Third Man Dead At Disney World
Disney World in Orlando, Florida
All has not been well in Disney World in Orlando lately. Anislav Varbanov, a 30 year old Disney performer, has been pronounced dead after rehearsing for a stunt show. Varbanov died after injuring his head while doing a tumble where he had to jump and dive over another performer and land in a roll for the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular". The show for Tuesday has been canceled in memory of the performer.
Varbanov is the third Disney employee to die on the job at Disney World. On July 5, Austin Wuennenberg, a 21 year old driver for the monorails was killed when his train crashed into another. A week before the most recent tragedy, Mark Priest, a 47 year old performer died after falling on stage during "Captain Jack's Pirate Tutorial". He had been sword fighting and slipped, causing him to hit his head on a wall.
Disney has said that the deaths are not related, and investigators say they are seperate accidents.
"The only common thread is the sense of loss we feel for these valued cast members", said Zoraya Suarez, one of Disney's spokeswomen.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has sent an investigator to Disney the day of the third death to investigate the accidents, which could take up to six months.
"They've just been freak accidents", said Donna-Lynne Dalton, secretary/treasurer of Service Trades Council. "You also have to consider that Walt Disney World is the size of a small city. When you look at the size of Walt Disney World - and I'm not dismissing the tragedy of any of these events - but I'm just thankful it's not worse."
