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Ride/Park Accidents

Glenwood Caverns and Soaring Eagle have been fined $205 million for the 2021 accident on the Haunted Mine drop ride - $82 million in damages to the family, and $123 million in punitive damages. The below statement was put up on the park’s Instagram, before unsurprisingly being deleted after a couple of hours:

Our hearts go out to the family of Wongel Estifanos and everyone affected by the tragic accident that happened on September 5, 2021. While the jury allocated significant fault on the other defendant, Soaring Eagle, Inc., the size of the total jury verdict award puts the existence of Glenwood Caverns at serious risk. If the jury verdict remains as it is, hundreds
of local jobs are in peril. Prior to trial, Glenwood Caverns offered Plaintiffs all of its available insurance money, but Plaintiffs refused to accept or ever negotiate a resolution over the past four years despite
our numerous attempts. Soaring Eagle manufactured the Haunted Mine Drop with a defective restraint system that caused this heartbreaking accident. Soaring Eagle certified to Glenwood Caverns that the ride met all applicable standards, but that was not true. They failed to perform the required engineering and risk analyses that would have undoubtedly prevented this death. In addition, Soaring Eagle was aware of two prior ejections from this same restraint design— information they hid from the world. Soaring Eagle failed Glenwood Caverns, failed the
Estifanos family, and failed our community. Glenwood Caverns was devastated by this accident and worked with independent engineers (and not with Soaring Eagle) to redesign and re-engineer the ride to prevent an
accident like this from ever occurring again. Glenwood Caverns is exploring all options so that we can attempt to continue to operate,
serve our guests, and continue to give back to the community.
 
Manslaughter investigation opened for the Stardust Racers death.

Personal opinion is that this is just procedural and won't actually go anywhere - much the same as deaths from car accidents here that automatically open a potential criminal investigation.

 
It certainly sounds like there was no mechanical fault with the ride. But the park's policy on who can ride, and how it is enforced, may well be under the microscope.
depends where the fault was,

from when I was there I recall there is a message saying not to ride if you have recently had surgery, have back injuries, are pregnant, etc. so it is possible that they ignored the warnings given by universal, knowing if someone has back issues or has had surgery can be quite difficult, if the staff were made aware of his surgery, and allowed them to get onto the ride that could be a problem.

if there was a problem with the policy on who can ride that would probably come back to mack, Hyperia had similar requirements and the reason is the manual for the ride written by mack will give instructions for what is / isn't allowed and if someone rides with something that is allowed how to accommodate that (for instance B&M have harnesses that can be used for some disabilities (they attach to the red brackets on the back of the seats no neme rebo))

IMO I don't think the policy is directly to blame (I think the changes are precautionary as the person didn't have any of the new restrictions) the next part will come down to how much universal warned about the back, neck and recent surgury. if they had an audio loop every 20 mins, but the queue was only 5 mins of if the audio was too quiet then he may not have heard the warnings, like wise if the signs were too small and out of the way, or if for disabled guests staff should go through each item and ensure they are suitable. from what I recall I don't think this will be an issue as there were quite a few signs and an audio message in the normal queue, it will be up to the investigation if this was enough.
 
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Well, we shall see how it stacks up against the law. Although, I am selfishly hoping that whatever happens, the lap bars are intact. That ride could be quite painful without them.
 
I think what's worth considering is that although this is a new ride it's not new technology. As far as I'm aware these are the same restraints as used on Blue Fire, which has been running without incident for over 15 years. And there are about 50 other rides operating with the same restraints. Whilst Stardust is one of the more intense it is not the most intense (which must surley be Voltron?) And if the ability to brace is an issue then the unpredictable nature of Ride to Happiness would have flagged an issue years ago.

In summary this is a very strange incident, and not something I ever imagined happening. Sounds quite traumatic for everyone involved, so I hope this is something that's unlikely to happen again.
 
An update on the Stardust Racers incident - the family of the victim have now instructed the civil rights lawyer who represented George Floyd’s relatives after he was killed by police in the US - claiming there may still be “safety issues” even if the coaster did not malfunction as the preliminary inquiry by Universal/the Floridian authorities suggests:

 
Another person is now suing Universal claiming permanent injuries from Stardust Racers back in April :rolleyes:


It's a good job she reported it to Universal when it happened isn't it.

Oh wait
 
It's a bold move by Universal to reopen the ride now. Unless there are changes that we are not yet aware of (unlikely) they are effectively making a firm statement that; there is nothing wrong with the ride, and we did nothing wrong.

You'd like to think that they'd only take this risk if they were certain that the above is true. As it would look very bad for them if its later found they were at fault.
 
It's a bold move by Universal to reopen the ride now. Unless there are changes that we are not yet aware of (unlikely) they are effectively making a firm statement that; there is nothing wrong with the ride, and we did nothing wrong.

You'd like to think that they'd only take this risk if they were certain that the above is true. As it would look very bad for them if its later found they were at fault.
Universal are a big, reputable operator. I would think that any reopening decision has been made with any relevant bodies firmly on board.
 
Universal are a big, reputable operator. I would think that any reopening decision has been made with any relevant bodies firmly on board.
I agree, and from what I have read they have had many people assess the ride who have confirmed universals own findings.

Still it is a bold move given that a high profile layer is involved and unless they settle quickly this case is likely going to get a lot of press attention. I can imagine many other companies would be more hesitant to reopen the ride as soon. Personaly I don't think Universal are wrong to do so, just that I'm surprised that they are.
 
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