Son Of Beast To Remain Closed, Possibly For Good

[FParker185]

http://www.wlwt.com/news/20345973/detail.html


MASON, Ohio -- State inspectors have cleared a Kings Island roller coaster for reopening, but park officials said the ride would remain closed through the end of the season – if not longer.

Son of Beast was shut down in June after a woman suffered a burst blood vessel in her head, and she claimed she was injured after riding the wooden roller coaster.

Jill Tavella did not report the injury until June 16, more than two weeks after riding the coaster, but she did not report the injury earlier because she said her husband was out of town and she was taking care of her three children.

Inspectors from the Ohio Department of Agriculture said they found no irregularities and declared the coaster safe.

But park officials said they were not satisfied with the ride experience and would decide what to do with the Son of Beast ride during the offseason.

Park officials did not specify which options they would consider for the ride, which featured a vertical loop when it opened in 2000.

The loop was removed six years later after 27 people were injured during a ride.

[bobbinbop20]

they better not close it for good, I need my credit!

[Coaster Justin]

If the Ride is Worse than Mean Streak, than Remove it and Let Intamin build a Good Plug & Play Wooden Coaster with a Loop.

[FParker185]

I don't think they're going to try a loop again as no one except for premeir will sign off on having their cars invert and that didn't end so well, and obviously now as is as it is the ride is a failure. Cedar Fair has a decent relationship with Intamin it seems. Perhaps they could try to retrack the entire ride with the Cordes/Intamin prefab track and go with Intamin Trains, same as Eltoro. Still in the end they'd end up with a terribly boring coaster, just it would be butter smooth. That is unless of course changes are made to the layout/profile. Either way it's going to cost a load of money no matter what they do. Even just tearing down a structure of that magnitude will cost a small fortune.

[Coaster Justin]

Not to sound like a doosh or anything, but if Anyone has the Technology and creativity to design a Wooden Looping Coaster, It's Intamin.

[BP317]

But park officials said they were not satisfied with the ride experience and would decide what to do with the Son of Beast ride during the offseason.

How often does a park say their own ride isnt any good? Normally thats something you read in a press release after the ride has closed for good.

[FParker185]

Ingenieur-Holzbau Cordes designer and manufacturer of the so called "prefab Intamin Woodie" has stated a bunch of times they have little interest in a looping wooden coaster. Also Intamin would supply the trains for it, and they would have OTSR's. I don't think anyone wants an OTSR on a woodie, even if the track is laser cut.

[traincrossing9]

I remember Gravity Group talking about loops on wooden coasters. Now that they are making their own trains, they said that they could control the variables on the coaster better. Now all they need is a park that's intersted in one. But since King's Island didn't have the best luck with Son of Beast's loop in the first place, I doubt they would want to try it again.

[SFaddiction84]

It needs to go! If the Park Officials are agreeing that the ride sucks, then it needs to go. You know its bad when the park owners themselves ride it and are like "Why, this ride really does suck"

[onyxhotel08]

All signage, height requirements, etc. have now been removed

[BrianPlencner]

I just checked the PKI webpage. If you go under Rides and Attractions from the top menus, and then click on Thrill Rides, it says this for Son Of Beast

Son Of Beast

If the father scared you, wait until you ride the son! The Tallest, fastest wooden coaster on the planet will send you screaming down it's 214-foot hill at speeds over 78 mph. You've never experienced anything like this before. Not anywhere. Not ever.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS ATTRACTION IS CLOSED FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE 2009 SEASON.

Knowing they took down all the signage, I feel this coaster will never open again.

[monsterfan99]

The signage is down for the Halloween event, so no big deal there. However, I hope the POS burns for the pain it has caused others.

[onyxhotel08]

ALL the signs have been removed which does not happen. No mention of Son of the Beast in the whole park.

[Ilovthevu']

When I rode it maybe 2 years ago, the ride didn't seem painful at all. It just seemed really like this isn't worth the line. For me, Beast was the bad wooden coaster at the park. That ride was really getting my gut, but Son of Beast was it didn't do much of anything type of ride to me. I still find it kind of funny how everyone just hates Mean Streak for being rough. You got to kidding me. It's boring, but that's not rough in my opinion.

You really, really, really need to ride something like Texas Giant. That is absolutely terrible ride. Boss is bad to, but Texas Giant is horrible. For Mean Streak, it's more of a disappointment to people because you see this big massive structure, and it just is lame and boring of ride, so people easily rag on that ride.

[monsterfan99]

^ At least the Boss retracking helped. The ride, for me, went from almost Mean Streak or SOB to better then Screamin' Eagle.

[FParker185]

The park has made if official, the ride will most likely not be open for any of the 2010 season.

[traincrossing9]

Unless Son of Beast receives a Texas Giant rehab or another kind of major overhaul, I don't see it opening ever again.

[FParker185]

Agreed.

However they have already dropped 30 million bucks into the ride. How much more can they spend before it's a better investment to just tear the thing down and start over.

[Cole]

When Kings Island announced this ride, they were already known as one of the top woody producers in the world, the announcment of SOB put them over the top. The dissappointment of this ride took them out of this possition. Im sure they would want to get back to this place. I think that they should either..
1- do a complete makeover of the ride, retrack, new cars,ect.
2- tear i down, built another gigantic woodie.
I am personally a big fan of Kings Island, and i really wish the best for them in this situation.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Jcoaster95]

RCCA sucks. They waste all of that wood on such crappy rides. The environmentalists should shut them down

[zjohn1988]

It would probably cost them less in the long run to tear SOB down and replace it.........

[Cole]

GCI!!!

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[onyxhotel08]

Unless Son of Beast receives a Texas Giant rehab or another kind of major overhaul, I don't see it opening ever again.

this one caused more controversy and dismay for KI than Deja Vu did for Six Flags in all of its time at SFGAm and SFOG

[MForce4ever]

I know I'm in late but throwing it out there.

Rode SoB back in 05 with the loop, I thought it kicked ass (apparently I'm one of the few who did). With all I'm reading here and have heard I'm guessing the ride is done for good and CF is just waiting to remove it until it is cost effective or they have plans for that spot.

[onyxhotel08]

More expensive: Rehab SOB or tear it down/replace it?