Florida
Family’s attorney questions Universal’s response to roller coaster injuries after man’s death
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Multiple people have reached out with related stories to the family of a 32-year-old man who died of blunt force injuries two weeks ago while riding the new Stardust Racers roller coaster at Universal’s Epic Universe theme park, the attorney for the man’s family said Tuesday.
People who’ve contacted the family and Ben Crump’s law office since Kevin Rodriguez Zavala died Sept. 17 while riding the roller coaster include a woman who says she lost consciousness and suffered neck and spine injuries soon after the ride opened in May, Crump said during a news conference in Orlando.
The woman reached out to Zavala’s family on a GoFundMe page and told them about the experience she had on the roller coaster.
“All we want is answers regarding my son’s death,” Zavala’s mother, Ana Zavala, said through an interpreter at Tuesday’s news conference. “We want these answers so we can be able to honor him. We want these answers so we can have some peace. It is extremely difficult losing a son and we do not wish this pain on anyone.”
The dual-launch coaster reaches speeds up to 62 mph (100 kph) and debuted officially in May when Universal Orlando Resort’s newest theme park opened to the public.
A spokeswoman for Universal didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry on Tuesday.
Separately, a central Florida woman sued Universal last week saying she had suffered injuries while on the roller coaster. Sandi Streets said her head shook violently and slammed into her seat’s headrest when she was on the ride in April, before the park’s official opening, giving her permanent injuries, according to the lawsuit.
Crump questioned what Universal did after receiving reports from the woman and others who said they were injured on the ride.
“She told them that you all need to do something about this because someone is going to be seriously injured, or worse, they’re going to be killed,” Crump said.
“She gave them notice, and she believed that the employees already know that there were problems with this roller coaster. And it begs the question, what did Universal do about it?”
In Zavala’s case, the medical examiner for the Orlando area ruled the cause of death as multiple blunt impact injuries and said the manner of death was an accident.
Karen Irwin, Universal Orlando Resort’s president, told workers in a note shortly after Zavala’s death that internal findings showed ride systems functioned normally, equipment was intact and Universal workers followed the proper procedures. Investigators with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services also said that their initial findings align with that of the theme park.
Crump said his team will be calling for greater government oversight for large corporations such as Universal and Disney. Florida’s largest theme parks are exempt from state safety inspections, unlike smaller venues and fairs. Instead, the largest theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal conduct their own inspections and have their own protocols, but they must report to the state any injury or death.
Since Epic Universe opened in May, there have been three reports made about rides at the theme park. In May, a 63-year-old man with a preexisting condition experienced dizziness and “an altered state of consciousness” and a 47-year-old woman with a preexisting condition had a “visual disturbance” and numbness after going on the Stardust Racers coaster, on separate days. A 32-year-old man experienced chest pains after going on the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders ride, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services.
“We believe there were warning signs that there was something wrong with the design of this ride and that they tried to blame the victims,” Crump said.
Zavala’s family has said he had a spinal disability from birth and used a wheelchair, but that didn’t cause his death.
“If they believed that disabled people should not be on this roller coaster, then why would you assist him in getting on the roller coaster?” Crump said. “Now you can’t justify this by trying to blame the victim.”
Crump is asking anyone who has been injured on the roller coaster to contact his office, as well anyone who witnessed what happened that day.
Georgia
State’s highest court sides with slave descendants fighting to protect threatened island community
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s highest court on Tuesday sided with Black landowners in a fight over zoning changes that weakened long-standing protections for one of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities founded by freed slaves.
The state Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that had stopped a referendum to consider repealing a revised zoning ordinance passed by McIntosh County officials two years ago. Residents of Sapelo Island opposed the zoning amendments that doubled the size of homes allowed in a tiny enclave called Hogg Hummock.
Homeowners feared the change would result in one of the nation’s most historically and culturally unique Black communities facing unaffordable tax increases. Residents and their supporters last year submitted a petition with more than 2,300 signatures from registered voters seeking a referendum in the coastal county, which lies 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of Savannah.
McIntosh County commissioners sued to stop the referendum and a lower court ruled that one would be illegal. The decision halted a vote on the zoning change with less than a week to go before Election Day. Hundreds of people had already cast early ballots in the referendum.
The high court on Tuesday found that the lower court was wrong to conclude that the zoning ordinance was not subject to referendum procedures provided for in the Georgia Constitution’s Home Rule Provision.
Supreme Court Justice John Ellington wrote in the opinion that “nothing in the text of the Zoning Provision in any way restricts a county electorate’s authority to seek repeal of a zoning ordinance.”
Attorney Dana Braun, who represents the Hogg Hummock residents, said they’re pleased with the ruling and that it will give county residents “some real say” in whether they support the zoning change.
McIntosh County attorney Ken Jarrard said in an email that the county commissioners are “obviously disappointed” by the order but respect the high court’s ruling.
Jarrard had asserted during oral arguments at the Supreme Court in April that zoning powers are different from others entrusted to county governments by the state Constitution and, therefore, can’t be challenged by referendum.
Philip Thompson, an attorney representing the Hogg Hummock residents, had argued that they have a constitutional right to a referendum on the zoning changes so that they can defend a place that’s “a cultural and historical treasure.”
Roughly 30 to 50 Black residents live in Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, a community of dirt roads and modest homes founded by their enslaved ancestors who worked the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.
It’s among a dwindling number of small communities started by emancipated island slaves — known collectively as Gullah, or Geechee, in Georgia — scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say the island’s separation from the mainland caused the communities to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.
In 1996, Hogg Hummock earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of treasured U.S. historic sites. Residents depend on the local government in McIntosh County, where 65% of the 11,100 residents are white, to maintain protections that preserve the community.
The state Supreme Court was not weighing whether Hogg Hummock deserves special protections. Instead, the justices had to consider technical questions about whether local zoning laws can be challenged by referendum and whether McIntosh County commissioners had a right to sue to stop the vote last October.
California
DOJ lawsuit alleges LA sheriff processes concealed carry licenses too slowly
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, alleging it violated the Constitution by moving too slowly to process gun licenses for people who want to carry concealed weapons.
The sheriff’s department’s “unreasonable delays” in granting licenses violates California residents’ Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.
“The Second Amendment protects the fundamental constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Los Angeles County may not like that right, but the Constitution does not allow them to infringe upon it.
Messages were sent to the sheriff’s department seeking comment.
The lawsuit comes after the DOJ began analyzing concealed-carry permit applications in the county starting last March.
“Almost two months after receiving notice of the Division’s investigation, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided data and documents that revealed only two approvals from over 8,000 applications, and that the Sheriff’s Department set out interviews to approve licenses as far as two years after receiving the completed application,” the DOJ statement said.
The sheriff’s department waits an average 281 days to start processing applications, violating a California law requiring initial reviews within 90 days, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction requiring the sheriff’s department to issue concealed carry licenses in a timely fashion under the law.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has positioned himself as a leader on gun control and said he will push for stricter regulations.
In January, a federal appeals court prevented a state law from taking effect that banned people from carrying firearms in most public places. That decision, which the state is appealing, kept in place a previous ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney blocking the law. Carney said it violates the Second Amendment and that gun rights groups would likely prevail in proving it unconstitutional.
The law would prohibit people from carrying concealed guns in 26 types of places, including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos.
Family’s attorney questions Universal’s response to roller coaster injuries after man’s death
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Multiple people have reached out with related stories to the family of a 32-year-old man who died of blunt force injuries two weeks ago while riding the new Stardust Racers roller coaster at Universal’s Epic Universe theme park, the attorney for the man’s family said Tuesday.
People who’ve contacted the family and Ben Crump’s law office since Kevin Rodriguez Zavala died Sept. 17 while riding the roller coaster include a woman who says she lost consciousness and suffered neck and spine injuries soon after the ride opened in May, Crump said during a news conference in Orlando.
The woman reached out to Zavala’s family on a GoFundMe page and told them about the experience she had on the roller coaster.
“All we want is answers regarding my son’s death,” Zavala’s mother, Ana Zavala, said through an interpreter at Tuesday’s news conference. “We want these answers so we can be able to honor him. We want these answers so we can have some peace. It is extremely difficult losing a son and we do not wish this pain on anyone.”
The dual-launch coaster reaches speeds up to 62 mph (100 kph) and debuted officially in May when Universal Orlando Resort’s newest theme park opened to the public.
A spokeswoman for Universal didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry on Tuesday.
Separately, a central Florida woman sued Universal last week saying she had suffered injuries while on the roller coaster. Sandi Streets said her head shook violently and slammed into her seat’s headrest when she was on the ride in April, before the park’s official opening, giving her permanent injuries, according to the lawsuit.
Crump questioned what Universal did after receiving reports from the woman and others who said they were injured on the ride.
“She told them that you all need to do something about this because someone is going to be seriously injured, or worse, they’re going to be killed,” Crump said.
“She gave them notice, and she believed that the employees already know that there were problems with this roller coaster. And it begs the question, what did Universal do about it?”
In Zavala’s case, the medical examiner for the Orlando area ruled the cause of death as multiple blunt impact injuries and said the manner of death was an accident.
Karen Irwin, Universal Orlando Resort’s president, told workers in a note shortly after Zavala’s death that internal findings showed ride systems functioned normally, equipment was intact and Universal workers followed the proper procedures. Investigators with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services also said that their initial findings align with that of the theme park.
Crump said his team will be calling for greater government oversight for large corporations such as Universal and Disney. Florida’s largest theme parks are exempt from state safety inspections, unlike smaller venues and fairs. Instead, the largest theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal conduct their own inspections and have their own protocols, but they must report to the state any injury or death.
Since Epic Universe opened in May, there have been three reports made about rides at the theme park. In May, a 63-year-old man with a preexisting condition experienced dizziness and “an altered state of consciousness” and a 47-year-old woman with a preexisting condition had a “visual disturbance” and numbness after going on the Stardust Racers coaster, on separate days. A 32-year-old man experienced chest pains after going on the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders ride, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services.
“We believe there were warning signs that there was something wrong with the design of this ride and that they tried to blame the victims,” Crump said.
Zavala’s family has said he had a spinal disability from birth and used a wheelchair, but that didn’t cause his death.
“If they believed that disabled people should not be on this roller coaster, then why would you assist him in getting on the roller coaster?” Crump said. “Now you can’t justify this by trying to blame the victim.”
Crump is asking anyone who has been injured on the roller coaster to contact his office, as well anyone who witnessed what happened that day.
Georgia
State’s highest court sides with slave descendants fighting to protect threatened island community
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s highest court on Tuesday sided with Black landowners in a fight over zoning changes that weakened long-standing protections for one of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities founded by freed slaves.
The state Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that had stopped a referendum to consider repealing a revised zoning ordinance passed by McIntosh County officials two years ago. Residents of Sapelo Island opposed the zoning amendments that doubled the size of homes allowed in a tiny enclave called Hogg Hummock.
Homeowners feared the change would result in one of the nation’s most historically and culturally unique Black communities facing unaffordable tax increases. Residents and their supporters last year submitted a petition with more than 2,300 signatures from registered voters seeking a referendum in the coastal county, which lies 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of Savannah.
McIntosh County commissioners sued to stop the referendum and a lower court ruled that one would be illegal. The decision halted a vote on the zoning change with less than a week to go before Election Day. Hundreds of people had already cast early ballots in the referendum.
The high court on Tuesday found that the lower court was wrong to conclude that the zoning ordinance was not subject to referendum procedures provided for in the Georgia Constitution’s Home Rule Provision.
Supreme Court Justice John Ellington wrote in the opinion that “nothing in the text of the Zoning Provision in any way restricts a county electorate’s authority to seek repeal of a zoning ordinance.”
Attorney Dana Braun, who represents the Hogg Hummock residents, said they’re pleased with the ruling and that it will give county residents “some real say” in whether they support the zoning change.
McIntosh County attorney Ken Jarrard said in an email that the county commissioners are “obviously disappointed” by the order but respect the high court’s ruling.
Jarrard had asserted during oral arguments at the Supreme Court in April that zoning powers are different from others entrusted to county governments by the state Constitution and, therefore, can’t be challenged by referendum.
Philip Thompson, an attorney representing the Hogg Hummock residents, had argued that they have a constitutional right to a referendum on the zoning changes so that they can defend a place that’s “a cultural and historical treasure.”
Roughly 30 to 50 Black residents live in Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, a community of dirt roads and modest homes founded by their enslaved ancestors who worked the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.
It’s among a dwindling number of small communities started by emancipated island slaves — known collectively as Gullah, or Geechee, in Georgia — scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say the island’s separation from the mainland caused the communities to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.
In 1996, Hogg Hummock earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of treasured U.S. historic sites. Residents depend on the local government in McIntosh County, where 65% of the 11,100 residents are white, to maintain protections that preserve the community.
The state Supreme Court was not weighing whether Hogg Hummock deserves special protections. Instead, the justices had to consider technical questions about whether local zoning laws can be challenged by referendum and whether McIntosh County commissioners had a right to sue to stop the vote last October.
California
DOJ lawsuit alleges LA sheriff processes concealed carry licenses too slowly
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, alleging it violated the Constitution by moving too slowly to process gun licenses for people who want to carry concealed weapons.
The sheriff’s department’s “unreasonable delays” in granting licenses violates California residents’ Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.
“The Second Amendment protects the fundamental constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Los Angeles County may not like that right, but the Constitution does not allow them to infringe upon it.
Messages were sent to the sheriff’s department seeking comment.
The lawsuit comes after the DOJ began analyzing concealed-carry permit applications in the county starting last March.
“Almost two months after receiving notice of the Division’s investigation, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided data and documents that revealed only two approvals from over 8,000 applications, and that the Sheriff’s Department set out interviews to approve licenses as far as two years after receiving the completed application,” the DOJ statement said.
The sheriff’s department waits an average 281 days to start processing applications, violating a California law requiring initial reviews within 90 days, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction requiring the sheriff’s department to issue concealed carry licenses in a timely fashion under the law.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has positioned himself as a leader on gun control and said he will push for stricter regulations.
In January, a federal appeals court prevented a state law from taking effect that banned people from carrying firearms in most public places. That decision, which the state is appealing, kept in place a previous ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney blocking the law. Carney said it violates the Second Amendment and that gun rights groups would likely prevail in proving it unconstitutional.
The law would prohibit people from carrying concealed guns in 26 types of places, including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos.
