Typical Cast Member Reaction After Safety Incident?

[erincon23]

I just got back from WDW tonight. This was my 14th trip, so I'm certainly not a newbie, but I encountered a situation I had never been in before, and I don't know if what happened to me was what Disney trains their cast members to do in this situation, or if I encountered a lazy or uninterested cast member.

DH and I were at Epcot on Monday. They hadn't yet taken down the F&G stuff, which was nice. We stopped for a minute on the back side of the Spaceship Earth building, facing the pavilion that has the wait times board. DH leaned against the green metal railing in front of the big butterfly topiaries, and I went to do the same thing - except I leaned against what was actually a gate, and the gate latch was missing - not just not closed, it was actually gone - so down I went, onto my rear end in the mulch. DH came to help me, and another guest came to offer assistance. 2 cast members were strolling past, and inquired if I was ok - I thought I probably was so I declined their offer to call someone, but we did tell them why I fell. They said they would report the broken gate, then told me to "stay hydrated." (Huh?)

We went and rode Spaceship Earth, but I was feeling some slight back twinges from the fall, so I went over to Guest Relations, thinking I'd fill out an incident report or something like that. This is the reaction I'm surprised about - the CM I talked with was very nice, but the only thing she offered was to be checked out by paramedics, which I felt was not necessary (I wasn't looking to "get" anything, although an FP would have been nice ). I showed her on a map exactly where the broken gate was, but she never asked for my name or contact info. Is that normal? If you refuse paramedics, they won't even do a report? I really think I'm fine, but with back injuries, issues can show up days after the incident - wouldn't you think they'd want to document it so that someone couldn't come back and make something up?

And we checked that gate yesterday, five days after the incident - it's not repaired, not even tied closed or marked with a warning sign - is that typical? The whole thing seemed careless on Disney's part.

 

[jrt1176]

I imagine just about every corner of the park has a camera pointed at it as far as people making up falls/fraud, etc.

Obviously, I don't know Disney's view, but since you weren't injured, or didn't made a big deal about it, the gate probably didn't make it far up the chain of command... Not to mention, that you said all of that stuff is coming down soon.

Maybe there is a reason the gate doesn't lock? I have been there this time of year, but without seeing the area you're talking about, I can't recall the details.

 

[erincon23]

The topiary stuff did come down, but the railings are permanent. And you can tell that there had been a latch on it but it was broken off at some point. It doesn't really lead to anywhere, more so people won't walk through the mulch and plants, I think. It seems strange that they would leave this safety issue without fixing it somehow.

 

[PirateD]

That's interesting. I can't say what Disney's policy is because I have no experience or knowledge regarding it. I can tell you that when I got a paper cut on my finger from a box at the American Girl Doll Store they made me fill out an accident report and even called me the next day to make sure I was okay. We got quite a few laughs about it--joked after the call that I should have handed the phone to my brother who is an attorney and had him talk to them about my pain and suffering from the paper cut.

I should note that I didn't "report" the incident. It happened right before we went in to eat at the AG Bistro and the waitress overheard me tell my family that my finger was bleeding. She asked me if I wanted a band-aid and I said sure. The next thing I knew I had two employees with a band-aid and a clipboard asking me for a full report of what happened. I definitely thought it was overkill but understand why companies have to be so careful. I guess Disney has a stricter criteria for what they define as an injury. A paper cut is probably the most blood the AG store ever sees!

 

[jrt1176]

I'd imagine they would want to fix a broken latch, etc.

Without seeing the area/gate I can't say if it was a safety issue or not...

I think had you gotten injured(thankfully you didn't!) the CM's would have been all over you to help.

The topiary stuff did come down, but the railings are permanent. And you can tell that there had been a latch on it but it was broken off at some point. It doesn't really lead to anywhere, more so people won't walk through the mulch and plants, I think. It seems strange that they would leave this safety issue without fixing it somehow.

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

Disney does train CMs to handle "accidents" a particular way. It is basically to claim no fault up front as that can be used against them in court. I do not think it is because they are uncaring, but because of the way Cast is trained when it comes to claiming liability.

 

[onenursebrandy]

I was there for F&G a couple of years ago. There were several "paths" that wound outside of the main path so that you could walk "through" the topiaries/flowers. They were usually a one way only path, and had a swinging gate at either end (no latch). I never inspected to see if a latch was broken off, or they just didn't have a latch.

Is it possible that the gate isn't supposed to be locked/latched?

I hope that you don't have any other issues from your fall....back problems are the worst.

 

[disney world dreamer]

i had an incident last month where i tripped over a short brick wall coming out of a bathroom at DTD and i needed stitches in my chin.

CM's were very attentive to my needs and did write an incident report.

i do believe that they only started filling one out after they asked if i wanted paramedics and i said yes so perhaps they are only trained to take an incident report if you want paramedics.

if you specifically went to guest services to tell them about the incident then i am very surprised they did not document your concerns about the potential broken gate.

 

[Karin1984]

Imho, when you say you don't need paramedics, Disney would have that documented as well. If you indeed develop back problems or something else later due to the incident and decide to take it to court, Disney can say 'we did offer to get the paramedics, but she said she didn't need them.'

 

[Alesia]

So you fell, two CMs offered you assistance and you refused it, making it clear that it wasn't a big deal. Then you went out of your way to report what happened, were, yet again, offered assistance. You, yet again, refused assistance and said it wasn't that big of a deal. Now you're upset that they treated it like it wasn't a big deal? What did you expect them to do?

 

[JacknSally]

When I worked for a hotel chain, we filled out incident reports for EVERYTHING, as a CYA measure. No injury or incident too small. Since the forms have to be filled out by the employee, not the guest, 9 times out of 10 we'd get all the information, clear up the situation, and then do the paperwork once the guest had been taken care of and the situation was resolved. But we did have to have the guest's contact information (granted, we were able to get that pretty easily if we had their room number, so we may not have actually asked the guest for that info at the time) if for no other reason than for the insurance company to have it on file (it also helped us keep track of "repeat offenders") so I'm surprised Disney didn't get that from you, as I'm sure their paperwork would have required that, even if they didn't fill it out in front of you.

 

[LaurenT]

I was there for F&G a couple of years ago. There were several "paths" that wound outside of the main path so that you could walk "through" the topiaries/flowers. They were usually a one way only path, and had a swinging gate at either end (no latch). I never inspected to see if a latch was broken off, or they just didn't have a latch.

Is it possible that the gate isn't supposed to be locked/latched?

I hope that you don't have any other issues from your fall....back problems are the worst.

This was my thought too. If it doesn't lead anywhere and is just access for the gardening crew, they probably don't want a latch. I don't think the rails are meant to be leaned on. Just like those chains that have a magnetic closure to link them together .... Kids are always leaning on them and then the magnets come apart and the kid either stumbles or just falls...
Being that the worst that can happen is someone falls into a pile of mulch, they're probably not too concerned.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Wish we had had an incident report to fill out! Maybe because the other one was the doll store and not specifically Disney property? That's all my dad wanted..

We had a similar instance on Castaway Cay with am accident sort of falling/jumping off a tram that was driving away before my folks were fully on it. No all clear like at the parks. He was literally the last one off the ship and basically would not clear customs until someone would address his concern. No one did anything, they kept giving him a card for a shore side customer service for complaints. He told them someone was going to have to acknowledge that he had an official tram incident in writing (accident report) in case he got back and his sore back got worse. He didn't want a shore side customer service line. He said 'look, I'm not complaining about my Cruise, I want someone to make it official that I got hurt on your island because your driver pulled away while people are still loading .' No one would take anything down in writing, not at guest relations, nothing (well they had their own written comments but nothing they would give him as a way for him to have any recourse), and it started to be a problem because they HAD to clear customs. One rep would radio another and another would come down. In the end, someone wrote something (I think maybe the date and his name) on a business customer service card and that was clear that was all we were going to get. Similarly considering how much we had spent on three days of their cruise, how much we expect from Disney, it was extremely obvious that they would do nothing for us.

Sadly in a legitious society, where people exploit it, that's where they have had to go. But it definitely flies in the face of their 'we take care of you' 'customer service' mantra.

Your experience is very typical now. We all better watch our steps and where we lean. We are on our own... (Unless you got a phone recording.... And even then probably not,)

 

[lauradis]

See what happens when you take all the seating out of the parks, people fail threw gates.

From the statement the CM made "stay hydrated", being at epcot, my first thought we did they think you where drinking.

Glad your not really hurt.

 

[jerseygirl82]

So you fell, two CMs offered you assistance and you refused it, making it clear that it wasn't a big deal. Then you went out of your way to report what happened, were, yet again, offered assistance. You, yet again, refused assistance and said it wasn't that big of a deal. Now you're upset that they treated it like it wasn't a big deal? What did you expect them to do?

This. It sounds like OP is concerned that if something develops she won't be able to hold Disney liable (which imho they aren't).

 

[BuckeyeBama]

You assume that the gate was broken, but it might not have been. Because there was once a latch there does not mean that there is meant to be one now.

You leaned on a rail without checking it first to see if it would support your weight. You fell down but were not injured. Be thankful that the consequences for your mistake were so minor.

I am glad that you are okay. I am also not sure that Disney did anything wrong here.

 

[larryz]

You leaned on a rail ...

Heck, a Six Flags park might have thrown you out for breaking the "stay off the rails" rule.

 

[anniemae]

I don't think Disney did anything wrong. I think if you had asked for medical assistance things would have been escalated and handled differently and reports would have been filed. I imaging folks go into first aid/guest relations all day long with minor injuries and complaints like headaches, blisters, cuts, scrapes, nausea, sunburns, aches, pains, etc. They probably can't file official paperwork for everything.

I would think they would either fix the latch or put a sign saying "do not sit or lean on fence" just to cover themselves though.

 

[disneynutz]

Disney isn't perfect and they process millions and millions of visitors per year.

They do have a claims department and policies in place if there is an accident but guests trip and fall hundreds of times each day.

You can express your concerns to WDW at: wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Bill

 

[NewRVLady]

I was there for F&G a couple of years ago. There were several "paths" that wound outside of the main path so that you could walk "through" the topiaries/flowers. They were usually a one way only path, and had a swinging gate at either end (no latch). I never inspected to see if a latch was broken off, or they just didn't have a latch.

Is it possible that the gate isn't supposed to be locked/latched?

I hope that you don't have any other issues from your fall....back problems are the worst.

I agree-this was probably a gate that WASN'T supposed to latch