even people who otherwise are quite cautious and conscientious. It's like people who try to text when they drive, they think that THEY can handle it, it'll just be for a second...then tragedy happens. No one ever thinks something like this can happen to them. It was a very bad decision, yes, but we all make bad decisions of varying degrees. The great majority of us would never think of jumping the fence to grab their phone, but there are probably more people who would than you think. Again, people always think they can get away with something that another couldn't, it's human nature. The point is this man, who went by Jim, was a son, brother, friend and a teacher. His friends and family are in agony right now and the flippant comments are out of hand. (this is the internet though, where annonimity breeds cruelty sonetimes) I feel for this man's family, for the riders and employees. Let's hope that something positive can come our of this and that it serves as a reminder or wake up call that you need to take the potential dangers at an amusement park seriously, and hopefully a taller or very difficult to climb fencing system can be installed as well. Riders should be reminded that if they lose an item while on a ride a park employee can safely try to locate it later and return it to them. The bottom line is that this was a horrible event. Preventable? Yes, but we are humans, all of us make bad decisions because we never think something tragic will happen to us. Let's stop ridiculing the man who died, let's stop judging him so harshly. I saw his FB page, he was a happy, loved person who was clearly close to his family. My focus is on what they must be going through, not on judging the guy.

bholcomb said:

What is very impressive to me is that there was seemingly no serious injury to the person riding that came in contact with Mr Young. Seems like even at a high velocity, there would be a lot of chances to have a serious injury.

The Sandusky Assistant Police Chief stated in his press conference that the coaster train hit the man and not an individual.

DSShives said:

The Sandusky Assistant Police Chief stated in his press conference that the coaster train hit the man and not an individual.

Well I missed that. Have been out all evening. That's even more impressive, with such vulnerable riders.

I forced myself to read this entire, painful wreck of a thread. I'm shocked and dismayed by 90% of the comments here, and I'm totally with those that have reacted compassionately to this tragic and unfortunate occurrence.
Forget Cedar Point's image, forget the lawyers, forget the fences, forget the freaking announcement on Tuesday. And please stop placing righteous blame. It's done. Shame on everyone here who thinks this poor guy got what he deserved.
I'm gone.

Time for a new color scheme and rename. I think that will get people to forget about the dangers of entering restricted areas of the park. Guest 125 is saying, "I don't want to ride Raptor, I might break my leg on some soon to be dead guys face."

Sorry. Had to do it. But in reality. If this stuff isn't reported and made fun of how will we know not to do it ourselves. I didn't know it was a bad idea to get drunk and shoot mortar shells off my head until I heard on the morning radio show that that will kill you. Sometimes it helps to learn from other peoples mistakes as opposed to doing it yourself. Maybe this event saved the life of at least one other person. In hindsight maybe this guy saved someones life. That's something to be proud of in light of what happened to him in his stupidity.

Definitely time for a paint job and name change. Gates are closing or karate kick seem to be good names. At least these old folks are teaching the younger generation how to survive a day at the point without getting injured or killed.

I wonder why they called in Sandusky PD, CPPD probably is fully capable of investigating this themselves. I heard of some new arrangement where CP gets some Sandusky services in exchange for something, maybe some funding of something in Sandusky. I think they get Sandusky EMS now, maybe they also get some police services?

Probably standard operating procedure to bring in the mainland emergency services for more than minor incidents. Erie County's coroner was involved as well.

Sorry if this was mentioned before because I didn't read all right pages of this, but is there any report on how the riders are doing? I believe back in the Batman incident, one of the riders in the front row had shattered legs after the impact.

What amazes me the most is not one Video. In todays society most everyone videos something. Not that I want to see a video. I am glad none have popped up. Just amazed. Condolences to the family and anyone involved, or impacted by this 1 in a million tragedy.

RCMAC said:

And please stop placing righteous blame. It's done. Shame on everyone here who thinks this poor guy got what he deserved.

i highly doubt anyone here thinks this guest deserved to die, and any blame placed is certainly not righteous. But this isn't some tragic accident, it's not even someone running in front of a car on the street and being struck because they didn't see it. This gentleman ignored warning signs and climbed a tall fence that was installed to keep people out. He was a teacher, so he was not a dumb person and most likely fully understood that he was entering a restricted area that was off limits. An obviously dangerous area to enter that he was fully aware of because he just rode the ride! Not only did he show total disregard for his own safety, but he put innocent riders in danger, made spectators witness a horrible event and put his family into agony. I have a lot of compassion for his family and any witnesses. But, I don't think it is unreasonable to place blame on someone who negatively affected a significant number of people by his bad behavior. As Rideman likes to say, respect rides, they do not respect you.

CoasterKyle1121 said:

Sorry if this was mentioned before because I didn't read all right pages of this, but is there any report on how the riders are doing? I believe back in the Batman incident, one of the riders in the front row had shattered legs after the impact.

According to the police, no riders were injured, only the train struck the person in the low zone.

Pete said:
I wonder why they called in Sandusky PD, CPPD probably is fully capable of investigating this themselves. I heard of some new arrangement where CP gets some Sandusky services in exchange for something, maybe some funding of something in Sandusky. I think they get Sandusky EMS now, maybe they also get some police services?

From my understanding, CPPD is not a stand alone police department. Rather, they are the Cedar Point division of SPD, in some cases seasonal hires.

To those that think the blame is on the park for not having a tall enough/ difficult enough/ overly signed/ barb wire enhanced / fence with a moat with ride ops surrounding the entire perimeter of every ride...
Here's a fact- you will never be able to fully prevent someone from causing great harm to themselves and others through over engineering.

I have much more concern for the trauma this guy caused to so many other people. This was not an accident, this was a willful and conscientious act by someone who should've known better.

jsmith7300 said:
A recommendation or request is not censorship.

Well, I was speaking in general terms. But the point I was getting at is that it does no good to ridicule the man or to ridicule people for ridiculing him (people will speak their minds no matter what). I'm not one to publicly make jokes about someone who dies due to an incident like this (I'm betting no on is). But the idea that everyone who is not being the utmost sympathetic (while over looking WHY it happened) deserves to be shamed is quite annoying. The underlying thing is that something tragic happened that shouldn't have happened. You can go on all day about how "human we are" or that we all make mistakes. But that doesn't give you or anyone, who is an adult, some kind of "get out of jail free card" when you make an avoidable mistake and there is a price paid.

It's like, there's no easy way of critiquing what this man did without sounding like some kind of judgmental ahole. What makes me angry is when something like this happens, leaving family members with their world being flipped upside down. Was that thought running through his head before he hopped the fence? We'll never know. But criticizing why/how it happened does not equal to being some kind of soulless heathen.

So again:

- It's unfortunate he died
- His actions that led to his demise are worthy of being scrutinized.
- Everyone feels bad for the family

Looks like the raptor will have the reputation of "that ride that killed that guy like the batman." I'll miss when it was just an innocent B&M invert.

Also, my condolences to the family who had such a tragic loss.

I think we can all agree that he should have read the signs and not hopped the fence(s)...

It makes me sick that this comment has twelve +1s:

Staaber said:

Sorry don't feel bad. Fences and signs are there for a reason. Don't be a jack ass. Follow the rules. Now you make the best park in the world look bad because of one dumb idiot. ...one schmuck who probably had his phone out and dropped it and tried to get it back.

Here we go again... The snarky, egotistical comments continue; even at the death of a person. Nobody deserves this to happen to them. Even if it's their own fault.

CPNostalgia said:

Looks like the raptor will have the reputation of "that ride that killed that guy like the batman." I'll miss when it was just an innocent B&M invert.

Raptor is still an innocent B&M invert. Nothing has changed in that respect. My sympathy for everyone involved in this tragedy...

Yeah, the accident wasn't caused by ride malfunction.

He was a special education teacher for 5th graders. http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20150814/NEWS/150819618