Defunctland: The History of Son of Beast

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In this unlucky-thirteenth episode of Defunctland, I discuss the most infamous coaster ever built, Kings Island's Son of Beast.

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

[Defunctland]

Hey Defunctland Community! Don't forget to check out all of the cool links in the description above, and share this video on all of your social medias. Have a great day!

Correction at 12:30: Cedar Fair, not Cedar Point

[elliot]

According to GP To Enthusiast's very interesting "What Actually Happened?" series, the wood cracked on Son of Beast when one train went over it. A second train was sent out while the first was being de- and re-loaded. When that second train went over the crack, it got worse and dropped like 5 inches, painfully jerking everybody on board. When that train returned, the boarder noticed that everyone looked like they were in pain and sounded the alarm to the operator, who E-stopped the train that had just left with 27 riders aboard. This probably saved all their lives, because if that train had gone over the crack I have no doubts it would've derailed entirely.

[tacocat]

"...we're not rollercoaster engineers..."

Thats pretty much them going, "yeah i dunno why you chose us for this. our opinion isn't gonna mean much more than a random guy off the street."

[knparks]

SoB: wood starts cracking, bolts become loose
Kings Island: just put it in some rice

[ciberkid]

Some still wonder about the Wife of Beast

[zgaspo]

Ohio Department of Agriculture: *inspects roller coaster that could potentially be dangerous to many lives*

Public: So is it safe?

Them: Idfk we’re not roller coaster engineers

[ToomanyFrancis]

I know this video is 4 years old, but there's a bit of an error with your description of the July 9, 2006 incident.

A wooden support in the rose bowl section of the ride had cracked as a result of Kings Island's reinforcement of supports in other parts of the rides. The ride had become too stiff in certain areas, causing too much stress on others. It's believed that one train passed over the support, cracking it, then the next train that passed over experienced a major bump in the track damaging the support further. Both trains completed the course, but when the second train returned one of the ride operators noticed that riders seemed to have experienced extreme discomfort. The ride op immediately yelled for the ride to be emergency stopped. There were no trains on the course when this happened, one was in the loading station and the other is the one shown half-way up the lift hill in the footage you have.

The people treated were the riders on the second train, the riders evacuated were on the train that was halted before dropping from the lift hill, none of which were injured.

At no point did the ride stop mid course. The E-stop was not a result of ride failure, but instead a result of a ride operator that held rider safety as the highest priority. There were no sensors on the ride indicating ride failure, from the perspective of the ride ops everything would have appeared normal. If that ride op hadn't called for an E-stop the 3rd train would have likely not made it past the rose bowl section of the ride.

The story you gave is not far from the truth, but it the ride op deserves praise for the call to E-stop.

[-cosmicrogue-]

Nearly 40 years later and The Beast still kicks ass.
Riding that old wooden terror in the dark is one of the best coaster experiences I've ever had.

[SiebayPlays]

If you think of the whole history of these rides, (The Beast, Son of Beast, and Banshee) they make up father, son, and unholy spirit ironically.

[factorydash]

2:23 so for those curious about the brady bunch thing:

" Before the cast got on the roller coaster, Robert Reed noticed the camera on the front of the car looked unsteady. In another account, series creator Sherwood Schwartz said he thought the camera was too tall and would hit an overhang. Whatever the case, a test run was ordered without anyone on board, just to be safe.
Sure enough, the camera flew off during the first run. When the car came back to the station, the camera was missing. Had anyone been seated in the car, the camera surely would have flown back and seriously injured them, perhaps fatally.
Two cast members who would have been spared were Reed (Mike) and Susan Olsen (Cindy). Olsen refused to ride the roller coaster, so a stand-in was used. Barry Williams (Greg) held his hands in the air to cover the stunt-double's face. "

[utterdisaster]

I like to imagine the son of beast was born with gigantism, and that’s why it was unnecessarily large, unstable, and is dead while the father is still alive.


Is that sad?

[natestewiu]

Both of my parents suffered months of back problems after riding Son of Beast. They called the park customer service and warned them that this could lead to a lawsuit.
Customer service told them that this was the FIRST complaint they'd ever heard related to the coaster!
And this was in 2005!

[Burningflame]

I rode that ride before: The restraints were far too tight and when I was able to somehow get the restraints on, it was so tight that I couldn't even move my legs in the slightest. I ended up with cuts, blisters, and bruises coming off that death trap. Considering what happened, I'm lucky that all I ended up with.

[evie]

My art teacher was telling the class about when she got stuck on this ride and got injured (because we'd been talking about rides getting shut down)... apparently she was on the ride that sent 27 people to the hospital. I'm glad she's okay, she's an awesome teacher.

[UrbaneLegend]

Bro any time I hear "Department of Agriculture" in this video it genuinely cracks me tf up

[chesterloveskarma]

That coaster HURT to ride. The Banshee (that is now in the same location) is AMAZING and they have a new wooden coaster Mystic Timbers that does a way better job of storytelling than SOB ever did and is so fun to ride.

[astronomydemon]

9:47 This saved lives! The people before them came in injured, so the workers E-stopped the ride and if they hadn't they would've derailed and potentially suffered serious or deadly injuries
The wood had snapped and caused a sink in the rail. The pressure was enough to keep the coaster stable for the previous riders to go across with mild injuries, but another car going over would've caused a catastrophic failure and thus taking the riders down the with unstable frame

[allisoncastle]

When you hear someone did something to save money, it’s never a good thing.

[karstais]

ah yes agriculture department investigating rollercoasters. nice

[BrandonFoltz]

Great video! As a native Cincinnatian it was such a blessing to be able to grow up at Kings Island and even now still be able to drive up the road and hop on The Beast right before closing in the pitch black. The Son of Beast was an incredibly violent ride...and I loved every second of it.