MASON, Ohio — For Kings Island fans, it is going to be another frustrating weekend with its two biggest steel roller coasters — Orion and Diamondback — remaining closed.
The park's owner, Six Flags, ordered all "hyper coasters" built by Switzerland's B&M shut down after the fatal accident earlier in October at Six Flags Over Georgia. A beloved father and teacher died when he was thrown out of the Goliath coaster, with witnesses saying it appeared his lap bar had not secured him tightly enough.
Six Flags, B&M and Georgia inspectors are now investigating the fatality and have yet to determine if a ride defect, poor maintenance or operator error may have caused the failure.
Kings Island's Diamondback is a near-clone of the Georgia ride, while Orion is a larger version. Both have the same trains and same clamshell lap bars as Goliath.
But the similarities end there, as the two Kings Island coasters have seatbelts as backup restraints. Goliath did not have seatbelts and relied only on the lap bar to hold passengers in.
While enthusiasts had hoped Kings Island would reopen their rides for the second-to-last weekend of Halloween Haunt, the park has now listed them (Along with Drop Tower) on the "Scheduled Ride Closures" list for this weekend.
A Kings Island spokesperson tells WCPO, "At this time, the review of the incident is ongoing, and we do not have a timeline to reopen the paused attractions."
Six Flags appears to be taking a very cautious approach with all its B&M coasters: others in the theme park chain, including Fury 325 at Carowinds in North Carolina, also remain closed.
The company may be waiting for the preliminary results of its investigation in Georgia to see if there was any type of failure with the restraint system.
Other parks now reopening their similar hyper coasters
However, two similar B&M hyper coasters at non-Six Flags parks are now reopening.
Hersheypark in Pennsylvania says on its website that it has reopened Candymonium, another ride almost identical to Goliath (though with backup seatbelts).
Hersheypark said, "The manufacturer has not identified an engineering basis to recommend shutting down similarly designed coasters, solely because of the incident in Georgia."
SeaWorld in Orlando, meantime, has reopened its B&M hyper coaster, Mako.
But Six Flags is keeping its similar rides closed, at least for another week.
Kings Island guests have only two more weekends after this to possibly ride Diamondback and Orion this year, if they were to reopen.
The park closes its main rides after a Bonus Weekend on Nov. 8. Its biggest coasters do not operate during Winterfest in December.
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