Cedar Point has closed its Top Thrill Dragster roller coaster for the remainder of the season, as an investigation continues into an accident that injured a woman Sunday afternoon.
The woman was not a rider on the 420-foot Intamin Accelerator coaster. But she was hit by what witnesses described as metal object fell off the ride near the end of its run and dropped into the queue, where the woman was waiting to ride. The woman's identity has not been released, nor has her condition.
Today, Cedar Point issued this statement:
"Our team has the health and welfare of our guest who was involved in Sunday's incident at Top Thrill Dragster at the forefront of our minds. We will continue to offer our support to her and her family in this unimaginably difficult time.
"We want to fully understand what happened and why. Together with the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture's Division of Amusement Ride Safety & Fairs, third party investigators, engineers and the ride's manufacturer, we are being careful, methodical and thorough. We will not rush the investigation and will work tirelessly in our search for answers in the interest of improving safety.
"This process will take time. As a result, Top Thrill Dragster will remain closed for the 2021 season. The safety of our guests and associates is our top priority and we refuse to operate any ride or attraction without total confidence in its safety."
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It's the classic bit of technology, especially theme park rides: The more advanced and complex they become, the easier something goes wrong with them.
I get the Division of Amusement Ride Safety & Fairs, in Ohio....but it depends of the Agriculture deparment??? There must be a logical and practical explanation for that..it just sounds strange. Hope they solve the issue and that the lady recovers well.
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I don't want to speculate what happened, because there are a lot of rumors and finger pointing swirling the internet. It's obviously disturbing that a guest could ever be injured by a theme park attraction, particularly from a loose part falling from a ride in operation.
We were at Cedar Point a couple of weeks ago and one of those days was a "bad" Dragster day. The coaster took over 4 hours before it even opened for the day, and during the 2+ hours we waited in line to ride, maintenance marched down the launch track to perform repairs on the same section of brakes/actuators 4 different times. TTD appeared to be operating much smoother the following day, but it's a common theme for this coaster (and other Intamin hydraulic launch coasters) to have its good days and bad days.