Coney Island Cyclone Kills

[CycloneMan]

New York Post

 

September 10, 2007 -- An accident on Coney Island’s famously rickety Cyclone roller coaster is the stuff of nightmares, but most people think they never happen. Think again.

A tourist broke his neck aboard the 80-year-old coaster and died from complications stemming from his injury, his family says.

 

Keith Shirasawa, a musician from Redwood City, Calif., had come to New York with his girlfriend, Linda Walker, to celebrate his 53rd birthday in July.

 

On July 31, he and Walker took a trip to Coney Island. While Walker chose to sit the ride out, Shirasawa eagerly boarded.

 

“He said he knew he was in trouble at the first drop,” said his sister, Aya Masada.

 

Shirasawa’s head snapped forward during the ride’s first 85-foot drop.

 

“He came out and had a look of pain on his face and was holding his neck. I asked him what was wrong, and he said something happened, and he had lost the feeling in his fingers,” Walker said.

 

When he began losing sensation in his legs, she urged a foodstall worker to call 911.

 

Cyclone operators were not alerted, and a report of an accident was never filed with police or the city Building’s Department, said Joe Carella, a spokesman for Astroland, which owns the ride.

 

EMTs rushed Shirasawa to Coney Island Hospital, where doctors found he had fractured three vertebrae in his neck and would require emergency neurosurgery, Walker said. Shirasawa underwent the operation to fuse the bones in his neck on Aug. 2 at SUNY Downstate Hospital.

 

Shirasawa, who, his family said, had been in excellent health, died Aug. 4. The city Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to rule on the cause of death.

 

“He came out of the surgery very well. He was walking around, and then the next day, he was dead,” Masada said. “You had a 53-year-old, healthy male who was doing very well after surgery.”

 

Walker said the Cyclone owners questioned whether the injury occurred on the ride when contacted by the family’s lawyer.

 

“All we’ve heard was that somebody got hurt,” said owner Carol Albert. “We tried finding out any information, and we had no record of this person.”

 

Masada said the family would await the results of an autopsy before deciding whether to sue. “I don’t have much to base his death on,” she said. “I just want people to know someone got hurt.”

 

Additional reporting by Joe Mollica

 

lukas.alpert@nypost.com

 

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09102007/news/regionalnews/cyclone_riders_killer_thriller.htm

 

-Dainan "I'm skeptic" Rafferty

[coasterdude5]

Yeah, same here, it sounds like something went wrong during the surgery.

[jamesdillaman]

"People with Back or Neck Problems should not ride"

 

-James Dillaman

[coaster05]

This reeks of negative publicity to try and speed along the closing of the park.

[Carnage]

Seems pretty fishy that someone can be taken via ambulance with a broken neck, and yet no one at the park or police are notified.

[coastercrazed49]

This is a very interesting story. Why wouldn't they have just gotten the ride operator to get the park paramedics to the ride. It makes this kind of hard to believe.

[freestylenut]

“He came out of the surgery very well. He was walking around, and then the next day, he was dead,” Masada said.

This is the part of the story that has the "WTF???" factor.

 

I smell a rat!...someone is pointing there finger on the wrong people.

[Carnage]

Also what kind of a hospital would let a man walk around after operating for a broken neck?

[FLIPDUDE]

Sorry to break the consensus here but it doesn't sound fishy to me at all.

 

I beleive that hte rollercoaster did hurt him for whatever reason, he was taken to the hospital and somethign that happened during surgery or later is what made him pass on.

 

I don't think this has anything to do with speeding up the closing of Coney Island because while Astroland is being closed it was already determined the Cyclone will stay open. Also, this is the kind of thing you can't stage just for the sake of closing down a park. Insurance fraud maybe but not closing down a park.

 

His family claims he didn't have any health problems. There are three options.

 

1) They're right, and something went wrong with the ride. I find this to be less likely seeing as the ride kept operating that day.

2) They know he had problems and are not telling the truth to proteect him, his memory, the lawwsuit or whatnot.

3) None of them knew that he had problems and there's nothing wrong with the ride.

 

I can't blame this fully on surgery seeing he did say he was losing feeling in his legs and fingers before he even got to the hospital but as to what was the full story behind it we can't know untill all the facts are checked.

[ginzo]

“He came out of the surgery very well. He was walking around, and then the next day, he was dead,” Masada said.

This is the part of the story that has the "WTF???" factor.

 

I smell a rat!...someone is pointing there finger on the wrong people.

 

Yeah, because nobody ever sues doctors.

 

There aren't enough facts presented here to render any semblance of a judgment. Poor guy.

 

This does seem like a pretty bizarre case. If someone was injured this extensively on a ride, it should be shut down and inspected.

[TexTitan01]

^^^umm.....NONE. My uncle's a neurosurgeon and he tells me people who undergo surgery are hospitalized for a good week or 2, just so this kind of thing DOESNT happen and so he doesnt get sued for malpractice (which is happening more & more...)

 

I bet the family (not to be apathetic) just threw a story together about how he died, and they probably thought the only real root for the cause of his injury was the coaster. Hell he couldave tripped over uneven pavement and that couldave caused it; they just wanted to make a scene...

[CoasterFanatic]

"I ain't saying he a gold digger ... but he ain't messing with no .."