The unidentified employee was hospitalized at Orlando Health in downtown Orlando after being \u201cseverely shocked.\u201d\u00a0The employee\u2019s upper arm and \u201cnumerous ribs\u201d were fractured, and a shoulder was dislocated as well,\u00a0according to records released<\/a>\u00a0by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA<\/a>) from a Florida Politics record request.<\/p>\n The employee was injured at 7:22 a.m., so the incident occurred before the park likely opened for the day.<\/p>\n For the Harry Potter ride vehicles, the busbar \u2014 typically a thick strip that distributes power to multiple circuits in electrical systems \u2014 was not locked as required, according to an OSHA summary of the incident.<\/p>\n The ride vehicle \u201cis normally locked out in three places, and the electrical circuit to the buss bar that powers (the ride vehicle) is normally locked out during this procedure,\u201d the OSHA record said.<\/p>\n The OSHA report does not include an update on the employee\u2019s health condition. Universal Orlando did not respond to questions or provide a comment for this story.<\/p>\n Florida State University<\/a> Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering Peter Cheetham<\/a> reviewed the OSHA records at Florida Politics\u2019 request.<\/p>\n \u201cIt appears the worker did not follow safety protocol and did not de-energize the electrical circuit before working on it. The circuit, being a 480V 3-phase, would have created an electrical arc or shock at some point when he started working on it. I\u2019m guessing he either touched two of the busbars (which are typically a bare piece of copper) or he touched one of the busbars while also holding onto something or standing on something which was at ground potential,\u201d Cheetham said in an email. \u201cThe report does not give enough details to know exactly what type of electric shock happened and there is also not specifics on the ampacity which would describe how bad the shock would be.\u201d<\/p>\n OSHA investigated the worker\u2019s injury, conducted a site visit and found \u201cno unusual circumstances encountered \u2026 such as abatement problems, expected contest and\/or negative employer attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n Universal\u2019s fine was originally $16,550, but Universal and OSHA negotiated it down to $11,585 in an informal settlement.<\/p>\n Situations involving electrical shocks can be dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cElectric shocks, depending on certain conditions, can be fatal, even at relatively low voltages,\u201d OSHA says in an electrical safety guide<\/a>. \u201cThe amount of time that an electrical current lasts has a great influence in the severity of the injuries. If the electric current has a short duration, then it may just cause pain. If the electric shock is longer, then it can be fatal, even if the voltage is not very high.\u201d<\/p>\n Universal opened Epic Universe this year, impressing guests with its immersive lands themed in Super Nintendo World, \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon,\u201d and Harry Potter.<\/p>\n But the park also already experienced a tragedy in the early months. Kevin Rodriguez Zavala, a guest with disabilities, was killed after riding the Stardust Racers roller coaster. Universal and Rodriguez Zavala\u2019s family lawyer, Ben Crump, announced a settlement had been reached<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time OSHA has investigated Universal for electric-related injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n A handful of visitors and Universal employees received electrical shocks<\/a> at Universal\u2019s Volcano Bay water park in 2019, although no one appeared to be seriously injured. The incident was later\u00a0attributed to\u00a0electrical defects<\/a> during the water park\u2019s construction. OSHA did not issue a fine to Universal for that incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government has fined Universal $11,585 after an employee received a severe electrical shock during routine maintenance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6113,28,30,29,18577,48219,2042,13821,3434],"class_list":{"0":"post-89079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-epic-universe","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-harry-potter","13":"tag-harry-potter-and-the-battle-of-the-ministry","14":"tag-orlando-theme-parks","15":"tag-osha","16":"tag-universal-orlando"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FLGR-Ad-728x90-RESULTS-Set-1-e1741815738516.jpg\")
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