Batman: The Ride roller coaster |
A 17-year-old boy was killed yesterday after he hopped a pair of security fences at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta and was struck by the Batman roller coaster ride.
No one on the ride was injured, but the boy was decapitated when the roller coaster, which reaches speeds of 50 mph and climbs and plummets the distance equal to an 11-story building, struck and killed him instantaneously.
A friend who jumped the fences with him was not injured in the accident.
"The areas where the individuals entered were clearly marked with signs marked 'Restricted area. Authorized personnel only,' and a sign on the locked gate that read 'Danger zone. Do not enter. Authorized personnel only,'" park spokesperson Hela Sheth told reporters.
"It's very tragic that these individuals would decide to jump over the fence," said police spokesperson Dana Pierce. "It would be hard to imagine somebody not seeing the signs."
Local police confirmed that the boy was at the amusement park with a group from Oakey Spring Baptist Church near Springfield, S.C., and that the boy's parents were in the park at the time of the accident.
Pierce said the boy and a friend had left the park property to get lunch, but returned to the grounds by jumping a pair of 6-foot security fences – the park perimeter fence and a fence surrounding the ride.
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Neither the teen's name nor his motive for jumping the fences have been released, although authorities were investigating witness reports that said the boys jumped the fence to retrieve a hat that had been lost while riding the roller coaster.
Many people witnessed the accident, including those who stood in line for the ride and immediately flooded the county's 911 center with calls reporting what they had seen.
Following the accident police investigators took measurements, and the ride was closed for the weekend, though the amusement park remained open.
This event marks the second death attributed to the Batman ride at Six Flags over Georgia, both by people wandering in the restricted area beneath the roller coaster.
The first was six years ago, when a park worker, Samuel Milton Guyton of Atlanta, was standing on a platform within the roller coaster's path. The Batman attraction permits riders' legs to swing free through its loops and turns, and Guyton was kicked by the dangling leg of a 14-year-old girl in the ride's front car. The girl was hospitalized with a leg injury, but Guyton died from head trauma sustained in the accident.
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