Accident on Son of Beast

[TopThrill]

Yes if SOB would be made into a huge terrain coaster, it'll be among the top picks. You could get some HUGE air time it the second hill was stright, not a turn at the top. The loop is a nice touch but, only one inverion is good. With its height and speed, SOB would break its fathers reconders easy. The only air time I have gotten, is the last hill before the final breaks.

[Steveo3631]

I actually do like the ride myself, when I don't get beat up on it. The only way to avoid it is to sit in the middle of each car. New trains that would actually track may make it a better ride.

I have found this to be true of any wood coaster with three bench seats per car. Sitting over the wheels is one reason I do not favor two-seaters.

[carpetarson]

You know i can see Cedar Fair willing to put some money into this ride. Why? becuase they havnt spent any money on this ride. Yes the just bought all the parks for a large sum of cash, but they may see it as an opportunity to strengthen their name. Say Cedar Fair Fixes the ride and it becumes re-rideable to many, we will give praise to Cedar Fair and glorify them as being a company that cares about its parks and what the rides mean to the parks. Love it or hate it SOB means something to Kings Island. Not only does it carry the namesake of The Beast but when you pull up to the park you cant help but marvel over this huge hunk of wood that stands before you

[PKI Foodguy]

I say rip it down and build a steel coaster that we can marvel at as we pull up to the park.

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

I say rip it down and build a steel coaster that we can marvel at as we pull up to the park.

I still marvel at the SOB as I pull up to the park. I mean, who else has a wooden structure that huge and staggering? I still come to PKI thinking that it's a pretty impressive ride and looks pretty awesome. That is...until I ride it.

[bsktgrvy]

Great job on the front page interview regarding SOB!

[Captain Picard]

I wonder if they removed one car from the trains because the structure couldn't handle the load. The removing of them should have cut weight and speed off a little.

[KIBeast]

Now i'm thinking after reading the news report and watching the video on WCPO, that it happened in the rose bowl? I'm really getting confused.

Not the Rose Bowl, the other helice.

Apparently, it was a vertical support beam and not a horizontal one, like what was thought originally.

vertical support beam

[RingMaster]

I say rip it down and build a steel coaster that we can marvel at as we pull up to the park.

Why don't you just go up to Cedar Point and marvel at Magnum, Top Thrill, Millenium Force, and any other ride over 200 feet as you pull up to the park? Besides, I thought Face/Off did a good kob of wowing people as they pulled up to the park?

[Browntggrr]

He was from Indianapolis and today was his first day riding Son of Beast. Why interview someone that has had no experience with the ride prior to today?

Because a person who has never rode will give a more honest opinion rather than a biased one from others that have been on it numerous times.

We all know how rough SoB is, and some of us even know how to *ride* it. A interview from a person that has never been on it speaks volumes on how bad this ride tends to be.

Unfortunately, this could be the beginning of the end for SoB. With all the money and time spent on this one ride, and now a very serious accident that luckily only produced one serious injury (even though the person with the broken chest bone does not consider themself to be lucky- I hope there are no lingering effects from this injury), when does CF say enough is enough?

[KIBeast]

Now i'm thinking after reading the news report and watching the video on WCPO, that it happened in the rose bowl? I'm really getting confused.

Not the Rose Bowl, the other helice.

Apparently, it was a vertical support beam and not a horizontal one, like what was thought originally.

vertical support beam

I know I'm quoting myself, but, it apparently was in the Rose Bowl, not the other helice. I was wrong...no the first time.

[Quickwind]

I knwo the whole stop in a loop due to a power failure is a bit old but on a coaster like sob if a power failure hit in their block brakes at the ride time it could slow the train down to the point where it doesn't make it and pulls a dragster and gets balanced at the top point and hangs there. I know Vortex could get hung inbetween c brakes and corkscrew if the c brakes closed at a point where it was just after the point of actually stopping the train.

[Shaggy]

Think about the chances of this though.

Loops are oblong, or egg shaped. For a train to become perfectly balanced in one would be quite a feat.

Now trains have gotten stuck upside down on coasters before, but that has been due to a mechanical failure that lodged the train into place... i.e. broken axles.

Even from a stopped block brake position, SOB can still manuever the loop. It was designed to do so.

Shaggy

[becca011906]

So chances that i'll still be able to ride this on my PKI trip on july 24 and 25 are pretty slim right???

[UncleHenry]

Do what I did in the computer game No Limits, rebuild Son of Beast as Son of Millenium Force

[PKIVortex]

So chances that i'll still be able to ride this on my PKI trip on july 24 and 25 are pretty slim  right???

Yeah I say it's pretty slim to no chance at all you'll get to ride SOB on those days. They said it could take up to 6 weeks just to complete the investagation. I would actually be surprised to see it opened anytime this year.

Isn't regural season over in 6 weeks anyway? That would be bought the middle of August. So if it does reopen it will be sometime in the post season, then they may not even bother.

[Delirium_Guy]

Hercules deserved being destroyed, it was alot worse then SOB. Beside if CF destroyed rough wooden coaster all of the time, Mean Streak Would not be standing.

Honestly, I didn't find Hercules to be all that bad! It was rough, but not anywhere near as rough as SOB. Same can be said for Mean Streak. Yes, it sucks......but I rode the backseat last season and was surprised that they have managed to work a lot of the roughness out of it. Now its just slow and boring :-) SOB has been horrible from day one. I certainly commend PKI for their attempts to make it a smoother experience for people, but I'm afraid they are just fighting a losing battle.

[Delirium_Guy]

That guy from Indiana obvously hadn't been on a wooden coaster before.  Even The Beastie will give ya a little jolt.  There isn't ANYTHING relaxing about SOB.  ROFL!

-adam12

Sure he has, just probably the great collections of wood coasters found at Holiday World and Indiana Beach.....you know wood coasters that are actually FUN and SMOOTH to ride 8-) Those people DO know the difference. Just listen to the chatter next time you head to Holiday World. You'd be surprised at the comments you can hear comparing the two parks.

[troubled_diva]

mob psycology strikes again...

now people will start thinking it's a bad ride, and it won't be long until people start filing cases against the ride, and then Kings Island, Cedar Fair, paramount, and the ride makers will all be sued, and all of this will lead to a higher possibility of the ride getting demolished, which will then question the safety of wooden roller coasters altogether, and the question the saftey of the heights of roller coasters, and then question the saftey of roller coasters altogeter.

I know, it's a bit dramatic (okay alot dramatic) but it could still happen.

~vl2

No one is going to sue KI for the SOB. They will probably try it but they would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the coaster was neglected and because of KI's failure to keep up proper up keep on the coaster caused the injury of 27 people on Sunday. This would be extremely hard to do because KI does daily checks on the coaster and it was not that the coaster was neglected or the safety of the visitors was put in jeopardy by anyone at the KI company. It was a freak accident and KI had experienced personnel at the sense and made sure everyone was safe and that the injured were treated to the best of their knowledge. KI shut down the coaster to keep anyone else from getting hurt and I do not see how anyone can sue them. If you will look at the water ride Hydro in Europe a girl fell off the coaster because her restraints were faulty and her mother tried to sue and walked away with nothing and the U.S. and Europe have about the same justice systems.

[WhirlWindSpin]

I have a feeling SoB will reopen. Most of the bad press outside of Ohio was drowned out by the death on Rock'NRC at Walt Disney World. I wouldn't expect them to shut it down unless they shut down Mean Streak. I recently rode Mean Streak. I think I'd die on SoB.

[SOB_TOM]

Hey Diva, lets have storytime with your Uncle SOB_TOM:

Once upon a time, at another park that is not PKI, a woman ran across a bridge over a water ride to avoid being hurt. This woman slipped on the bridge, fell, sued the park and won. Somehow, this woman proved that it was the park's fault she slipped on a wet bridge even though there was non-skid footing, signage, and a verbal repeated announcement not to run across the bridge or else you might fall and hurt yourself. The End.

Also, any lawyer in the area would love this case. YES, I can see where there would be reasonable doubt that PKI was negligent. Im not going to say where, but I see it just in what you typed in. Freak accident, yes. Would a laywer pass this one up, if you say yes go to a mental ward.

Anyone can prove that a theme park is at fault for anything. I could probabily prove that a hangnail was caused by crossing the Rivertown bridge over the "creek."

You probabily wont hear about a lawsuit because the park will settle out of court. Its that simple. But I expect for PKI to have 27 lawsuits on their hands, and at least 26 will be settled out of court, and one will just want be be an

[WooferBearATL]

LOL

And any time you have a question regarding insurance claims, I seem to be the resident expert on this board.

Did social work after college but have been doing claims for years now.

[screamslikeagirl]

I agree with "Uncle SOB_TOM". I have worked as a paralegal for almost 10 years and my guess is attorneys in that area are probably knocking each other OVER to get to those 27 cases.

[Browntggrr]

No one is going to sue KI for the SOB. They will probably try it but they would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the coaster was neglected and because of KI's failure to keep up proper up keep on the coaster caused the injury of 27 people on Sunday. This would be extremely hard to do because KI does daily checks on the coaster and it was not that the coaster was neglected or the safety of the visitors was put in jeopardy by anyone at the KI company.

But as everyone knows, SoB's history is not exactly clean. There have been some incidents where people have been banged/ brused because the ride is rough. Now the park has spent a good amount of money and time to make improvments on how rough the coaster is and make it more enjoyable for everyone.

Now if there were no problems, why spend the money & time to improve it for the last 6 years? I am not an attorney, but this is the first question I would raise.

We all know that SoB is the roughest coaster in the park, but it also has the same 5 star thrill rating as other rides like The Beast and FoF, so the casual guest is going to believe that the ride would be no different and we all know that there is a significant difference.

There will be lawsuits, and the best way to handle them is to be settled out-of-court with the stipulation that the incident and the settlement will remain undisclosed.

[king_cobra_27]

I would have to say " tear it down" and in the location that "The Paramount Story" is now, put up a small museum like feature of the history of Kings Island. The records that the park has had, and the failures. Pictures of rides like Eagles, Smurfs, King Cobra, and Bat, as well as designers, concept art, a list of owners and the "highlights or their ownership". And right in the middle could be a tribute to the once great Son of Beast.

[Buckeye-Beast]

Here's another example of the media at their finest, publish it without fact checking.:

"It isn't the same roller coaster, man. There's something going on with it," Thompson said. "You expect this thing to be wild, because I've ridden it 10 or 12 times before for the last 12 to 13 years, but this time, it was violently wild."

The ride has not been there for 12 or 13 years.

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/9507334/detail.html

[Browntggrr]

The story was already updated w/o the timeline comment.

Chances are that the man identified made the statement that he has been riding coasters for 12+ years and never felt anything like SoB, and the reporter took it as he has been riding SoB for that time.

[Robert_Waring]

I would actually be surprised to see it opened anytime this year.

I'll be surpised if it ever opens again. It seems like a huge liability.

[coasterville]

I would have to say " tear it down" and in the location that "The Paramount Story" is now, put up a small museum like feature of the history of Kings Island. The records that the park has had, and the failures. Pictures of rides like Eagles, Smurfs, King Cobra, and Bat, as well as designers, concept art, a list of owners and the "highlights or their ownership". And right in the middle could be a tribute to the once great Son of Beast.

King_Cobra_27 suggested converting the Paramount Story area into a history of Kings Island attraction.

Does anybody recall the exhibit the park setup for its 20th aniversary? Over where Skylab used to be they set up a bunch of display signs, 1 per year that detailed key events at the park for the designated year. I don't recall it being particularly popular, but I know a few people took a look at it. Best thing for the park was they got a sponsorship for it, as there were some Chevy cars parked in the middle of the exhibit.

And there is precedent for this sort of thing in Cedar Fair parks, just take a look at the Town Hall Museum at Cedar Point.

I wonder if the park still has the 20 signs from the first exhibit, that would put them well on the path, then they would just need to make signs for 1992-2007. We could set those up alongside the Paramount Story path, perhaps interspersed with some park artificats. I don't know what those would be, but could you imagine say a Bat car, or a King Cobra car. Perhaps some Phantom Theatre or Enchanted Voayge characters. Maybe we could dig up the Paramount movie pavers, and replace them with "Key events in Kings Island history" pavers.

If they don't have say a Bat car or a Flying Eagles tub, perhaps a nice high quality photo display.

Shoot, perhaps even a tribute to the park's roots at Coney Island could be worked in. Afterall, it is right next to the Coney Island Carousel.

I really think you are on to something here!

[marlfox_21]

I completely understand that this is in no way a funny topic. And my prayers are with anyone hurt by the S. O. B.

But on a lighter note, wouldn't you be well beyond the point of ticked if you were a Cedar Fair executive. I mean, I would be like "Doesn't this thing have a 30 to 90 day guarantee! The Son of Beast is Defective!!!! I want my money back!!!!! This Son of Beast is an S. O. B.!!!!!

If only they could do that. But really, If I were up there with Cedar Fair, then I would be wanting answers from C.B.S.