Attraction Stardust Racers

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Attraction Type
Roller Coaster
Attraction Status
Existing
Attraction Manufacturer
MACK
Attraction Model
Launch Coaster
Rode this 8 times my first day at Epic. First time I waited around 30 mins, but the line jumped to 60 for my second ride because Ministry of Magic broke down.

The ride (and carousel) stay open an hour after park close and the line went from 45-60 down to a walk on at the end of the night so I ended up with another 6 rides (3 on each side). The green side is my favorite side of the two. It runs a bit more intense than the yellow side (it's also a bit rougher on that side too). I love the way the ride interacts with itself. The celestial spin is easily one of my favorite coaster elements anywhere. The launches are really fun! The first launch starts out ok and then halfway through, there's an extra kick forward for both trains. Usually the one that's behind gets the faster second kick to catch up with the train in front. There are really great pops of airtime all over. You're basically spending half the ride out of your seat.

The ride definitely comes alive at night too! The trains are lit up while the track stays pretty dark. The park is gorgeous at night so all the views you get are top notch!

I think VC is still the better of the new modern Uni launchers. The theme is a lot stronger and the elements punch a bit harder on that.
 
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netdvn said:
I think VC is still the better of the new modern Uni launchers. The theme is a lot stronger and the elements punch a bit harder on that.
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I agree. Stardust Racers is still, personally, in my Top 10 anywhere and my No. 2 in Orlando, but I think VelociCoaster still edges it out by having a greater variety of forces. Stardust is really all about the airtime with the one amazing inverting element thrown in.
 
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Yikes this could go so many directions, no? Redesign the trains? The restraints? Highly doubt close the ride but damn. Did he go unconscious and get banged up fron the airtime?
 
I doubt anything is physically wrong with the ride. These are standard Mack seat/restraints used on multiple rides around the world.
A far simpler explanation is a loss of consciousness. Afterwords without any control the head and upper extremities would be moving and reacting to the rides forces. Ultimately and unfortunately in this case the head probably impacted the seat/headrest multiple times.
They’re simply stating that the final cause was multiple impacts, which in the context of being on a rollercoaster is the result of forces acting on an unresponsive rider.
 
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at4n27 said:
A far simpler explanation is a loss of consciousness. Afterwords without any control the head and upper extremities would be moving and reacting to the rides forces. Ultimately and unfortunately in this case the head probably impacted the seat/headrest multiple times.
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This is my guess too, but if a rider can die from repeated blunt force injuries after passing out on your coaster, that IS a problem with the ride, unfortunately. If that is ruled the actual cause, I definitely think a redesign could result here.
 
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Zachary said:
This is my guess too, but if a rider can die from repeated blunt force injuries after passing out on your coaster, that IS a problem with the ride, unfortunately. If that is ruled the actual cause, I definitely think a redesign could result here.
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Unfortunately Blunt force trauma is also a very broad term. It covers basically everything that doesn’t puncture skin. But less than having everyone wear a helmet and a HANS what can be done to restrain an unconscious individual? I can’t think of any other modern lap restraint (Intamin)(B&M)(Mack) that is any significant amount different in upper body control. Also in addition it does say multiple, and if it started at the beginning of the ride how many times did forces act and cause damage?
 
Zachary said:
This is my guess too, but if a rider can die from repeated blunt force injuries after passing out on your coaster, that IS a problem with the ride, unfortunately. If that is ruled the actual cause, I definitely think a redesign could result here.
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Apply this statement to any number of roller coasters. Scary to imagine. I guess most are designed around the concept of a rigid water dummy simulating a human with full faculties throughout the entire course.
 
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Oh, I totally agree that it's highly likely that MANY coasters could fail the same test (read: an unconscious person ragdolled around the train for the entire ride sustaining life-threatening injuries), but after a death actually occurs on a specific coaster for that specific reason, I would be a little surprised if modifications weren't made to attempt to prevent it from occuring again.

I don't believe coasters need to be 100% safe 100% of the time—I don't think that's a standard that's applied to literally anything else people interface with constantly—but when an accident occurs, guests, parks, manufacturers, regulators, etc all typically want some change to result, you know?
 
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Any modifications to the trains or restraints (or ride layout, but I don’t see this happening) would be tremendously disappointing. We can’t legislate everything and eliminating one of the greatest things about rollercoasters to accommodate for an incredibly rare instance that nobody has any control over (except possibly the rider) would be a huge mistake. The only people who benefit from this are lawyers, which should be an automatic sign it’s bad
 
Zachary said:
Oh, I totally agree that it's highly likely that MANY coasters could fail the same test (read: an unconscious person ragdolled around the train for the entire ride sustaining life-threatening injuries), but after a death actually occurs on a specific coaster for that specific reason, I would be a little surprised if modifications weren't made to attempt to prevent it from occuring again.

I don't believe coasters need to be 100% safe 100% of the time—I don't think that's a standard that's applied to literally anything else people interface with constantly—but when an accident occurs, guests, parks, manufacturers, regulators, etc all typically want some change to result, you know?
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My guess? Camera monitoring and a midcourse stoppage option. Think Verbolten (2012 functions).
 
Zachary said:
I don't believe coasters need to be 100% safe 100% of the time—I don't think that's a standard that's applied to literally anything else people interface with constantly—but when an accident occurs, guests, parks, manufacturers, regulators, etc all typically want some change to result, you know?
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It certainly isn’t great press for a brand new coaster in a brand new park, either. Epic Universe is just under 4 months old, even if this truly is just a freak accident there are almost certainly going to be changes made and that’s unavoidable.
 
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Zachary said:
Oh, I totally agree that it's highly likely that MANY coasters could fail the same test (read: an unconscious person ragdolled around the train for the entire ride sustaining life-threatening injuries), but after a death actually occurs on a specific coaster for that specific reason, I would be a little surprised if modifications weren't made to attempt to prevent it from occuring again.

I don't believe coasters need to be 100% safe 100% of the time—I don't think that's a standard that's applied to literally anything else people interface with constantly—but when an accident occurs, guests, parks, manufacturers, regulators, etc all typically want some change to result, you know?
Click to expand...
If this happens to be the case, very high likelihood we see a multitude of rides get comfort collars or similar upper body restraints. No insurer will want to accept the risk of a similar incident if it's within the parks control.
 
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Thomas said:
Are we sure it wasn’t a goose…
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fabio GIF
 
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I don’t know what effect this has if any, but apparently the rider was paraplegic. If I was Universal, I’d certainly want to put vest restraints on certain seats and designate those for riders without full control of their extremities. Most likely all seats get vest restraints :/
That or limiting access to disabled riders.
 
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