Amusement park to demolish roller coaster after deadly crash, reopen by next year - Mainichi Daily News

Link: Amusement park to demolish roller coaster after deadly crash, reopen by next year - Mainichi Daily News.

An amusement park where a woman died in a roller coaster accident last year has announced that it will reopen before spring in 2009. The Expoland amusement park in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, has been closed since December after the number of visitors plummeted following the deadly derailment of its "Fujin Raijin II" roller coaster in May last year, in which a 19-year-old female passenger was killed. The operator of the amusement park announced on Tuesday that the park will be reopened before spring next year, and that the demolition of the roller coaster where the fatal accident occurred started on Wednesday. Four other attractions will also be subject to demolition, the operator said. The operator said it hasn't decided what kind of replacement attractions it will install in the park. After a temporary shutdown following the derailment accident in May last year, the amusement park reopened in August, but a problem involving another machine occurred in mid-September. As a result, the number of visitors to the park declined to about 20 percent of the figure recorded the previous year. In December, Osaka Prefectural Police sent papers to prosecutors accusing the operator of the amusement park and its former executives of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, and violating th