A visitor who died after using one in all Epic Universe’s curler coasters, Stardust Racers, has had his reason for loss of life revealed and been recognized by the Orange County Sheriff’s Workplace. This covers the newest on this tragedy, together with an announcement from Common Orlando and particulars of the indefinite trip closure.
The visitor who handed away was 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala. On the night of Wednesday, September 17, 2025, Zavala turned unresponsive after using Stardust Racers. He was shortly transported to a neighborhood hospital, the place he was pronounced useless.
WESH Chopper 2 was stay on the scene at Epic Universe and captured video of a giant regulation enforcement presence round Stardust Racers and Celestial Park. This included crime scene vans and a forensic workforce taking images of the trip car within the loading space.
The reason for loss of life was dominated to be “a number of blunt impression accidents,” as reported by two Central Florida information stations, WESH 2 and Spectrum Information 13.
In an announcement, the Orange County Sheriff’s Workplace shared the next: “On September 17, 2025, off responsibility deputies responded to a person down name at Epic Universe. A person in his 30s was discovered unresponsive after using a curler coaster and was transported to the hospital the place he was pronounced useless. It’s very early within the investigation and we’ve got no additional info for launch presently.”
Chief Medical Examiner Joshua Stephany, M.D. with Orange and Osceola counties said that an post-mortem was carried out on Thursday morning and that Zavala’s reason for loss of life was “a number of blunt impression accidents.” The reason for loss of life was decided to be unintentional.
Common Orlando issued the next assertion by way of the Orange County Fireplace Rescue Division:
“Common is cooperating with the Orange County Sheriff’s Workplace following a tragic occasion involving a visitor at Epic Universe on Wednesday night time. The visitor turned unresponsive after using Stardust Racers and was transported to the hospital, the place the visitor later died. We’re devastated by this occasion and lengthen our sincerest sympathies to the visitor’s family members. We’re totally dedicated to cooperating with this ongoing investigation. The attraction stays closed.”
Stardust Racers was closed for the whole thing of Thursday, September 18, 2025. It’s as soon as once more listed as “Closed At the moment” within the Common Orlando app for Friday.
In a amenities report of the state’s theme parks for the second quarter (April by June), the Florida Division of Agriculture revealed that Common Orlando had a complete of seven reported incident, with two of them being on Stardust Racers. Per the report:
- 6/22/25 Stardust Racers, 63 yom, dizziness/altered state of consciousness (pre-existing situation)
- 6/24/25 Stardust Racers, 47 yof, visible disturbance/numbness (pre-existing situation)
Stardust Racers is a dual-launch racing coaster that sends company rocketing by the skies aboard comets in a race to see who’s the quickest of all of them. Reaching speeds as much as 62 mph and heights as much as 133 toes alongside 5,000 toes of monitor, Stardust Racers is Epic Universe’s most thrilling coaster expertise with distinctive maneuvers such because the “Celestial Spin,” during which the 2 coaster autos carry out an inverted crisscross whereas dashing by the air, creating an otherworldly adrenaline rush.
In our Epic Universe Journey Evaluations & Rankings, we gave Stardust Racers an ideal 10/10, with the next reward: “These playful coasters are filled with surprises, with high-speed thrills offset by moments of levity and superb interaction between the 2 tracks. There’s a ridiculous quantity of airtime, and though it’s intense, it’s by no means punishing.”
Stardust Racers can also be one of many extra dependable and high-capacity points of interest in Epic Universe, owing largely to it basically being two rollercoasters on one load platform.
You may’ve seen through the years that we sometimes keep away from reporting on accidents, fatalities, or the theme parks’ crime beat.
This isn’t to keep away from going through harsh realities in our ‘glad place,’ however fairly, as a result of our protection leans closely on editorializing versus straight information. Even easy reporting of such incidents is itself an editorial alternative, because it lacks context and will be vulnerable to sensationalize or fearmonger such occurrences and their prevalence.
Commentary and hypothesis are wholly inappropriate in such tragic circumstances. Conjecture concerning the loss of life of a person, who had dad and mom and family members, just isn’t innocent neither is it useful. The Orange County Sheriff’s Workplace and different related entities will conduct an investigation, Common Orlando will reply in sort, and so forth.
We’re merely bringing this to your consideration as a result of this looks like a extra newsworthy incident than most that company would admire being delivered to their consideration. Furthermore, because of the probability of an prolonged closure for Stardust Racers and potential modifications that might be made to the attraction. I’ll once more chorus from speculating as to how lengthy or what modifications, if any, might be made. Within the meantime, our honest sympathies exit to the household of Kevin Rodriguez Zavala. Might he relaxation in peace and his reminiscence be a blessing.
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