Shockwave is a stand-up roller coaster at Kings Dominion. Although not the first of its kind upon opening in 1986, closures elsewhere have since rendered it the oldest currently operating stand-up roller coaster in the United States.
The site on which Shockwave stands was formerly home to the Galaxie roller coaster, a small steel coaster of the S.D.C. Galaxi model. However, on September 11, 1983, an incident on the coaster resulted in the fatal i...
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Shockwave is a stand-up roller coaster at Kings Dominion. Although not the first of its kind upon opening in 1986, closures elsewhere have since rendered it the oldest currently operating stand-up roller coaster in the United States.
The site on which Shockwave stands was formerly home to the Galaxie roller coaster, a small steel coaster of the S.D.C. Galaxi model. However, on September 11, 1983, an incident on the coaster resulted in the fatal injury of 13-year-old Daniel Watkins. The incident was used as the primary example of unsafe rides in local press coverage of the concurrent U.S. Senate hearings on amusement ride safety and regulation. Rather than reopen the attraction, Kings Dominion dismantled and sold it, to the Myrtle Beach Pavilion where it operated until 1997 as the Galaxi.
To replace the Galaxie, Kings Dominion recruited Japanese manufacturer TOGO to build a compact steel stand-up coaster. Shockwave opened in 1986, and has run continuously since. The station design is...
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