Roller coaster is hard on thrill seekers

CINCINNATI (AP) — One of the most popular rides at Kings Island amusement park sits idle, in the heart of the park’s busiest season, while Ohio safety officials decide what to do about the latest in a series of injuries on the Son of Beast.

The coaster remains closed nearly six weeks after a woman said a rough ride on the wooden coaster, which can reach 78 mph, caused a blood vessel in her brain to burst.

It’s the sixth time the ride has been shut down in nine seasons. Each previous time, inspectors found no reason to close the ride for good.

“Ultimately, the responsibility for the safety of the ride is on the ride owner,” Kaleigh Frazier, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Amusement Ride Safety Division, said Friday. Park spokesman Don Helbig said Kings Island has always made or exceeded any modification asked by safety inspectors.

The shutdown is the second longest in the Son of Beast’s nine years. One lasted about a year during extensive reconstruction in 2006 and 2007 after a structural failure resulted in injuries to more than two dozen people.

Frazier said the agency expected to complete its work next week. What that will mean to the park and Son of Beast was uncertain.

The first serious injuries on Son of Beast occurred during the ride’s second season, in 2001, when two men suffered broken necks in a four-week period. Both men were found to have a rare, undiagnosed form of arthritis in the spine and said their doctors did not warn them against riding roller coasters, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

In July 2007, a man complained of sharp back pain after getting off the ride and died the next day. The Hamilton County coroner’s office determined the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock from blunt impact to the torso, with complications from obesity and several pre-existing health conditions.

Frazier said inspectors previously found no reason to shut down the coaster.

“In all but one instance, we’ve found that the ride was operating properly, and that pre-existing [medical] conditions were a large part of the injuries,” she said.