Wednesday, August 25, 1999
Kings Island closes second ride
King Cobra shut after Virginia death
BY KEVIN ALDRIDGE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — Paramount's Kings Island has shut down its second ride in as many days after a second death at another amusement park.
Park officials announced Tuesday they were indefinitely closing The King Cobra, the park's stand-up looping roller coaster, after a man was killed Monday on a similar ride at a Paramount's Kings Dominion in Richmond, Va.
On Monday, Kings Island officials closed the popular Drop Zone after a child was killed Sunday when he fell from a similar ride at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara, Calif.
“The closings have just been precautionary,” said Bill Mefford, a park spokesman.
“We are merely making every effort to insure the safety of all the guests here at Kings Island until we learn more about the facts of what happened at these other parks.”
Betsy Moss, a spokeswoman for Kings Dominion, said Timothy Fan, 20, of New York slipped through a harness and fell from his seat on The Shockwave about 8:40 p.m. Monday.
That ride, which opened in 1986, is a stand-up looping coaster that takes riders on a two-minute trip along 2,231 feet of track at 50 mph.
Ms. Moss said no one had been killed or seriously injured on the ride before Monday. She said more than 13 million guests have ridden it.
“It's incredibly bizarre to have two deaths like this occur within days of one another,” Mr. Mefford said. “It appears to be a sheer coincidence of time and place.”
Mr. Mefford said Kings Island has an outstanding safety record.
“We are so safety-conscious here,” he said. “We have safety check after safety check on every ride, every day.”
Mr. Mefford said he doesn't know when either ride will reopen.
“We are waiting to see what the investigations unfold,” he said. “It could show that the rides were at fault or it could turn up that the accidents had nothing to do with the rides themselves.”
The King Cobra opened in 1984 as the first stand-up looping coaster. The ride is one of 12 coasters at the park.
Like King Cobra, Shockwave features two loops — one a 360-degree vertical loop 66 feet tall and another 540-degree horizontal banked at 80 degrees, sending riders virtually parallel with the ground.
Paramount Canada's Wonderland in Toronto also closed its Skyrider roller coaster, similar to the King Cobra.
Officials of amusement parks nationwide are getting anxious about the number of accidents in recent months, said Paul Ruben, North American editor for Park World, a British-published magazine that covers the outdoor amusement industry.
An employee of the Lake Compounce amusement park in Bristol, Conn., died after he fell last Friday and got caught under a spinning, enclosed scrambler-type ride. Six visitors were hurt Aug. 7 when a raft flipped on a river ride at Riverside Park in Agawam, Mass.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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