Death and Injury in Coney Island: A 100-Year History
In August 1988, a 26-year-old maintenance worker rode in the back seat of the Cyclone during his lunch break and, as it approached its first descent, witnesses reported seeing him standing up. “He fell 30 feet and landed on a crossbeam of a lower section of track,” Ride Accidents reports. “He was killed instantly.” The ride was closed briefly but it was quickly deemed safe to reopen. Several websites, like Ride Accidents, report that three years earlier, in May 1985, a 29-year-old man on the Cyclone stood up, struck his head on a crossbeam, and died. I can’t find corroboration of this incident from an unimpeachable source, though.
