What is the procedure for ride ops when a guest is injured on a ride.

I bring this question up because of my experience yesterday at the point.
My two boys rode Jr Gem and my youngest smacked his head on a caped nut on the back of one of the cars and came back to the station bleeding.
When the train came to a stop they refused to let the rest of the riders off. They obviously had no idea what to do. So my question,

What is the procedure for ride ops when a guest is injured on a ride?
Do they have First Aid kits on the rides?
Are they told to do nothing and call for the medics?

Call 911
Call your Supervisor
Give assistance if needed/able to.
Wait for CP Safety and CPPD to arrive.

That's pretty much it.

Ride operators are not allowed to administer any kind of First Aid outside of maybe a towel to stop bleeding.

You know, Jr. Gemini is surprisingly jerky; then again, I've found most other kids' coasters to be a lot like Jr. That's one category that is awaiting better designs.

Yea it is really jerky, My wife rode it with my oldest last year and said Maverick was less jerky then Jr Gem. I did not believe her then but you know what I do now....

yes jr. gemini is very jerky but it was my first roller coaster. :)

they could have been keeping the people on the ride, that way they could account for who was on the ride for documentation purposes.

99er said:
Ride operators are not allowed to administer any kind of First Aid outside of maybe a towel to stop bleeding.

That strikes me as exceptionally weird. I've had to get CPR and blood-borne pathogen certification every time I've ever coached. ("Buddy! Buddy! Are you OK? Call 911!") I'm surprised that people who work around kids like that aren't required to do the same.

I was always told employees were not to give out so much as a band-aid for the fact that a guest would get lawsuit happy if someone who was not trained screwed something up. We were told to help out as much as we could without really helping (if that makes sense) until Safety got there. Other then Safety, the only employees that can give out a band-aid are those in Aquatics.

Now some departments do get BBP training such as lifeguards, Safety, CPPD and maybe Foods(?). They are also offered a Hep shot from First Aid. I think all employees get some sort of lecture about BBP during either company training or department training but its no more in depth than what is printed in the Cedar Point Guidelines. I was trained on BBP while I was there and also received my shots since I was at risk with coming into contact with blood.

It could have changed since I spent some time in Rides but as of last year it was that way in my department which was apart of Operations. So I would assume it would be the same department wide.

I take the 2yr old and 4 yr old I babysit to Cedar Point about once a week,and have for the past couple years.Pretty much any ride there you are capable of hitting your head on,thats why anytime Im riding something with them I make sure I put my arm around them so if they hit anything its my arm and they dont get hurt.Just a idea,its always worked for me :) Makes driving those bumper cars one handed kinda tricky,but saves the kids from alot of injuries which means we all have a blast!!!

^ Yea i am to big for Jr Gem so i could not hold his head with my arm.
To say the least my boy is going to be my coaster buddy when he gets older because right after he busted his head open he wanted to ride Woodstock Express. I was able to ride that with him and as you stated I wrapped my arm around him so he could not re-injure his head.....

aww well thats cool that he wasnt afraid to get right back on another one! gotta train um young :)

Yea i was really proud of him. I cant wait until he is older so him and I can ride the real coasters together. Hes going to be my coaster bud!

Well I know for school they train everyone that goes through our school in first aid and train but not certify us for cpr. The thing is though they told us even if your not certified for cpr if your the closest person to the one in trouble perform cpr because the one in danger would probably not sue you considering you may be saving their life.

^^ This is very trickey, my question to you is are you 100 percent sure of your abilities, if you are then its up to you and how you act in an emergency situation. I have had a situation were I assisted in cpr till emts got there, The man eventually pulled through but was very upset that somone who was not an emt worked on him. This sounds extremly weird but it does happen. In my personal opinion if theres someone near me who goes down. Im confident in my ability to be able to do cpr or aed. So I guess its up to the person at the moment, just realise theres always a risk in what you do.

CP/PKIdude said:^^ This is very trickey, my question to you is are you 100 percent sure of your abilities, if you are then its up to you and how you act in an emergency situation. I have had a situation were I assisted in cpr till emts got there, The man eventually pulled through but was very upset that somone who was not an emt worked on him. This sounds extremly weird but it does happen. In my personal opinion if theres someone near me who goes down. Im confident in my ability to be able to do cpr or aed. So I guess its up to the person at the moment, just realise theres always a risk in what you do.

There are good sameritain(sp) laws out there that protect lay people from hurting someone if they provide cpr or medical aid in an emergency situation. There is a case how ever that is being challenged in a State Supreme court that challenges those laws. Giving bad cpr is better than giving no cpr. If you need cpr your odds of surviving are slim even with train professionals. In some states if you have any medical/first aid training, you have a duty to act and if you don't and have been documented at the incident, you could be in some major trouble.

Matt D said:

Not quite. Giving CPR when its not actually needed can not only cause additional problems, it can lead to cardiac arrest.

At least the last time I was trained (admittedly a long time ago, and at least in Michigan) the only way you can be held responsible is if you announce yourself as being able to help and then don't. ie, shouting I know CPR and then upon finding that its some dirty looking guy not doing anything. Just knowing it and being in the crowd won't get you in trouble.

As a park employee Im not sure that you are covered by the good smaritian laws. They are not blanket laws for everyone, the obvious exception being health professionals in a hospital.

CPR nearly always causes broken ribs, at the very least that causes extreme pain every time you breathe for the next 2-3 weeks and at the worst a broken rib can lodge into something, like a lung.

Opps let me clarify, if it is a confirmed Cardiac Arrest, bad cpr is better than no cpr. All Licenesed Emt, Medical First Responders, anything do with ems in Michigan have a duty to act in any emergency situation, not doing so is considered patient abandoment and subject to prosecution. A firefighter that was an MFR was on scene of an accident, he did not act,a death was involved, a lawyer found his name in the police report as witness, brought him to the stand,FF/MFR lost his medical license, was sued by the family. They won. Day one of any MFR class or EMT class that is given now at least around here, you are informed of your duty to act. But back to cp. I don't know their policy.