MASON — A 39-year-old woman called Kings Island this month to say she burst a blood vessel in her brain on May 31 as a result of the Son of Beast roller coaster and was admitted to an hospital’s intensive care unit, according to state records.
Kings Island voluntarily shut down the ride after the woman reported her injury, according to park officials.
Those officials also contacted the department that day, June 16 — as required by law — and relayed the information the woman had told them, according to Kaleigh Frazier, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, which oversees amusement park ride safety.
Frazier said all information in the accident log was provided by Kings Island and is not able to be confirmed at this point because the investigation is ongoing.
The department’s Amusement Ride Safety Division is assigned to the investigation, which will continue until all information can be gathered and the next step can be determined, Frazier said.
If an investigation reveal a problem with a ride, the department has the authority to mandate that it be shut down until the problem is fixed and a full inspection can be completed, Frazier said.
“Each case is different, obviously,” she said. “There is no status quo when it comes to these investigations.”
Kings Island spokesman Don Helbig said the park takes all guest comments seriously and is proactive when it comes to ride safety. “We immediately closed the ride and contacted the state of Ohio and told them we wanted to conduct a thorough maintenance review,” he said.
Helbig also said it was too early to speculate when the ride will reopen. He also said the park is looking into why it took the guest two weeks to report the alleged injury.
Seventeen-year-olds Helen Benchetrit and Carol Perdomo of Florida said they rode The Beast during their Monday visit to the park and were planning to ride Son of Beast.
“Now that’s something else has happened, it’s a little startling,” Perdomo said.
However, she said anyone opting to board Son of Beast should have been aware that its a bumpy ride.
“Usually you expect it if you’re going on a wooden roller coaster,” she said.
Brandon Kamp, 14, of Cincinnati, said although he heard of prior reports regarding the ride, the May 31 report left him unconcerned.
“I would still ride it,” he said. “I think it’s a fun ride.”
This isn’t the first time Son of Beast has been closed. In the summer 2006, the ride sent 27 people to hospitals and an expert was called in to assess the Son of Beast’s structural integrity.
Later in 2006, a report by the state agriculture department stated a design flaw caused a wooden beam to crack from the weight of the roller-coaster riders, causing the accident. As a result, Son of Beast had its 118-foot loop removed for King’s Island’s 2007 opening.
In 2000, Paramount Parks claimed the beams supporting the coaster were deficient in a lawsuit against the ride’s manufacturers. Then the ride opened after the park spent $25,000 to correct problems.
Staff writer Chelsey Levingston contributed to this report.
