Man dies after ride on Stardust Racers at Epic Universe

Except that lap bar is beefy and sits right at your lumbar area, restricting that area from flexing. Your back is not equal in its flexibility, your lumbar (stomach area) and cervical (neck) are the two areas most flexible to bend forward. Your thoracic area (chest) has very little ability to flex due to most of those bones being attached to your rib cage. That woman in the picture would not be able to preform that bend with the lap bar down.

Dont believe me? Put one arm at your belly button and hug, now try to bend down.

Over the weekend, Hyperia at Thorpe (same ride system - lift, instead of launch) has changed its restrictions, riders now have to be "fully ambulant" which they define as being able to walk down 200 steps unaided.

Ostensibly, this is for evac purposes, but the timing is interesting.

I would hate for this to be a blanket restriction that is an over reach.

however… the lack of an answer by now, (e.g. huge piece of metal came loose and banged the crap out of guest) makes me so confused.

According to a letter from the Universal President the ride did not malfunction in anyway during the ride, ie there was not a piece of metal that came loose from the train.

WESH 2 Story with the letter

So now we’re back to the ragdoll theory? If there’s no metal from the train, no obvious metal from somewhere else ( that would’ve been disclosed by now) and I’m assuming that we have ruled out that the passenger next to him wasn’t the cause of the multiple blunt force trauma?

that puts us back to the only other option, which is the guest somehow lost the ability to prevent their body from being flung around with the motion of the ride vehicle. I have not ridden this ride to know what these forces might be like, but again, I go back to my original question, which is “is this the first time someone has been ragdolled on a roller coaster “

Given that Mach has instructed parks to not let paralyzed riders ride these rides, and descriptions I read on Reddit suggesting he “broke his leg” and it being bloody. I wonder if somehow his leg twisted in some way during the ride to get wedged somewhere it shouldn’t that broke it and severed an artery. You would lose a lot of blood fast. I still doubt the ragdoll theory I don’t see how someone could bend low enough to wack their heads on the lap bar. If that’s true that’s a major design flaw, he appeared to be of average height.

Has the Mack [edited, my bad] warning been “confirmed”? I saw the note above regarding Hyperia, but hadn’t heard if that was a definitive Mack [edited^2] notice across all rides with similar trains, etc.

*Mack

Is there some kind of public repository for ride manufacturer bulletins? I guess if there was, we'd know by now.

If a ride manufacturer bulletin repository was needed, there'd already be one.

And the family has lawyered up.

Makes sense to me in this instance the family would retain an attorney. Don't expect a trial but may well be some type of settlement.

State has also opened a manslaughter investigation:

https://www.clickorlando.co...uties-say/

From that article ^ ... I don't know how this applies in this scenario, nor the scenarios when this would happen:

“The killing of a human being by the act, procurement, or culpable negligence of another, without lawful justification according to the provisions of chapter 776 and in cases in which such killing shall not be excusable homicide or murder, according to the provisions of this chapter, is manslaughter, a felony of the second degree...”

Florida Statute 782.07

Any time someone dies under non-natural circumstances someone is going to open an investigation. It's nothing to read into at this point.

Article also notes its standard procedure to open up a manslaughter investigation with accidental deaths. Statute references "culpable negligence" which would likely be criminal negligence (willful disregard of human life). From info we know now, not clear it rises to that level (we do not have much info right now). From what park has said, ride was operating normally. If that is the case, there wouldn't be negligence (criminal or otherwise) relating to maintenance/operation of the ride. Could be negligence in design of the ride/restraint systems. Or in letting the particular person ride the ride. Don't have enough info (that I have seen) to determine that. Will likely take time to conduct the investigation.

Yeah, lawyer already making statements so I’m already adverse.

he’s going to get a score, this will result in a blanket prohibition for folks in wheelchairs to do what has otherwise been done safely for 40 years or more on rides with modern technology. Obviously we need more information but this one incident is going to have huge ramifications to similarly situated individuals.

No overreaction there.

I wouldn't expect a ban on riders that are using a wheelchair. But I would think maybe more thorough policies on helping them board and make sure everything is in proper order before dispatch.

If the death was in part caused by his disability, unless that more complex boarding process is a special seat with more specialized restraints I would actually sadly expect more restrictions. You can’t rely on a potential 15 year old kid to do anything more specialized then register red light/green light and what is required to get green light. No park is going to agree to do something more complex then that.

A theory that is being batted around now, and makes some sense, is a large bird strike. Impact of a seagull or other large bird in the face at sixty miles an hour would seem to have a catastrophic result.