A “death-defying” roller coaster, capable of reaching a speed of 112 mph in 1.56 seconds, is being investigated, causing serious injuries to several passengers.
The Russian poser Do-Dodonpa in Fuji-Q Highland, at the foot of Mount Fuji, in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, is now closed until further notice.
According to a statement obtained by CNN, four riders aged 30 to 50 reported “bone-breaking” injuries suffered during the trip between December 2020 and August 2021, including fractures of the cervical and thoracic spine.
“Currently, the causal relationship between injuries and amusement machines has not yet been confirmed,” the park statement said.
In an identical message, Do-Dodonpa maker Sansei Technologies also said the “causal relationship between passenger injuries and the amusement machine … is not confirmed.”
Do-Dodonpa, also the name of a popular genre of Japanese music of the sixties and seventies, rises up to 161 feet in the air in its loop and has 4,080 feet of track.
Fuji-Q triggered a government investigation when the park failed to file regulatory reports on the injuries within a 30-day deadline set by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, according to the Mainichi. Park officials have claimed that Fuji-Q and Sensei’s internal investigation determined that one of the victims, a thirty-year-old woman, was sitting unduly, presumably “could have been leaning forward during the trip.”
Similar incidents occurred in May and July 2021, but after finding no problems with their machinery, the Do-Dodonpa and Fuji-Q designs decided that the responsibility lay with the passengers, not the roller coaster.
With the most recent incident, on August 2, the park finally stopped the journey and reported the four injuries to the prefecture government.
Fuji-Q has a reputation for daring travel. In 2011, the park opened Takabisha, debuting as the world’s steepest roller coaster with a 138-foot vertical drop that almost curves backwards to 121 degrees neck.