Third Disney World Worker Dies in Accident

Florida Orlando Stuntman's Death Adds to Summer's Other Lethal Accidents at Park..

by CBS/AP

Published: Tue, August 18, 2009 - 8:30 am CST Last Updated: Tue, August 18, 2009 - 8:32 am CST

(CBS/ AP) A 30-year-old performer at Disney World is dead after rehearsing for a stunt show, the third worker to die in seven weeks at the Orlando, Fla., park.

Anislav Varbanov was pronounced dead late Monday at a hospital after injuring his head while rehearsing a tumbling roll for the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular."

A Disney spokeswoman said the company mourned Varbanov's death. The stunt show was canceled Tuesday in his memory, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The death comes a week after Mark Priest, a 47-year-old performer, died following an on-stage fall during another show, "Captain Jack's Pirate Tutorial." And on July 5, Austin Wuennenberg, a 21-year-old monorail driver, died when another train crashed into his own.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death. CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG reported Tuesday that all three deaths are still under investigation.

As the Sentinel reported, this isn't the first accident to happen in the Indiana Jones show, which has been running at the park since 1989.

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration fined the park $1,000 after three performers were injured during equipment failures in 1990, the paper reported. Two cast members fell from 25 and 30 feet onto crates and concrete respectively. Another performer was squeezed by a trap door.

Cast members demonstrate the types of stunts performed in the first Indiana Jones film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," including dodging spikes, swinging on a rope and outrunning a large boulder, the Sentinel reported.

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