Cedar Point announces Top Thrill Dragster replacement: Top Thrill 2
DETROIT — It’s back, sort of.
Cedar Point announced it is replacing its Top Thrill Dragster roller coaster with Top Thrill 2 next year. It also calls the new ride “the world’s TALLEST and FASTEST triple-launch strata coaster.”
How fast is Top Thrill 2?
Officials for the theme park in Sandusky, Ohio, announced the ride in a 50-second video tweet.
The roller coaster promises to deliver the excitement, speed and adrenaline of high-performance racing, according to the park.
It boasts its first launch reaches 74 m.p.h., the second 101 m.p.h. and the third 120 m.p.h.
What happened to Top Thrill Dragster?
The ride will replace the 420-foot-tall Top Thrill Dragster, which was closed in 2021 after a Michigan woman was seriously injured when she was struck in the head by a metal bracket that fell off the roller coaster. The incident happened at about 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 15, 2021.
At the time, the Top Thrill Dragster was the world’s second-tallest roller coaster. The ride, which opened in 2003, launched riders on a straightaway at 120 mph before it climbed a hill and then came back down. The trip lasted less than 20 seconds.
Last month, Rachel Hawes, the woman who was injured while waiting in line, filed a lawsuit against the theme park. Hawes alleges the park’s negligence caused the accident that left her with traumatic brain injuries.
A week after the incident, park officials said the object that struck Hawes was an L-shaped bracket about the size of a fist.
In February 2022, the Ohio Department of Agriculture, which regulates amusement rides, issued a report that said there was no evidence Cedar Point acted illegally or had reason to believe the ride was unsafe before the incident.
Park officials closed the ride for the rest of the 2021 season. In early September last year, Cedar Point announced it was retiring the Top Thrill Dragster.
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