News Guest dies, found unresponsive after riding Stardust Racers

[BrianLo]

Is hitting one’s head repeatedly on the back of the seat, such as during launches, within the realm of plausibility?

It would, but mechanically it’s the sudden accelerative declarative motion that would cause the greater harm. So much weird hearsay currently on this tragedy.

I don’t know personally enough on the operative mechanics and testing… but I would struggle with there being feasibility that would allow the coaster itself to be able to have forces allowed that could do that. The guest also sounded like they had already arrested in the station, those type of whip lash bleeding injuries wouldn’t kill you by the time you were in the station.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

For all we know, the ride could have been designed for something to break off under a criteria, and it doing so would still be "everything worked as designed" -- That's an exaggeration, as we know it's highly unlikely for the design to include anything intentionally coming free on a high speed vehicle like this.. but it's used to illustrate the point. The statement is only to say "everyone was doing as they were told to do" and that the ride system did what was EXPECTED of it.

I think the comment "equipment was intact", though, suggests that nothing broke off even if it was designed to do so. That's why I at least presume the statement from Universal was an indirect reference to those rumours which was then supported by the statement by state investigators.

It would be a very odd comment to make if it was eventually going to come out that a part of the ride vehicle came off and potentially caused this issue. Suggesting the ride vehicle was "intact" because it was intended to come apart and to have the state investigators support that interpretation would make them all look worse than just saying nothing at this stage.

Without more details about the injuries, it's just wild a** guessing at this point.

In terms of the actual cause of this, I do very much agree with this!

 

[Disstevefan1]

Allegedly the family has retained the same attorney from the Icon death case...

This case will not be such an easy win as the icon case.

They will win here or most likely settle for some amount here but I do not think it will be a 300 Million dollar win that the icon case got.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

This case will not be such an easy win as the icon case.

They will win here or most likely settle for some amount here but I do not think it will be a 300 Million dollar win that the icon case got.

We still don't know why this happened, though. Until we do, it's impossible to say how strong the case may be.

 

[BrianLo]

No - the medical examiner's 'cause of death' is not in any means an investigation into WHY or HOW they died. It simply describes the cause of death itself.

If you were thrown from the ride vehicle outright and died from the high speed impact with the ground - The cause of death would be 'blunt force trauma' -- Not "ejection from ride vehicle".

In the same vein, the ME's initial findings are not a declaration of what came first.. if the guy passed out, or if he got hit by a meteor. The ME is only concerned with the individual themselves, not the environment, or external circumstances. Their later reports will dive deeper into any hints the body can give.. like if injuries were pre or post death, toxicology, etc and they may or may not be able to offer a more details in a squence of events. But all you should be taking from the report so far is 'the part that actually killed him, was the body trauma' -- Not what may have proceeded that trauma.

Technically speaking the upstream primary etiology is what you are supposed to write on the death certificate. In your example the primary cause of death would be a motor vehicle collision.

What I am now unsure of is the diagnosis listed was simply from the death certificate released to the media, which should have been signed by the MRP doing the trauma code. At first I thought it was the coroner back when that information went out.

If it was just an emerg doc, that can be inaccurate as you say, as I’m in fact speculating now that there seems to be more consensus the ride operated and returned to the station with all expected parameters.

 

[lewisc]

Oh from reddit.... Then it must be Fake News

A stopped clock has the correct time twice a day.

 

[disneylandtour]

Plus, I find the lack of witness reports also highly unusual. If the guy was flopping around like a rag doll... someone would have noticed and I don't think all leaks would be tight enough on this.

I've got a theory here. According to the family's GoFundMe page, the victim had a longtime girlfriend who was with him at the park that day. It doesn't say that she rode with him. But I'm guessing that's a reasonable possibility. If so, I'm also guessing that a lawyer, very early on, advised her not to say anything about the experience without legal representation there so as not to inadvertently undermine or damage her case. I'm guessing that's why we haven't heard from the person sitting next to him.

 

[disneylandtour]

And they won’t get the same result

Maybe. If this is a design flaw for certain body types...at this point, I'd say a lot depends here on if Mack had reason to believe there might be a design flaw in some aspect of the coaster, vehicles, restraints, etc. As the coaster is a few months old, I think it's less likely that Universal had reason to be concerned. But again, it could be an ops issue or something else entirely.

 

[hsisthebest]

I'm not sure if this is a legit site, but it's going around Facebook that a manslaughter investigation is now underway. https://www.clickorlando.com/theme-...reviewed-under-manslaughter-law-deputies-say/

 

[Sir_Cliff]

I'm not sure if this is a legit site, but it's going around Facebook that a manslaughter investigation is now underway. https://www.clickorlando.com/theme-...reviewed-under-manslaughter-law-deputies-say/

Sure, but they say that is just standard procedure:

“This is a death investigation. In cases which appear at first glance to be accidental deaths - which this case does - detectives must determine whether there is any negligence, whether criminal or non-criminal,” a spokesperson for the OCSO said. “Manslaughter is just the name of the catch-all statute covering deaths that are not natural. Through their investigation, detectives attempt to figure out IF there is any culpable negligence or a crime that occurred. And to accomplish this, we must let detectives follow the evidence and conduct a full and thorough investigation.”

 

[mkt]

The family has retained counsel

Florida attorney Ben Crump representing family of man killed after Epic Universe ride

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump was hired by the family of Kevin Rodríguez Zavala, the man who died after riding the Universal Orlando roller coaster.

www.floridatoday.com

 

[mkt]

So, IMO - and strictly my opinion - between the manslaughter investigation and the lawsuit, the calculus has changed. No one at Universal wants to see a headline like “Coaster reopens while manslaughter investigation pending,” and reopening it would hand the attorney an easy emotional wedge: “They kept running the ride that killed him.”

I think Uni will quietly pull Stardust Racers from the app and park map, and once it’s legally possible, they’ll move to demolish and replace it.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I think Uni will quietly pull Stardust Racers from the app and park map, and once it’s legally possible, they’ll move to demolish and replace it.

This is certainly what’s going to happen if the manslaughter investigation results in a manslaughter charge.

 

[Disney Analyst]

So, IMO - and strictly my opinion - between the manslaughter investigation and the lawsuit, the calculus has changed. No one at Universal wants to see a headline like “Coaster reopens while manslaughter investigation pending,” and reopening it would hand the attorney an easy emotional wedge: “They kept running the ride that killed him.”

I think Uni will quietly pull Stardust Racers from the app and park map, and once it’s legally possible, they’ll move to demolish and replace it.

Do you really think they'd do that? Big Thunder still stands at Disneyland after a truly horrific accident due to their maintenance negligence.

 

[Andrew C]

Sure, but they say that is just standard procedure:

“This is a death investigation. In cases which appear at first glance to be accidental deaths - which this case does - detectives must determine whether there is any negligence, whether criminal or non-criminal,” a spokesperson for the OCSO said. “Manslaughter is just the name of the catch-all statute covering deaths that are not natural. Through their investigation, detectives attempt to figure out IF there is any culpable negligence or a crime that occurred. And to accomplish this, we must let detectives follow the evidence and conduct a full and thorough investigation.”

This. Starting to jump a bit again.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Manslaughter is the category under which all accidental deaths in Florida are investigated. It is not an escalation, just sensationalism applied to old information (that the medical examiner ruled the death an accident).

 

[VicariousCorpse]

So, IMO - and strictly my opinion - between the manslaughter investigation and the lawsuit, the calculus has changed. No one at Universal wants to see a headline like “Coaster reopens while manslaughter investigation pending,” and reopening it would hand the attorney an easy emotional wedge: “They kept running the ride that killed him.”

I think Uni will quietly pull Stardust Racers from the app and park map, and once it’s legally possible, they’ll move to demolish and replace it.

This is a crazy overreaction here. A manslaughter investigation is completely normal in unusual circumstances. It is just to determine IF there was negligence, not there necessarily was negligence. Retaining counsel is completely normal as well. These are all normal actions given the circumstances. You can put the jackhammer away, Stardust Racers isn't going anywhere.

 

[mkt]

Do you really think they'd do that? Big Thunder still stands at Disneyland after a truly horrific accident due to their maintenance negligence.

Yes, I do.

The lawsuit could drag out for a long time, and the attorney representing the family knows how to work the press. If Universal reopens the ride, it hands him an emotional weapon to use in court - keeping the attraction in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

From a business standpoint, demolishing it and building a new coaster may actually be the fastest way to move on.

This is a crazy overreaction here. A manslaughter investigation is completely normal in unusual circumstances. It is just to determine IF there was negligence, not there necessarily was negligence. Retaining counsel is completely normal as well. These are all normal actions given the circumstances. You can put the jackhammer away, Stardust Racers isn't going anywhere.

Fair point - a manslaughter investigation and retaining counsel are both standard steps in a case like this. But my take is less about the legal process itself and more about optics. This isn’t a regional park, it’s Universal’s brand-new flagship. The risk of headlines dragging out for months, with an attorney feeding the press, makes the ride itself a liability. From a pure PR and business perspective, demolish and replace could be the cleanest path forward.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I just don't see it happening. If Big Thunder still stands, this coaster will also.

 

[Comped]

So, IMO - and strictly my opinion - between the manslaughter investigation and the lawsuit, the calculus has changed. No one at Universal wants to see a headline like “Coaster reopens while manslaughter investigation pending,” and reopening it would hand the attorney an easy emotional wedge: “They kept running the ride that killed him.”

I think Uni will quietly pull Stardust Racers from the app and park map, and once it’s legally possible, they’ll move to demolish and replace it.

We cannot rule anything out at this point... But I'm not sure that OCSO is the best to handle this investigation (given how little sustained experience or institutional knowledge they have with investigating ride-related (let along caused) deaths that aren't easily explained. This is why we really needed federal oversight and regulation years ago, and ideally a federal office dedicated to investigating these kinds of things like we have with the NTSB and so forth...