Guest Dies After Riding Stardust Racers:-
A guest that had rode Stardust Racers was unconscious when they had pulled back into the station. They were rushed to the hospital and later sadly passed away. But we are getting more details about what may have happened here. And from a report that just came out a few minutes ago, it seems that this guest died of multiple blunt impact injuries. this is a very unfortunate event here. So we’re going to read through this article. This is being reported on by Universal Parks News today. Update. Guest died of multiple blunt impact injuries after riding Stardust Racers. , the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has identified the guest who died after riding Epic Univers’s roller coaster, Stardust Racers, as well as revealed the cause of death.
Victim Identified and Cause of Death Revealed:-
The guest who passed away was 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zazza Zazzula.On Wednesday, he became unresponsive after riding Stardust Racers and was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The sheriff’s office stated on September 17th, offduty deputies responded to a man down call at Epic Universe. A man in his 30s was found unresponsive after riding a roller coaster and was transported to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead. It is very early in the investigation. An autopsy was performed on Thursday morning after which chief medical examiner Joshua Stephanie MD with Orange and Oyola County stated that the cause of death was multiple blunt impact injuries.
Universal Studios’ Official Response:-
Universal also released this statement. We are fully committed to cooperating with this ongoing investigation and the attraction remains closed. So it it has not opened today and who really knows when this is going to reopen.
About Stardust Racers:-
The quarterly injury reports for Florida theme parks included two guests with undisclosed preexisting conditions who did feel sick after riding Stardust Racers. Of course, Stardust Racers is a dual launch roller coaster consists of 5,000 ft of track up to 133 feet tall and the top speed is 62 mph. There
were rumors that trim brakes were added to the roller coaster during testing and Universal began warning guests that their shoes must be worn at all times and Stardust Racers is also at has added modified seats to accommodate larger guests in the in the past as well. Now, when this first happened, think a lot of people assume, myself included, this would have been somebody potentially with a heart condition.
Past Incidents and Safety Warnings:-
This, you know, unfortunately, this has happened before on roller coasters where, you know, this is why you have all the warnings before you get onto a ride warning you of, you know, potential things that if you have back pain or heart problems or blood pressure issues to, you know, be cautious or maybe not ride this ride. , and so think that’s what a lot of people jump to was something along those lines, an underlying condition that led to this very unfortunate outcome. But to hear about multiple blunt impact injuries, that leaves a lot of questions.
Unanswered Questions & Speculations:-
But it also leads to the question as well, if he’s the only one that experienced them, did anybody else on the ride also experienced this? And obviously there’s been a lot of people that have ridden this that have not had this issue. wonder, and this is just pure speculation, but if you were to pass out on a roller coaster, not able to support your head, potentially you could have your head going around and potentially hitting things. Maybe something flew off and hit him and knocked him out, like a guest had their phone, which they’re not supposed to have on this ride, or something hit him and then caused him to lose consciousness and then hit his head. And do know on Stardust Racers, they do have the policy, mean, you can’t take any you can’t take your bag or your phone with you on this ride. So, one would think that the the possibility is always there that something flew out of another guest, you know, while they were holding it and potentially hit somebody. Though Universal goes to great lengths to try and prevent that. But obviously that there’s always, you know, the possibility that somebody was able to sneak on a phone or something. But obviously guest safety is on top of having, you know, new attractions and and things are going to appeal to guests to to come to the theme parks. Obviously, safety is a very high priority in these parks. And know people that work at both Universal and Disney World, and they’re one of the main things they constantly are are always talking about is guest safety, especially on attractions as not only just because you want your guests to enjoy the ride, you don’t want anything bad to happen to your guests, but also, you know, liability and lawsuits and reputation.
A Rare and Tragic Event:-
So there’s a lot of motivations and reasons as to you would look at this and assume at least from the outside looking in that there was nothing operational wrong with Stardust Race. There’s also the fact that it’s only happened to one you know one individual and not other people. There’s no reports that have seen that anybody else was injured in this. So one would assume if something really catastrophic happened on this ride that you know obviously feel like there would have been more people that would have been injured potentially. you know, you potentially could have an issue where they weren’t properly restrained. And know Universal has gotten a lot of flak over the years of sometimes, you know, the rides not being accommodating for larger guests sometimes. Although on Stardust Racers, they did install larger seats to accommodate larger guests. But, you know, many times, , they are very kind of stringent on that for safety reasons. As if you’re not able to be fully secured in the ride, obviously,
that could be very bad. So you know potentially it could be that multiple blunt impact injuries though would lead about getting hit in the head more than likely which obviously you know things have happened in the past people especially like Splash Mountain over the years or Tiana’s by Adventure you know you go down the plunge and hats fly off actually knew somebody that got a broken nose back when it was Splash Mountain off of somebody’s hat flying off and hitting them in the head. So things like this can happen in theme parks. It’s not often, but it’s very, very unfortunate.
Final Thoughts:-
And we don’t know what the timeline was from what ‘ve heard. couldn’t find anything on how quickly paramedics arrived, if if anybody was on site. Like don’t know any of those details. Those have not been released as far as aware of. Would suppose Stardust Racers is going to be closed for potentially an extended period of time. would assume until they do an investigation to figure out what happened here that this ride is not going to reopen. And as far as know, think in the Orlando area at least, this is the first death can recall in a theme park related to an attraction since 2022 when there was a teenager that fell from Orlando’s freef fall, which is a drop tower, which is in con Park. And they later found out that the seat sensor had been manually adjusted allowing the ride to operate with a larger gap in the harness and he ultimately fell from very high up and passed away. You know, from time to time there have been people again that have passed away due to underlying health issues on a ride. maybe they had a heart issue or something along those lines that they shouldn’t have ridden the ride and unfortunately it led to their death. But this is the first time can recall in a major theme park like Disney World, Universal Studios, covering theme parks where somebody has passed away seemingly due to, you know, something that happened directly on the ride that maybe impacted them. Again, just feel terrible for this family. And just can’t imagine going to a theme park and just enjoying your day and, you know, you go there with your family and you leave, you know, one less family member. that just it’s just yeah that’s a that’s a very sad thing. Thoughts and prayers to that family. It’s very unfortunate and until we get more details about this, it’s just all purely speculation.