Coaster firm Intamin has denied allegations of negligence stemming from a lawsuit filed by the woman who was seriously hurt by Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster roller coaster in August 2021.
The suit, filed in July by victim Rachel Hawes of of Swartz Creek, Michigan, said that a piece of metal that flew off the coaster hit her in the queue, causing a traumatic brain injury and left her “permanently disabled” and “no longer able to work.” She is seeking at least $3.2 million in damages for lost future income and medical assistance.
Intamin’s response denied each and every allegation made by Hawes in its Sept. 13 response. The filing also includes a list of “affirmative defenses” posed by Intamin, including that the injuries “were caused in whole or in part by other paties and/or entities” and that Hawes “expressly or impliedly assumed the risk of injury.”
However, the mention of multiple defenses is commonplace in the first response to a lawsuit, and should not be seen as a guarantee that such arguments would be presented by Intamin if the suit goes to trial.
Cedar Fair, Cedar Point’s parent company and another defendant in the lawsuit, had similarly denied the allegations of negligence in an Aug. 14 filing.
Top Thrill Dragster has not operated since that August 2021 accident. The ride is currently being overhauled into Top Thrill 2, adding a 420-foot-tall spike and changing the coaster into a multi-launch experience when it opens next year. The redo is being done by Italian amusement company Zamperla rather than Intamin.
DisneylandForward expansion plans inch closer to reality with impact report
A 17,000-page environmental impact report released by the city of Anaheim offers a few details of what a Disneyland expansion could look like.
The report concerns DisneylandForward, a blue-sky, long-term expansion proposal first released in 2021. While the plan is purposefully vague, the jist is that Disneyland could expand to include more theme park space on the west side of Disneyland Drive, a second entertainment district on what is now the Toy Story parking lot and new parking garages to hold 17,000 cars to replace the Toy Story and Simba lots.
While nothing in the plan is set in stone as far as new attractions go, the report indicates that any new attractions west of the existing theme parks would likely have to be indoors to avoid intruding on nearby residential areas.
You can read more about the plans at Theme Park Insider, the Orange County Register, and KTLA.