{"id":81712,"date":"2025-12-13T01:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/81712\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T01:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:41:18","slug":"mans-death-on-roller-coaster-at-universal-orlando-resort-ruled-accidental-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/81712\/","title":{"rendered":"Man’s death on roller coaster at Universal Orlando Resort ruled accidental"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The death of a 32-year-old man after riding a high-speed roller coaster<\/a> at the Universal Epic Universe theme park was accidental, and an investigation has been closed, according to a Florida sheriff’s office report released this week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a medical examiner’s report released Friday showed that the left side of Kevin Rodriguez Zavala’s forehead had a deep gash, and the bony ridge above his eye was fractured. He had bleeding above his skull, bruises on his abdomen and arms, and his nose and right thigh bone were fractured, the medical examiner’s report said.<\/p>\n

The medical examiner in Orlando previously had ruled the death an accident, saying Zavala died of blunt-impact injuries. The investigative report by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando said that workers at Epic Universe followed procedures and weren’t careless or neglectful. <\/p>\n

Epic Universe is the newest theme park at Universal Orlando Resort.<\/p>\n

Security video showed Zavala \u201cengaged and well\u201d at the start of the ride but unresponsive and slouched over in his seat at the end, according to the sheriff’s office report.<\/p>\n

When the ride came to a stop, Zavala was bleeding from the face, and his body was slumped over, according to witnesses.<\/p>\n

Anna Marshall, a medical doctor who was standing in line to board the ride, said Zavala was slouched over and surrounded by blood when the coaster returned to the boarding platform. His arm was hanging over the ride, and his thigh bone was broken in half and resting on the back of the ride chair, she told investigators. <\/p>\n

Zavala used a wheelchair. As Marshall rendered aid, Zavala’s girlfriend, Javiliz Cruz-Robles, who was beside him on the ride, told the doctor that he had metal rods in his back from a previous spinal surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Marshall explained that she did not believe that just because Kevin Rodriguez-Zavala didn\u2019t have use of his legs that that was the sole reason why this occurred,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Zavala’s family said the condition leading to his disability, which they described as spinal cord atrophy, didn\u2019t cause his death on Sept. 17. The media office for attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Zavala\u2019s family, didn\u2019t return an emailed inquiry about the sheriff\u2019s office report on Friday.<\/p>\n

Zavala had severe facial trauma when the ride stopped. He was still secured in his ride seat by a lap bar, which ride operators had difficulty releasing for 10 minutes, Universal paramedic Sebastian Torres told sheriff’s office investigators.<\/p>\n

\u201c’The guest was stuck on the ride vehicle face down, falling out of his seat, with legs inverted,’\u201d Torres wrote in a statement included in the report.<\/p>\n

Cruz-Robles told investigators that a ride operator had to push Zavala’s lap restraint down several times before it was safely in place when they first got on the ride, and she thought the restraint bar was positioned too low on their laps. When the coaster began the first downward movement, she said Zavala flew forward and hit his head on the metal bar in front of them. During the ride Zavala hit his head several times more, and Cruz-Robles said she tried but was unable to hold him back.<\/p>\n

\u201cJaviliz was crying for help, but due to being in the middle of the ride, no one heard her screaming for help until the train cart was getting close to the station,\u201d the report said. <\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office report noted there were warning signs posted at the ride’s entrance telling patrons about sudden drops and accelerations. The signs said guests shouldn’t go on the ride with certain conditions, including \u201cback, neck or similar physical conditions,” or if they’ve had recent surgeries or conditions that could be aggravated by the ride. <\/p>\n

Zavala’s parents told investigators that their son had previously fractured a thigh bone that required surgery in 2020 and had a hip dislocation that required surgery in 2010.<\/p>\n

The dual-launch coaster reaches speeds up to 62 mph (100 kph) and debuted officially in May when Universal Orlando Resort\u2019s newest theme park opened to the public.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to reflect that the incident took place at Universal Epic Universe theme park, not Universal Studios Florida theme park. Both parks are at the Universal Orlando Resort.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The death of a 32-year-old man after riding a high-speed roller coaster at the Universal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2335,104,6831,4138,139,141,140,45330,1110],"class_list":{"0":"post-81712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-ben-crump","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-kevin-rodriguez-zavala","11":"tag-mike-schneider","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news","15":"tag-sebastian-torres","16":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}