A roller coaster considered the tallest and fastest in the world was abruptly closed just a week after it opened at an Ohio theme park.
Top Thrill 2 debuted May 4 when Cedar Point opened for the season, but closed Sunday while the ride’s manufacturer completes a “mechanical modification.”
Once maintenance is completed, theme park teams and an outside observer will review the fix before the attraction is deemed ready to reopen.
“We know our guests are excited to experience this incredible roller coaster and we share their disappointment in not being able to operate it this weekend,” Cedar Point said in the statement.
“We will do everything we can to reopen Top Thrill 2 as soon as we are confident we can deliver the travel experience our guests deserve.”
Top Thrill 2 sent passengers 420 feet into the air before falling backward and then forward once again at speeds of 120 mph, but it abruptly closed just over a week after opening.
Cedar Point did not reveal the exact modification that needs to be made or say when the attraction could be expected to reopen. Updates will be posted on the Cedar Point website.
It was reported last year that Cedar Point would bring back a revamped version of Top Thrill, once the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster, after the original was shut down when a malfunction injured a waiting guest.
Before its closure, Top Thrill 2 could launch rockets 420 feet into the air before falling backwards and then forwards once again at speeds of 120 mph.
Themed after Top Fuel drag racing, the attraction, which has three segments and is classified as a “triple launch” coaster, also featured a launch track designed like a race track.
Aside from its speed, the ride was destined to break records for its height, park officials said, touting that it would be the second-tallest “strata coaster” – one over 400 feet – behind only Six’s Kingda Ka. Flags, which opened in 2005 and tops out at 456 feet.
The coaster will undergo a “mechanical modification,” the park said, but is expected to reopen at a later date.
The Ka also bested the Thrill in terms of speed by just 8 mph, although the new ride was still intended to be the fastest among all triple-launch coasters, and the third fastest overall, park boss Announced. Carrie Boldman, last year.
“Top Thrill 2 will be the boldest and most advanced roller coaster Cedar Point has ever introduced,” the Cleveland park’s vice president and general manager said last summer of the planned attraction.
“It’s another one-of-a-kind coaster that could only be built at Cedar Point,” Boldman said of the ride, whose predecessor, also 420 feet, is consistently listed as one of the world’s best steel coasters in prominent publications. amusement parks.
In 2021, a guest was seriously injured by a metal support while queuing outside the roller coaster and the park’s previously intact reputation took a hit.
At that time, Rachel Hawes, then 44, was waiting in line to ride the roller coaster, built in 2003 by Swiss roller coaster manufacturer Intamin, and was suddenly hit by a random object, which was later identified as a driver’s proximity flag plate.
The Swartz Creek resident was seen in footage after the apparent accident being treated by park staff, before being taken to a hospital with an apparent head injury.
Top Thrill 2 was supposed to replace Top Thrill Dragster, which opened in 2003 as the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster.
In a lawsuit filed in Erie County Common Pleas Court in Ohio on July 12, 2023, Dawes claimed to have suffered several serious injuries from the fall of the stand, including permanent head trauma that resulted in a traumatic brain injury (TBI). .
He says he suffered a brain hemorrhage and hematoma as a result of the incident, as well as a head fracture associated with a brain laceration that caused him to lose consciousness for more than 24 hours.
After being struck by the fallen metal object, Hawes said she racked up a medical bill of more than $2 million, with future costs expected to exceed $10 million.
The lawsuit claims that “the Cedar Park Defendants were negligent in failing to protect people, such as Rachel Hawes, from being injured by falling parts, debris, and/or objects from Defendant’s rides,” and seeks damages. .
Days after that lawsuit sought that sum in damages, Cedar Point issued a statement announcing the attraction’s replacement.
Pictured is the metal bracket that is said to have stuck Hawes during the 2021 incident.
The modified version, as the park made clear at the time, would be built by a different manufacturer but will use much of the architecture of the original, including the 420-foot tower that for more than a decade was the tallest in the world. world.
Boldman and other park organizers revealed that the attraction will add two more launches (hence the “triple launch” categorization), as well as a second tower that also measures 420 feet.
Last year, park officials provided a virtual interpretation of the attraction before it was built to show how riders would be shot skyward up the original 420-foot-tall tower, before falling back down, in reverse, after of not being able to do it. Go through the first 420-foot tower.
At this point, officials said, the coaster’s top speed would have reached 101 mph.
The ride would then begin its second launch, this time with enough force to traverse the tower, before moving on to its third launch, climbing the second tower at the ride’s top speed of 120 mph.
The new vehicle’s top speed was surpassed only by the Kingda Ka and the 171-foot-tall Formula Rossa, located at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, both of which are considered single-launch roller coasters.
A statement from the park describing the attraction’s track-like trajectory added that guests will then cross the tower, before momentarily slowing, before plunging into a 270-degree spiral and crossing the finish line.
Boldman further highlighted how the attraction was going to put “our stamp on the (roller coaster) industry… as we redefine the roller coaster into a mega-thrill that our guests will come from all over to experience.”
