Disney to Scramble radio transmissions

[Dznefreek]

Fire Department Serving Disney May Scramble Calls

POSTED: 5:07 pm EDT August 8, 2005
UPDATED: 9:45 am EDT August 9, 2005

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- After a summer filled with tragedy at Disney World, Channel 9 has learned why it will soon be much more difficult to learn about accidents and deaths at the theme park.

Typhoon Lagoon
That's because the fire department that sends ambulances to Disney wants to scramble all their radio transmissions. That means the public probably wouldn't know when paramedics were called out to an incident.

The fire chief at Reedy Creek said the move is largely about protecting patients' private information. Disney watchers said it might be about protecting Disney from bad publicity.

From Mission: Space to Tower of Terror to Typhoon Lagoon, Disney has had a horrible story come out of each this summer. A four-year-old died at Epcot in June. A 16-year-old collapsed at MGM-Studios last month. A 12-year-old died at the Typhoon Lagoon water park last week.

Tower of Terror
The public might not have heard much about the incident if a call for paramedics didn't go out over the scanner. Reporters and others monitor those transmissions. But soon, those scanners could go silent.

The Reedy Creek Fire Department plans to scramble the transmissions so only staff can hear about the emergencies. The fire chief said it would protect crews and secure patient information. The chief said Disney didn't play a role in the decision and a company spokeswoman said the same.

But Rick Foglesong, who wrote a book on the company, finds that hard to believe.

"I think it's reasonable to believe that the company was responsible for the decision to scramble those transmissions," Foglesong said.

Mission: Space
Reedy Creek is run by its property owners. Disney is, by far, the largest. Foglesong said the company has a history of being very controlling when it deals with accidents on their property and this may be another effort to control their image.

"They feel a strong stake in preserving their public image and, when it's threatened, the company will act in order to preserve that," Foglesong said.

The fire chief said they could begin scrambling sometimes in the next three weeks to the next three months.

Many Central Florida departments are moving toward digital transmissions, but right now only the city of Apopka scrambles their radio traffic.

Reedy Creek has had the digital technology for five years, but only now is considering the change.

Disney pointed out that, in each incident this summer, they called law enforcement.

 

[RyMickey]

While it's a shame that these accidents happened on property, it seems that in all of the recent occurances, Disney was not to blame. For the news to tease with "Another death at Disney" when a girl unfortunately fainted at Typhoon Lagoon isn't fair to Disney.

With the amount of people that are at Disney at any one point, it's like a small city (and the amount of people that pass through their gates year-round is staggering). Really, their track record of keeping people safe is pretty darn good.

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

Well said, RyMickey.
It's a sad situation for all the families involved. It is also unfortunate that the press loves bad news.
My prayers to all facing difficult times.