Roller coaster accident kills Indian worker
By Luo Man and Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-15 06:55

SHANGHAI: An Indian worker at a carnival in Shanghai was crushed to death by a roller coaster on Friday.

The electrician in his mid-30s, whose name police did not release, was examining the upper level of the track at the 2005 Pudong Global Carnival around 12:45 pm when his uniform was caught by the moving cart. The cart hit him, and the force of the impact pushed him off the 6-metre-tall platform he was standing on, according to a release from the carnival organizers.

The electrician was hired by Freig International Investment, the carnival's foreign investor, to examine the ride.

Song Xiaoping, a spokeswoman for the carnival, said nobody should have been on the track or the maintenance platforms around it.

Employees are not authorized to be on the tracks when the rides are running, and the electrician should not have been standing where he was, Song said.

Organizers did not know why the man was there when he got hit, she said.

"This accident has nothing to do with the quality of the facility," Song said. "It's his own fault."

The roller coaster was immediately closed, but the carnival remained open.

Song said visitors were allowed into the carnival as usual and there are no plans to close it after the incident.

Song said security warnings are posted in front of every ride.

The carnival opened about two weeks ago in the Pudong area of Shanghai.

This is not the first time the global carnival has been in the news.

Visitors who attended during the first day of operation were turned away due to unexplained delays.

(China Daily 10/15/2005 page2)