Andy, I was on park too. As I was coming back from a lunch break, I saw the rope stretched across the street from the saloon to the lumbercamp and the ambulance and squad car at the exit of FITH. I approached a friend who worked at FITH and was standing at the rope, keeping people back. I asked him what happened. He normally was a friendly, fun loving guy, but that day, he was somber and visibly upset. He told me he couldn't talk about it. He said that an accident had happened. That was it. Later that night, watching the TV news, I found out. Next day, we were met at the timeclocks by an employee who said that no one on park was to discuss the incident if asked by tourists or media. An investigation was held. It was determined that a dispatcher accidently put a loaded train through the maintenance area, and that a man in the front of the train hit his head on a low hanging bar over the track there. He died. I personally knew the dispatcher. He and I had worked in some of the SDC restaurants the two previous summers, we both transferred to the attractions department about the same time. My friend finished the rest of the 1980 season at SDC, and the next year he did not come back. I do not know what happened to him. I do not know if he was not rehired, or just sought other employment. SDC came to a settlement with the family of the man, and the incident was put to rest. You can see an article taken from the Branson newspaper discussing the FITH accident on my Flickr account, but there are about ten or twelve pages of photos and articles related to SDC on it, and you will have to look through them all to find the article. This was a sad day in the history of the company but lessons were learned, and to the best of my knowledge no one else has died at SDC due to an accident. There was an incident in the last ten years at lost river where a concrete walkway collapsed and a woman was injured. She did not die. A settlement was reached with her, too. SDC takes things like this SERIOUSLY, and investigates and reviews everything from every angle to MAKE SURE IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN! You can find the FITH article at my Flickr account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juniordugan
