Every roller coaster has a moment just before the first drop when your stomach rises, your grip tightens, and you are totally dependent on something that was created by strangers. That experience on Stardust Racers at Universal’s Epic Universe in Orlando turned into the final ride of 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala’s life. Zavala was discovered unconscious on the coaster on the evening of September 17, according to the investigators’ final incident report. The hospital declared him dead. The case is now formally closed after the medical examiner determined that multiple blunt impact injuries were the cause of death and that the manner was accidental.
It is challenging to read what the report describes. Zavala was sitting on the coaster with his ten-year girlfriend, Javiliz Cruz-Robles. Zavala used a wheelchair because he had a preexisting spinal injury, which meant his legs had little to no function. Before the ride started, a Universal employee repeatedly applied pressure to his lap restraint. Then it began. Zavala flew forward, repeatedly hitting his head on the metal bar in front of him as the coaster hit its first downhill. Cruz-Robles made an effort to stop him. In the middle of the ride, she was yelling for assistance, but nobody could hear her over the commotion. It wasn’t until the train was almost back at the station that anyone realized.
What transpired next was observed by a doctor who was in line. She said Zavala was hunched over, his arm hanging from the side, and seemed lifeless. His femur had completely fractured in half and was resting against the back of his seat when she leaped in to examine him. It’s a detail that is difficult to forget. She thought Zavala lost control of his body and struck the metal restraint bar because of his fractured femur. However, she also told investigators that she didn’t believe his leg ailment was the only reason for everything that occurred.
In the end, investigators found that none of the Epic Universe employees had behaved carelessly and had adhered to their standard operating procedures. Even though that conclusion seems straightforward on paper, there are some unsettling issues with it. According to the Stardust Racers safety guide, the ride is “not for guests with back, neck or similar physical conditions.” Whether Zavala fully understood that warning — or whether it was communicated clearly enough at the point of boarding — remains a point of tension, especially since attorney Ben Crump, representing the family, has disputed claims that Zavala had significant preexisting conditions.
It’s worth noting that Cruz-Robles herself admitted she had “just learned” about a prior hip injury Zavala may have had, suggesting that even those closest to him may not have had the complete picture. That detail—two people riding a coaster, one of them carrying a physical history that neither of them fully understood at the time—carries an odd, depressing weight.
In Florida, theme parks such as Universal and Walt Disney World are not subject to state safety inspections. They are self-regulatory and only have to notify state authorities of injuries and fatalities after the fact. Since Epic Universe opened in May, there have already been three incident reports filed, including two from the Stardust Racers coaster alone before Zavala’s death. That’s not evidence of systemic failure, but it is worth watching. Following Zavala’s death, Universal updated its safety and accessibility guides across its Central Florida parks — a quiet acknowledgment, perhaps, that something needed clarifying.
After a tragedy like this, what happens to a ride is both procedural and more difficult to define. The coaster shut down, was probably examined, and then opened again. The protocols were revised. A family buried a 32-year-old man. His girlfriend still hears her own screaming in the middle of a ride no one stopped. There’s a feeling that the official closure of an investigation and the emotional closure of a tragedy are two very different things — and that the gap between them is where the real questions live.
